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| Gaston Meares House circa 1898 - 110 S. College Street |
The National Register recorded:
"The best example of Queen Anne design surviving in the district is the Gaston Meares House. In 1896, Seaboard Airline engineer Gaston Meares (1870-1938) and wife Juanita Stewart Meares attended the Columbian Exposition in his Chicago, bringing back the plans for this house, purchased from an exhibit showing the latest in residential design. Their residence was constructed soon after their return. The one and a half-story, frame Queen Anne style house sits in the center of a substantial, wooded corner lot. Its picturesque design features a high pyramidal roof from which spring fishscale-shingled gables at the northwest, southeast and southwest corners. High in the front plane of the roof is a large, gabled dormer which originally had round-arched windows, but now has a pair of rectangular ones. Dominating the corner of the house is a one and a half story, conically-roofed attached tower ringed below its eaves with a band of multi-pane windows. The most dramatic aspect of the building is an engaged, u-shaped porch that curves to follow the outline of the tower. Richly ornamented with Queen Anne decorative elements, this veranda has turned columns between which are spaced knob-topped posts joined by a railing of turned balusters. Semi-circular spindle screens are attached to the columns, forming oval and circular patterns above the railings. A small portico projects from the porch at the front entrance, its tympanum decorated with applied garlands. Tall chimneys with corbelled caps project from the roof on either side slope. The front door has large sidelights and a transom. Windows on the front of the house are one over one, on the rear two over two. The foundation of the porch, originally on piers with lattice between, has been filled in. While the exterior of the house is basically unchanged, the interior was remodeled in the 1920s, including the finishing of the upper level and removal of spindlework screens. The house presents a two-room deep, center hall plan. Playhouse; rear of 110 N. College Street; ca. 1900 - One-story, gable-roofed frame playhouse.” (NR)
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| Preservation NC photo - Be sure to click to enlarge. PNC noted George Franklin Barber (1854-1915) as architect |
The 1910 Monroe Census found G.H. Meares 40, Juanita 31, Juanita 4,
Elizabeth 2, sister-in-law Mary Stewart 21 and brother-in-law John
Stewart.
Daughter Juanita (1905-1988) married Gilbert Hall Efird (1902-1990), son
of Jacob E. and Fannie Efird of Monroe; Efird owned marble yard.
NOTE: It appears that Thomas Mears (1603-1674) came from Sidlesham, Sussex, England. He died in 1674 in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. The spelling of the name evolved to Meares in the mid-18th century.