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Don McMillian: Local home built with unique design

July 05, 2009 @ 12:00 AM

This extraordinary Regency Modern Ensign home is located in the historic Saint Cloud district of Central City.

It was built from plans produced for Good Housekeeping Century of Progress Chicago World's Fair in 1933 as an exhibition house which was part of the Home & Industrial Arts Group. The Ensigns substituted a cream bisque color brick on the exterior for the intended enamel covered steel panel sheeting.

The unique feature of the house is its steel framing rolled and assembled into studs by carpenters.

Between the brick facing and the interior plaster "solitex" wall covering is an air insulation space of the 1930s era of architecture. Its design features are modern. A suggestion of the classical Regency styling presents itself.

One-story wings flank the nearly squared two-story central block, each with roof terraces and lower parapets. Stylized steel trim is the 16-foot wide bay window of the front elevation and entrance canopy that is crisply exhibited in short window canopies of front facing second floor windows. The interior stairwell is expertly crafted from gumwood in substitution for parrened steel.

Don Daniel McMillian's books "On The Threshold of Splendor, Historic Homes & Families" and "The Underground Railroad Lawrence County, Ohio & Cabell County Virginia" are available on Amazon.com, Love's Hardware, the Cabell Huntington Convention and Visitor's Bureau, Richard's Hallmark and Stadium Bookstore.

This Ensign home was built in 1933 by architects H. Augustus Dell, Wirt C. Rowland, Dwight James Baum and Albert Tucker.