Virginia Place is the most well preserved of the few remaining
carriage alleys in Allentown. The alley served as a delivery entrance
for the Niagara White Lead Works (later the Cornell Lead Works), which
operated on Delaware and Virginia Streets.
Virginia Place was then
called Meech Street, after the family who lived at the end of the alley
in this three-storey Victorian Romanesque home, built in 1871.
Astraight-sided mansard roof is articulated by pediment headed
dormers. The rounded three-story central bay has flat capped windows
distinguished by stone lintels and sills in the first two stories. Two
entranceways flank the bay; although it was unusual in a Victorian
house for the primary and secondary entrances to be exhibited on the
same building face, the massing of this structure
seems to require the appearance of breadth imparted by the arrangement.
The
main entrance is fronted by an Eastlake style porch with turned posts,
a
foliate cut-out pediment and fan brackets, cover double doors accented
by narrow elongated lights. The Eastlake porch
lends an aura of home to this otherwise imposing building.
Because of its mass and severity, Romanesque styling is most often seen
in churches and other buildings meant to impose a ponderous tone. Due to a fine
control over its fines and proportions, as well as the addition of incongruous
but softening detail, this is an excellent example of the style turned to
residential use.
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