353. Farish-Glenn-Bitting House (FY 963)
1074 W. Fourth Street
Contributing, ca. 1912
The Farish-Glenn-Bitting House is one of the most striking examples of the Neo-Classical style in the West End. It is a two-story weatherboarded frame dwelling with a steep hip roof punctuated by pedimented dormers with round-arched windows. Flared eaves shelter a dentiled and modilioned cornice. The dominant feature of the exterior is the semi-circular portico with two-story Ionic columns and a dentiled and modilioned cornice continuing that of the main roof. The portico shelters a recessed entrance with delicate Federal Revival detailing. Even with the unsympathetically applied aluminum siding (ca. 1980), the house remains a contributing property in the West End by virtue of its form and collection of rich details.
The house is shown on the 1912 Sanborn Map, but its first listing in the city directory was in 1915 as the residence of J, Turner Farish, a real estate broker. In 1919 Joseph H. Glenn, president of the Bennett-Simpson Shoe Company, purchased the property, and the Glenn family occupied the house until the early 1950’s, In 1953 Joseph A. Bitting acquired the house, which remained the Bitting residence until the 1970’s. (SH, CD, TR)