The Stephen Decker Rowhouse is a historic multiple residence in the

Columbia-Tusculum Columbia-Tusculum is the oldest neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is located on the East Side of the city. The population was 1,523 at the 2020 census. Demographics Source - City of Cincinnati Statistical Database. Note - boundaries of neig ...

neighborhood of

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state lin ...

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

. Built in 1889, it occupies land that was originally a portion of the wide vineyards of

Nicholas Longworth Nicholas Longworth III (November 5, 1869 – April 9, 1931) was an American politician who became Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. He was a Republican. A lawyer by training, he was elected to the Ohio Senate, where he init ...

. In 1869, after his death, Longworth's estate was

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bea ...

ted and sold to builders who constructed a residential neighborhood along Tusculum Avenue. One of the most unusual buildings was the Decker

rowhouse In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house ( UK) or townhouse ( US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings share side walls. In the United Sta ...

, which features multiple distinctive

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

elements. Chief among these is the ornamentation on the porch roofs: they include

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aest ...

d rooflines and

bevel A bevelled edge (UK) or beveled edge (US) is an edge of a structure that is not perpendicular to the faces of the piece. The words bevel and chamfer overlap in usage; in general usage they are often interchanged, while in technical usage they ...

ed corners supported by multiple spindles. Connecting these porch roofs are low normal roofs, which primarily protect the recessed entrances to the houses. Elsewhere, the houses feature double-hung windows, imbricated shingles on the gables, and arcades of Gothic Revival panelling, and numerous ornamental circles inscribed within squares. Taken as a single building, the rowhouse measures two

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a na ...

wide and eighteen bays long; it is of

frame A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent. Frame and FRAME may also refer to: Physical objects In building construction * Framing (co ...

construction and two stories tall.Owen, Lorrie K., ed. ''Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places''. Vol. 2. St. Clair Shores: Somerset, 1999, 588. Rated "outstanding" by an architectural survey in 1978,Columbia-Tusculum Historical Society–Miami Purchase Association. '.

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government within the United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of ...

, 1978-10-27. it is the only rowhouse of its type in Cincinnati, due to its well-preserved Victorian architecture. In 1979, the Stephen Decker Rowhouse was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...

because of its historically significant architecture, as had been recognized by the survey of the previous year. It was one of seventeen Columbia-Tusculum properties included in a

multiple property submission The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

related to that survey; most of the properties were buildings, but the Columbia Baptist and Fulton-Presbyterian Cemeteries were also included.

References

{{Columbia-Tusculum MRA Houses completed in 1889 Houses in Cincinnati Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Cincinnati Victorian architecture in Ohio