122 Powell Street
Originally identical to its neighbor at 124 Powell, this T-shaped, gable-roofed frame house once featured a small wraparound corner porch extending from a double-window bay. Over the years, it has been heavily altered, including the addition of a two-story extension, a rebuilt porch supported by brick piers, aluminum siding, and the loss of nearly all original Victorian trim. Even so, its basic form still hints at the home’s nineteenth-century origins.
124 Powell Street (Alves-Hard House)
Built in the late 1800s, 124 Powell remains a well-preserved example of Victorian residential design. The house retains its decorative shingles, attic vents, bracketed window hoods, and an ornate corner porch with slender turned posts and cutwork spandrels.
The 1893 directory lists Thomas D. Alves (of the hardware firm Alves & Rankin) here, followed in the early 1900s by the family of Thomas E. Ward, attorney.
Together, these two homes illustrate how companion houses can evolve differently over time, one transformed through modernization, the other preserving the character of its Victorian past.
