The Robert Spencer House—Front View
It was a typical fisherman's cottage, with a wide gable roof sloping down to the first story and four small rooms about a central chimney. To meet the needs of the new owner, it required considerable enlargement. A two-story building was added at the rear and side, meeting the main house only along the corner. Little attempt was made to have the two harmonize, for not only are the roof lines of widely different types, but the frame of one is of white clapboarding and of the other weathered shingle. At the angle where they join, the roof of the old building has been raised to accommodate the higher stud in the new, thus making a break in it near the ridge.
Two dormers have been cut in the main roof to give extra room in the second floor; these are flat-roofed and well spaced, with two windows occupying the entire front of each. A porch has been added across the whole front of the house and half of it is roofed over. This breaks with the slope of the main roof, but follows that of the dormers. A detail which adds much to the appearance of the exterior is the simple, square-posted fence that surrounds the porch and encloses a quaint little garden in the square formed by the angle of the two buildings. This same detail has been adopted at the side of the porch roof in an effective way. This fence, and the clapboards and trim of the house, are white, and the shutters and shingles are green.
Two Views of the Living Room
The front door opens immediately into the living and dining-room which occupies the whole right side of the house and opens at the rear on to a grassy terrace. A triple window has been cut along the side to allow ample light and air. Small panes are used in these windows, and the French doors have glass of corresponding size. The feature of this room is the fine old fireplace at the center of the inside wall. It is very simple, with slight attempt at ornamentation, but the proportions are good, and the lines rather unusual. Over the fireplace is an old cupboard that used to be called a "nightcap closet" from the hospitable bottle which was kept there to be passed around among the men just before retiring. At the left is a cupboard with upper and lower doors; in the panels of the former, panes of glass have been inserted. This end of the room has been treated as the living-room and the opposite end as the dining-room. The woodwork is all white, and the roughly finished plaster is tinted a deep cream.