709 Parker Street

09.04.11

(Below in italics is from the 1984 National Register listing; not verified for accuracy by this author.)

Due to their imposing two-story forms, this house and the two just to the west render this block the most distinctive of the more densely developed northern end of Morehead Hill. This vernacular Queen Anne style house is said to have been moved in the mid 1920s from around the corner where the Cheek family built it in 1894. In 1945 it was purchased by Ruth Berry, who lived here until 1975. After one subsequent owner, Pat and Todd Dickinson bought the house in September, 1981, restored it, and sold it to the current owners early in 1982. The interior, virtually intact, has five working fireplaces, unusual scallopped wainscoting in the principal first-floor rooms, fluted surrounds with corner blocks, and a staircase with a robust carved newal and turned balusters. Although the exterior is covered with aluminum siding, it retains its original pressed tin shingle roof. The original two-tiered porch had been removed, replaced with a one-story porch by the Dickinsons. The front is distinguished by a three-sided bay with a bell-cast roof and by its entrance with a fanlight.