Address: 17 East Lake Road
Contemporary Building Name: Lakeside Cottage
Historic Building Name: Blish Resort Cottage
Present Use: Residential
Historic Use: Residential
Architectural style: Colonial Revival cottage
Date constructed: 1930 (Assessor)
Description: The cottage is sited at the top of a pronounced rise and in addition is raised above a visible stone foundation of 4'/5' in height. The overall effect is a position of prominence overlooking the northern end of Lake Terramuggus. A wooden porch eight feet wide wraps around the front and two sides of the building. The porch parapet is particle board siding, perhaps contemporary with the novelty siding on the building itself, perhaps a later, but early, replacement. Wooden steps now lead to an entry to the porch off center to the south, but older concrete steps are in place at the front of the south side of the porch, now leading up to the closed parapet. The front elevation, first floor, has a door to the south and two tripartite windows, each section of which is a tall vertical pane. The is a pair of single vertical windows at the second floor. On the north side elevation the first floor features a similar pair of windows, while two shed-roofed dormers project at second-floor level, each with a single large 1-over-1 window. On the south side elevation the porch is screened by diagonal wood latticework under two second-floor dormers identical to those on the north. The rear elevation projects in a one-story shed-roofed entry, under two 1-over-1 windows above.
Significance: 17 East Lake Road is significant architecturally because it is a good example of a lakeside cottage of its era. It is in a good state of preservation, having undergone few changes. The novelty siding is original, a characteristic building material of the 1920s/1930s. The wide wraparound front porch appears to be original and complete. The gambrel roof places the building under the umbrella of the Colonial Revival style. Its shed-roofed dormers materially increase the amount of usable second-floor space. The cottage was one in the group owned and rented out by the Blish family (see 23-25 Blish Road) when it operated a small summer resort at the north end of the lake in the first half of the 20th century. 17 East Lake Road is representative of dozens of cottages of similar size and age which line the shores of Lake Terramuggus. Such lakes and their summer-cottage colonies around in south central Connecticut.
Sources: Ransom, David. Historical and Architectural Resources Survey, Town of Marlborough, Connecticut. April 1998.
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