Samuel H. Atwater House
The Samuel H. Atwater House, at 821 Macon Ave. in Cañon City, Colorado, was built around 1890 and its porches and exterior were substantially modified in 1908. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. It was designed and built in Queen Anne style in 1890. Queen Anne style does include asymmetrical massing as a basic feature, but the result here was generally assessed as aethetically unappealing. The decision to use a square tower (rather than a round tower, far more common in Queen Anne style) and other factors were blamed: it was noted that the original small side and front porches with delicate supports and spindlework, in combination with the "massive size of the square corner tower...gave the structure an awkward, unbalanced appearance." In 1908, a renovation towards remedying the situation was undertaken. The original porches were replaced by new, larger ones, whose "classically inspired elements ... are typical of a Queen Anne subtype known as free classic"; the renovation "successfully converted the existing Queen Anne house into the free classic subtype." "The massive scale of the new front porch and its classic design elements works as a strong counterpoint to the corner tower." And