The oldest houses in the West End are products of the late Victorian period and reflect to a large degree the visual variety associated with the Queen Anne style. Emphasizing irregularity of plan and massing and combinations of texture and ornamentation, the style provided a visually rich beginning for the architectural character of the neighborhood.
Jacob Lott Ludlow’s own house (107), poised at the prominent intersection of Summit and Fifth Streets is representative of the style. Erected in 1887 by Fogle Brothers builders, the house features a decorative wrap around porch and center bay balcony, sawnwork gable ornamentation, and stained glass windows. Next door to, and across the street from, the Ludlow House are the B.J. Sheppard House (106) and the R.E. Dalton House (105), both impressive two-story brick dwellings from the 1890s. The Sheppard House is a particularly striking, if unusual, example of the Queen Anne style with its parapeted gables with peak finials and ornate wrap-around porch with groups of bulbous colonettes with tobacco leaf capitals.
The most elaborate examples of the style in the West End are the H.D. Poindexter House (32) and the Jacquelin P. Taylor House (74), both built in the 1890s. Both are massive two-story frame dwellings with particularly irregular configurations, multiple decorated gables, fancy windows, and broad wrap-around porches with decorative balustrades, turned posts, sawnwork brackets, and open-work friezes. The Poindexter House also boasts a projecting corner tower. Tradition claims that architect Hill Linthicum designed the house. He was also the architect of the well-preserved 1892 Edgar D. Vaughn House (371), one of the most handsome of the Queen Anne dwellings in the West End. The distinguishing features of this two story frame house are its left front and right side polygonal bays with carved sunburst panels, elaborate gable ornamentation, and a wrap-around porch and entrance bay balcony with arcaded balustrades and, on the main porch, a spindle frieze. The interior retains many period details, including plaster cornices and ceiling medallions and embossed wallpaper. The ca. 1892 Miller-Galloway House (177) is a smaller version of the style, but it is one of the most richly detailed and best preserved examples in the West End. This house emphasizes variety in texture and ornamentation with its brick first story, wood shingled upper story, gable peak fan ornaments and corner porch with turned posts and balustrade, sawnwork brackets, and spindle frieze.
Less elaborate, yet well detailed, versions of the style are more frequent in the West End. Good examples are the two-story frame Dr. Robert H. Jones House (46) and its neighbor on Spring Street, the James J. Norman House (51), as well as the one-story frame Andrew D. Mickle House (178). Each achieves its primary stylistic character through the use of decorated porches and gables.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination (1987)