Goeliang's Single Family Housing
This building as built in 1896 for the Bow family. Orrin Bow, the head of the household, was a lawyer. There were five residents living in the house, including Helen Bow (Orrin Bow’s wife), Marion Bow (son) and two boarders. In 1938, owner Adela Wehe, who was a parish secretary, added asbestos siding onto the exterior of this home. This greatly shaped how the building looks like today. From the mid 1940s to mid 1950s, the Dieterle family occupied the house. In 1957, the Morrisette family bought the place and lived in it till late 1970s, when the Brown family moved in. The Brown family lived there for twenty-six years. The building was empty for few years before a Hmong American family bought the house in 2012. Today the building is occupied by a three-generation Hmong family with ten to twelve family members.
This south facing building sits between a residential building to its west and a vacant lot to the right. It is the only two storied, single family building on this block. In addition to two main floors, there is a basement and a small attic. Like many other homes in this neighborhood, the interior layout of this building reproduces a clear front and back spatial hierarchy. This spatial organization fits the norms of behavior and use commonplace in the 20th C. when these homes were erected. We interpreted this by studying the finishes of this building much of which remain intact from its original design. The front zone with its elaborate classical ornamentation projected a face of refined gentility. An entrance vestibule leads to the main living space of the house. Unlike many other houses that only have two public rooms, this house has three formal front rooms located on the first floor. These rooms were designed for leisure, entertainment and dining. The rooms were divided by pocket doors, allowing inhabitants to open up or close sections of the interior to the public. Today the pocket doors are not used anymore. The back zone was designed for family living and cooking. The kitchen located at the eastern corner is a back service-oriented space.
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