| Additional Information: | A 'site file' exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, State Historic Preservation Office.
Composed of two intersecting units with steeply-pitched gable roofs, a delicately proportioned tower rising from the intersection, and a pedimented veranda embracing the front facade, this residence is an architecturally significant example of Beloit's Queen Anne houses. Two stories with a tall attic, the frame house is dominated by broad and massive shingled gables. In the gable peaks, the shingles are banded into concentric rows forming a fan-like pattern. Paired rounded windows, with interlacing cames and separated by molded panels, ornament the gables. Below the slightly projecting eaves, two story bays project on the EAST and SOUTH facade, crowned with molded cornice detail. A segmentally arched window, indicating the internal stairwell, rises on the south facade. The pedimented veranda which wraps around the front entry features unfluted Ionic columns which support broad arches beneath the bracketed cornice. The porch pediment has dentils and is ornamented with molded relief. The tower which rises from the veranda until well above gable ridge, culminates in an attenuated conical roof crowned with a finial. The eaves of the tower are flared and enticulted, supported by brackets above a paneled frieze. A chimney rises above the gable ridge, also. But, external ornament is nearly non-existent, and the clapboards and shingles are free of applied detail. Instead, the massing is carefully balanced to provide an animated but stately expression of Queen Anne architecture.
Built in 1895, this Queen Anne was originally the residence of John Paley, president of the Beloit State Bank. (A,B) Paley, who came to Beloit in the last decade of the 19th century, incorporated the bank in 1892 with colleagues from Mt. Carroll and Morrison, Illinois. But, his own family was largely responsible for its operation: by 1904, the year Paley died, his wife and two daughters had served as directors and cashiers of the institution. |
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