Included with the above photograph are a site plan and text including the following information:

Brick, stucco and half-timber residence. Original house, constructed c. 1852-1854 by Tobias Herbst, carpenter. 1893 alterations by George T. Peterson.

Property owners name and address:
Victor Vaughan
125 W. Walnut Lane
Philadelphia PA 19144

Brief description:
"This 3 1/2-story stucco and brick house presents a more European form of the Queen Anne. It has an L-shaped plan with the broad gambrel roof of the main volume perpendicular to the street. The gambrel is masked on the street side by a Flemish curl gable constructed of brick laid in Flemish bond. It is broken by a tripartite third story diamond-paned window under a hood molding. The lower two stories are lit by paired double-hung windows with diamond panes also under hood moldings. The gable ends of the gambrel are decorated with a half-timber overlay. A hood molding heads the six-light attic window, Below, the double-hung windows are leaded with tracery at the top. The gambrel roofed rear wing of the L runs parallel to the gambrel roof of the front finial. In the angle between the two wings is inserted a crenellated third story room and a second story nook placed diagonally. The polygonal tower rises from an enclosed porch and is half-timbered, lit by Queen Anne diamond-paned windows. Entrance to the house is through this enclosed porch."

History, significance, and background:
"An unusual design with an eccentric assemblage of roof elements, this house is unlike most Germantown Queen Anne homes. Not only is the exclusive use of half-timbered stucco rare which Germantown houses tended to use selectively for certain stories but the references are far more explicitly Medieval. Except for the gable in the Flemish Renaissance style, the diamond-paned windows, hood moldings, finials and crenellations all derive from late Medieval sources. A high hedge completes the composition, shielding the yard from the street and creating a more private, English-inspired setting. This effect is reinforced by the placement of the entrance in the rear wing. At a time when Germantown architecture was relating more directly to the street, 125 W. Walnut Lane preserves the privacy of the English country seat, an ideal ultimately behind Germantown s suburban development."

Sources of information:
Philadelphia Deed: 49 N 24, 1; 49 N 24, 22
Germantown Courier, 29 July 1965
Philadelphia city directories

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