Vernacular House on Mulberry Street, Lebanon, Kentucky

Between 1890 and 1895, a one-story frame house was built on Mulberry Street in Lebanon, Kentucky. It wasn’t very large, maybe three to four rooms, but had a projecting, canted gable on the west side of the facade, and a small porch. It was the only dwelling on that block of Mulberry Street at that time; the other frame buildings were outbuildings for the large houses on East Main Street. The house was built the popular form known in Kentucky as a “T-plan,” and at some point in the early 20th century, the house was expanded laterally with another canted gable, giving it the delightful facade visible today.

Façade of the Mulberry Street house, showing the twin jerkinhead gables.

It was those twin jerkinhead gables that caught my eye – the distinctive clipped gable of the roof accentuated by the cut-away bays of the side windows on either gable. Remarkably, though the house has been wrapped in vinyl siding (and I imagine those gables were originally much more attractive with wooden shingles and decorative vents), the brackets of the cut-away bays are still in place.

Façade of 208 E Main St, Lebanon, Kentucky. This historic house needs some love.

The house may have been built as a domestic outbuilding for the mid-19th century house at 208 East Main Street (photo above), as that lot was quite large, and appears to have extended from Main Street west to Harrison Street, and south to Mulberry Street.

Section of the 1877 D.G. Beers & Company map of Marion and Washington Counties. The blue arrow marks the approximate location of the Mulberry Street house, which had not yet been built. The house marked as “C.Ray” is 208 E. Main Street.

Section of the 1895 Sanborn map showing the Mulberry Street house.

While the 1877 map shows only three dwellings on Main Street in the block, by the first decade of the 20th century, development picked up. William Wallace Spalding had a brick house (216 E. Main) built for his family between 1908 and 1910. The 1915 Sanborn Fire Insurance maps shows the Mulberry Street house as belonging to the parcel of the Spalding House.

Another view of the facade.

Between 1915-1927, the house was parceled off from the E. Main Street house, but the other jerkinhead gable, on the east side of the facade, still had not been built. (Unless, of course, the cartographers compiling the Sanborn map did a poor job of recording actual footprints.)

Section of the 1915 Sanborn map showing the Mulberry Street house.

Between 1927 and 1939, this little cottage doubled in size. I’d love to know the name of the owner and residents at that time!

Section of the 1939 updates to the 1927 Sanborn Fire Insurance map, showing the enlarged dwelling.

In a 1983 real estate listing (the house belonged to Mrs. Martha C. Penick at the time), the Mulberry Street house is described as able to accommodate a large family or two families, based on the configuration of the wings to either side (the gables). On one side (likely the east side), were two bedrooms and a bath. The other side (west side – left on the photo), which has an ell extending to the north, the rooms included a bedroom, dining room, breakfast room, kitchen, pantry, bath, garage and utility room. The three bay wide section in the middle of the facade (window/door/window) was described as containing a large living room.

Jerkinhead gables were hot in the late 19th century! This George F. Barber design, circa 1894, is from “Artistic Homes: How to Plan and How to Build Them.”

Sadly, I don’t know who built the house, or any of the early residents  – the historic newspapers available online were little help, and deed research must be conducted in person. As always, I hope someone will recognize the charming historic cottage, and their memories might help tell more of the story.