30 years ago 107 Branch Street was considered just a house,
nothing special. Today we call it a ‘Four Square’ and I’m writing about it.
What happened?
It got old! This style
of house was very popular from about 1900 until the 1930’s. Over the years
these houses became ordinary. Then as they aged they gained a past; we looked
at them with nostalgia. We saw that they reflected an earlier way of life; we
gave them a name. Now they are ‘vintage’ and will soon be ‘antique’!
The name originally came from the
floor plan, a square divided in 4 parts: 4 rooms on the first floor, 4 on the
second. Today it more often refers to
the shape.
Four Square houses have a pyramid
roof over a 2 story box and usually a generous front porch. They were built in many variations in
Bennington and all over the United States. The shape was efficient, simple to build, and
could easily accommodate regional preferences. For example, a porch could have
turned railings on the New England seacoast, square brick posts and balusters
in the Midwest, or a solid half wall with Doric columns as was built here. The
style was so popular that Sears Roebuck - and the other mail order companies
which shipped kit houses by rail - copied the style. The mail order houses were
never trendsetters; they copied successful designs.
The definition of
‘Four square’ is ‘forthright, solid, strong, honest’. Visually I think this
house lives up to its name.
In the early 1900’s people passed this house every day as they
walked to work, to shop, to catch the trolley on Main Street. The house, set off by the small front yard,
was part of the streetscape, part of the neighborhood. The front porch encouraged
that feeling. It was, and is, a place to see and be seen. Earlier houses often
faced the sun, and looked out over the land. Grand houses were placed to
impress the approaching visitor. Workers’ housing clustered in the shadow of
the mill. This house, and the many others
built in this era, was set to interact with the community.
The shape of the house is simple. It has none of the bays or
turrets so popular in the Victorian era. It is a box sitting solidly on the
land. The siding adds to the sense of stability: the clapboard on the first
floor is sheltered by the shingles on the second. The deep eaves are
protective, and the roof – a pyramid – is a strong, stable shape.
The few frills add to the feeling. Those corbels under the
roof emphasize the broad eaves. The attic dormer is within the roof. The porch columns’
style is Doric, symbolic of strength and stability.
The Banner photograph is in black and white. The house
itself has great color: creamy siding and trim, dark blue shingles. The
original paint colors would have been similar – light color on the bottom,
darker muddy brown, green, or rust for the shingles, perhaps a third color for
trim.
The Colvin family originally farmed this land. Their farm house
is now 901 East Main Street. The Rockwoods, Colvin cousins, owned land on both
sides of Branch Street and ran Rockwood Hosiery Mill on Main Street. In
October, 1922, Arthur Rockwood sold parcels on the east side of Branch Street to
Lee Warner. I think Warner was a builder because 6 months later, in April,
1923, he sold this house to William and Mattie Heiderstadt.
6 months: that’s just about enough time to build a
straightforward house.
Note: Many of the people who lived in this house left no public history. William Heiderstadt grew up on a farm in Nebraska. He was about 40 when he bought this house. He and his wife lived in Bennington for 15 years before moving to New York to run a dairy farm. He died in 1947.
Note: Many of the people who lived in this house left no public history. William Heiderstadt grew up on a farm in Nebraska. He was about 40 when he bought this house. He and his wife lived in Bennington for 15 years before moving to New York to run a dairy farm. He died in 1947.
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