Address: 41 North Main Street
Contemporary Building Name: 41 North Main Street
Historic Building Name: E. Coleman House
Present Use: Residential
Historic Use: Residential
Architectural style: Greek Revival / Vernacular
Date constructed: c. 1850 (Baber), 1830 (Assessor)
Description: The three-bay gable end of the E. Coleman House faces the street. The doorway in the south bay is framed by plain pilasters, frieze, and flat cornice. Windows have replacement 12-over-12 sash in flat surrounds. The mass of the house is defined by corner boards. There is no cornice or pediment, while the gable end is occupied by a square 12-pane window. Raking eaves, which do not return, have fascias and project with bold crown moldings. A brick chimney rises from the center of the roof. The wing set back to the south has a door near the house followed by a window and a shed-roofed side porch. Grade falls off sharply to the rear, exposing a high basement stone wall of large blocks laid in a distinctive pattern of alternating wide and narrow courses.
Significance: The E. Coleman House falls under the Greek Revival-style umbrella because of its mass, shape, three-bay temple-front facade, and characteristic doorway surround. The absence of corner pilasters and pediment are negative contributions to the stylistic designation. The projection of the raking eaves suggests Italianate influence, possible about 1850 but not in 1830. The house may be transitional Greek Revival/Italianate. The 1869 atlas associates the name E. Coleman with the property. Sandra Soucy (then President of the Marlborough Historical Society) notes that: "...the E. Coleman house...is also known as the Effie Buell house. Miss Buell served Marlborough as a nurse, often when there was no resident physician. She is quoted, 'I was in on the births, and in on the deaths.' She lived 97 years, and died in 1961."
Sources: Baber, David. Capitol Region Council of Governments Historic Resource Survey of Marlborough, 1978.
Ransom, David. Historical and Architectural Resources Survey, Town of Marlborough, Connecticut. April 1998.
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