Jack-o’-lantern Inspiration

What better way to get into the Halloween spirit than with this craftily carved patch of pumpkins. 

These charmingly spooky Jack-o’-lanterns all hail from the annual Carve competition hosted by Lambertville’s historic Inn of the Hawke, the perfect venue for a haunted Halloween event given its legendary retinue of resident ghosts.

       

        

           

              

         

         

         

        

           

Happy Halloween!

Photos by KS&D.

One of the Prettiest Towns in America!

Regular readers of this blog will know how much we love our town, so it was no surprise to us to see Forbes.com select Lambertville as one of the fifteen prettiest towns in the America.

A panel that included travel experts from Frommer’s, Fodor’s, and even National Geographic said:

            “Tiny Lambertville on the shores of the Delaware River in western New Jersey, packs a lot of small-town punch, welcoming visitors with some of the best antique shopping in the Northeast, as well as with its selection of galleries, shops, and restaurants. “It’s quaint as heck, with a lot of old Atlantic flare.””

If a trip to Lambertville isn’t in your future you can always enjoy browsing our carefully curated selection of art and antiques HERE at Knickerbocker!

Photos by KS&D.

Porches, Piazzas, and Verandas

 It’s been a while since we last posted on the elements of Lambertville’s Victorian architecture, so with summer in full swing why not take a closer look at the part of the house where Victorians spent much of their summers. 

 We’ve looked at porches before from soaring verandas to elegant loggias, but no one experimented with this architectural feature with more gusto than the Victorians. 

 Perhaps it’s because each of the individual parts of the structure, columns, balustrades, brackets, corbels, and roofs, each allow for endless opportunities for decoration and ornamentation. 

 This was after all an era obsessed with adding as much carved wooden gingerbread trim as their houses could hold, and the porch provided the perfect place to hold it. 

 Even a small entrance porch was an opportunity for ornamentation.

 Take this neighboring pair of tiny twin porches, one in white the other full color, likely added onto the earlier townhouses at a later date.

 All of that intricate trim made for endless surfaces to paint and the color schemes around town run the gamut. 

 Painted all in white the gingerbread looks something more akin to a wedding cake frosting. 

 The architectural styles are as varied as the color schemes including everything from this angular Eastlake.

 To this eclectic Queen Anne featuring an unusual slate roofline.

 But not every porch was awash in lacy trim work as the classically elegant fluted columns here show.

 Here clustered trios of simple slender columns rest atop heavy rusticated stone supports illustrating the later influence of Craftsman ideals over ornate Victoriana.

 This example of simple columns on masonry bases is adorned with classical dentil moldings giving a hint of the Colonial Revival.

 The advent of air conditioning along with the rise of the backyard as the main outdoor family space would spell the end of the golden age of front porches, but what better place to sip an iced tea on a summer afternoon than the porch of this classic American Four Square decorated with flowers and wicker furniture and shaded from the sun by cheerful stripped awnings.

Photos by KS&D.

Spring Comes to Town

With the weather at last warming up in the Delaware valley it seems that spring has finally come to town.

Here April showers bring rain boots and flowers.

Pink cherry blossoms add an extra touch of romance to white columned porches.

Cluster of sunny daffodils brighten somber brick and Victorian woodwork.

Tulips search for the sun through antique wrought iron fences.

And waves of fallen petals drift across sidewalks.

Sweeping weeping cherry tree branches have a lace-like effect against the brick façade behind them.

An elegant window box planter decorated with curly willow branches.

Colorful fish shaped Japanese windsocks known as Koinobori decorate the window boxes.

Bright clusters of tulips almost resemble Easter eggs scattered around the garden.

This lush saucer magnolia looks like a pink cloud complete with a fairy tale turret coming out of the top.

What better place to take in the pleasures of the season than a cozy wicker chair on a tall shady porch?

Then again we’ve always been partial to the well-weathered seat of an old Adirondack chair.

Photos by KS&D.

Victorian Towers and Turrets

Since A Victorian City was so popular we thought we’d take a closer look at some of the architecture around town with a series focusing on specific architectural elements.

 

Let’s start our series with those most dramatic of Victorian architectural components, towers and turrets.

This round brick tower features an interesting cornice of scalloped shingles and trim work.

A closer look shows an elegant decorative swag trim, as well as a charming finial that seems to give the conical roof the look of a giant hand bell.

Another round tower topped with a deep cornice of scalloped shingles, this time crafted in rough stone.

These wooden towers feature rows of varying styles of shingles separated by bands of stud-like wood trim in a deep golden yellow.

Towers and turrets are to be found in every shape and size from round to square and even octagonal.

And finally this round corner tower is anchored by another architectural element favored by the Victorians, a graceful wraparound porch. 

Photos by KS&D.