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ITALIANATE
Here are two
very fine houses of late 19th century Saugatuck in the Italianate style of
architecture—the most fashionable building style in the several decades
after the Civil War. Both are interesting because they mirror some of the
most important economic and social history of the village—shipbuilding in
the case of Mr. Martel, and farming and basket making in the case of Mt.
Whitney.
John Baptise Martel was a French-Canadian ship builder who lived in
Saugatuck for a quarter of a century, building Saugatuck schooners and
steamers until 1897. Martel’s boat building yard is about where the Butler
restaurant is now located and where his schooner (above) George M. Case
was completed (he built the hull upstream in Allegan). The shipbuilding
connection to his house is evident in the exquisite carpentry work by George
Hames and fancy scrollwork (note the porch columns) by William Finley, both
ships carpenters. The window frame decoration is of an oak-leaf-and-acorn
motif—which can also be seen on the Good Goods building on Mason Street. The
house was later purchased by a Chicago industrialist and restored by the
noted Chicago interior designer Florence “Danny” Hunn in the 1940s. At that
time the rear coach house was relocated and attached to the house and the
bay window was added to the north side to mirror the one on the south side.
Calvin Whitney was a young fruit farmer when this 12 room Italianate style
farmhouse was built for his new bride, Johanna Burns. Whitney had enlisted
in the Civil War at age 17 in 1861, then came to Saugatuck after the war and
had a career as hotel proprietor, grocer, fruit farmer, a partner in
Saugatuck’s “Iron Clad” basket factory, and a boat builder. Miss Burns lived
across the street—the daughter of a local grocer (his store is now East of
the Sun shop on Butler Street). Called a “model farmer” by the local
newspaper, Whitney raised sheep and had a carp fish farm built on the
property. A busy man indeed. In about 1909 the house became the home of
Henry and Olga Barr. Mrs. Barr was born on a farm in Germany and preferred
to live a farm-life in Saugatuck while Mr. Barr worked in Chicago. An old
barn foundation is now used as garden wall.
The “hill” area of Saugatuck became loaded with these Italianate houses most
dated from the 1870s and 1880s. They are rather box-like and usually tall
(for the time) and of two full stories—with a low-hipped roof with a wide
overhang supported by decorative brackets. They are the epitome of the
“Victorian age” and although they are very “American” in invention, the name
comes from references to Italian classicism. By 1890 the fashion had
switched to an even bigger and more ostentatious style, the Queen Ann. More
on this architectural form later. by Jim
Schmiechen
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