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8: Queen Anne Duncan-Rosen-Scherer House, 276 College St., 1891 CHARACTERIZED BY ITS MULTI-TIERED TOWER with its clerestory cap, slate roof, various balconies with latticework, bay windows and pedimented front porch with turned columns and corner pavilion, the Duncan House exemplifies a high quality of design in a Victorian style that began earlier in the American Northeast. Derived from the work of British architect Richard Norman Shaw, houses of this type often include irregular plans and deliberately asymmetrical facades, yet they exhibit major craftmanship in their various elements. e house was constructed for Caroline, the eldest daughter of William Butler and Anne Tracy Johnston, who had grown up in her family's mansion on Georgia Avenue, and her husband, George Duncan, a South Carolina native with varied business ventures. With four small children, the Duncans needed their own residence, and construction presumably began after Johnston's death in 1887 with funds from either the Johnston estate or perhaps from Anne Tracy Johnston herself. Period records indicate that Alexander Blair designed the house, or at least supervised its construction. Following many years in multi-family use, the dwelling and garden have been gradually restored and enhanced – primarily through years of effort by the current owners, Vera Mason Scherer and Rick Scherer. e Arts and Crafts-styled interior includes dramatic oak woodwork in its principal rooms, molded fireplace tiles and several stained-glass windows, such as the example in the dining room boasting a fanciful grouping of cherubs, possibly representing the four young Duncan children. Vera Scherer commented that her favorite features of the house include this window, which they have so lovingly restored. She also treasures interior details like the ornate, 3-inch brass cabinet key, the basket-weave detailing on the exterior front of the building and a cherub head with wings molded in terra cotta and incorporated at a high elevation into the brick chimney of the north façade. 80 maconmagazine.com | JUNE/JULY 2020