435. Leak-Stratton House (FY 1023)
1230 W. First Street
Contributing, ca. 1905
This late Victorian cottage is typical of many built during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, though the type is rare in the West End. It is a one-story frame house with a gable roof, both exterior and interior brick chimneys, a central entrance with sidelights, a porch across the three-bay facade with turned posts, sawnwork brackets, and a sawnwork balustrade, and a rear wing. An unusual feature, sometimes found in the West End, is the row of windows in the brick porch foundation (e.g. see #497).
The house was sheathed with aluminum siding in the midtwentieth century, but the significant features remain largely intact. The house was depicted on the 1912 Sanborn Map and was probably built ca. 1905. Local tradition suggests that Sanford Martin, editor of the Winston-Salem Journal, was the original owner, but the first tax listing was for Flora E. Leak Gray in 1923 and the first recognizable listing in the city directory was in 1925 for Mattie Leak, widow of H. D. Leak, and Flora E. Leak. In 1935 John G. Stratton, a garden supervisor for the City Relief Commission, purchased the house. His wife, Juliette, was a dressmaker. The Strattons occupied the house at least until 1950, and sold it to the present owners in 1960. (SH, TR, CD)