Talk:William Frederick Holmes House

draft away!

Hi, I was encouraged to take a look at this topic and have chosen to start this draft article. I am very happy to help a new editor develop a reasonable Wikipedia article on this house, which can be moved later to "mainspace" with either them or me showing as the starter of the article, whatever they prefer. I am sure we can develop a nice article. I'd be interested in going further with some other Pike County NRHPs, perhaps, too!

A new editor should create an account, which will apply in Wikipedia and related projects like Commons (which hosts photos). About conflict of interest policy, do check Wikipedia:Conflict_of_interest but don't let that inhibit you. It is fine for an editor to edit directly in an article where they have some association, as long as they disclose it and are willing to accommodate other editors. If there's controversy (not too likely for a historic house topic), then an editor with COI should defer to other non-COI editors and perhaps just make suggestions at the Talk page for others to implement. But I say, let's just get started and develop away!

I heard mention of some site that might have good resources, that I'd be happy to learn about. And it would be great to get some more recent photos added (best way is to upload at http://commons.wikimedia.org ).

I will "watchlist" here so I should see and respond to replies. But please feel free to contact me at my Talk page if I seem to have missed something here, or for any other reason, and feel free to email me using the email link at my Talk page.

cheers, --doncram 06:00, 26 September 2016 (UTC)

I'm a bit lost, how I respond to your message? I haven't been able to find an email for you Sharonburke291 18:11, 26 September 2016 (UTC)

You did fine. (You just hit Edit button above, and typed, and you even got it to sign your post by adding "~~~~" at the end.) I am really sorry about the antiquated editing interface we have to work with. :( To indicate a direct reply to a previous comment, indent by using one more colon before the reply. I just indented yours. If the conversation drifts too far over to the right, then re-start at left using no colons.

To email me, go to my user page (User:Doncram) and find and click on the tiny "Email this user" low in the left margin. I am happy to communicate both by Talk page like here, and by email. By email I would tell you who I am a bit more, and we could talk more freely. While on-Wiki I choose not to give my real name or say personal stuff. --doncram 18:19, 26 September 2016 (UTC)

Feel free to insert replies inbetween any of my following comments:

• I just lightly edited what you added to the article, by changing it from first person tense and by "wikilinking" some terms like long-leaf pine. That's all I will edit today probably. I do find the house and its history is interesting.
• What's written in Wikipedia articles needs to be directly supported by references to published reliable sources, enough so that others could verify or contradict everything said, if they took the care to chase down the sources. Sources can be secondary (like a newspaper article about the house, or the NRHP nomination document). Primary sources can also be used, with care. (See wp:PRIMARY for guideline about that.) Facts that are directly supported by photos included with an article can be stated, IMO, if the interpretation of what the photo shows is pretty clear. (The official policy about using "original images" is at wp:OI.) There are way too many policies and guidelines to learn all at once, unfortunately.
• So, what do you have in way of published text sources, in addition to the NRHP nomination document (which is great)? The editor who invited me mentioned that you have some good on-line source, what is that, or was that the NRHP nomination document?
• Also I assume you have photos or could take photos, which would help a lot.

I hope that going back and forth here and with edits in the article will be an efficient enough and fun process. I look forward to your replies. --doncram 18:47, 26 September 2016 (UTC)

Excerpts from NRHP document

The following is from the NRHP document, which seems to be well-written. :) Oh, I see now in the document that Richard J. Cawthon also edited it. --doncram 19:03, 26 September 2016 (UTC)

Excerpts from the National Register Application, text composed by:

Richard J. Cawthon Chief Architectural Historian Historic Preservation Division Mississippi Department of Archives and History P. O. Box 571 Jackson, MS 39205-0571 (601 359-6940

Significance

The William Frederick Homes House is locally significant under Criterion C in the area of Architecture, as one of the most important surviving examples of Queen Anne Style residential architecture in McComb and one of the more notable examples in Pike County. The house was built about 1894 for William Frederick Holmes and his wife, Katie Jones Holmes. The identity of the designer and builder is not known.

W.F. Holmes was co-owner of Holmes Brothers Department Store, with his brother Hilborn B. Holmes. The Holmes family was significant to the history of McComb, being among the earliest residents and entrepreneurs of the city. Several of McComb's most architecturally distinguished houses were built for members of the Holmes family. (The H. B. Holmes residence, later known as "Brentwood" or the Holmes-Brent House, a Neoclassical house built in 1912, was listed on the National Register in 1989.)

The Victorian Queen Anne style had wide popularity as the most fashionable style of residential architecture in Mississippi between about 1890 and about 1905, when it began to be overtaken in popularity by the Colonial Revival and Neoclassical Revival styles. The style was most popular among the upper middle-class residents of the cities and small towns - not only doctors and lawyers, but also the merchants, bankers, railroad men, and lumbermen who came to prominence in the changing Mississippi economy of the 1880s and 90s. The Queen Anne style is an indicator of the rising influence of the urban and small-town upper middle class and their values in late nineteenth-century Mississippi.

Queen Anne Style residences in Mississippi were most typically built of wood, and generally exhibited the characteristics of one of two dominant modes of the style. The "Spindlework Mode," characterized by lathe-turned and Eastlake ornamentation, was the more popular from the late 1880s to about 1895. The "Free Classical Mode," characterized by the free use of Classical Revival detailing, was the more popular from about 1895 to about 1905.

The W.F. Holmes House is one of the largest and most prominent examples of Victorian Queen Anne residential architecture in McComb, and is one of several noteworthy examples in Pike County. As an example of a two-and-a-half-story, turreted house in the Free Classical mode, it is comparable to such other houses in Mississippi as the Heath House at 350 South Main Street in Grenada (in the South Main Street Historic District, which was listed on the National Register in 1988), and the Dunn House at 102 Short Bay Street in Hattiesburg (in the Hattiesburg Historic Neighborhood District, which was listed on the National Register in 1980).

Narrative Description

The William Frederick Holmes House, built in 1894, is a two-and-a-half-story Victorian Queen Anne style residence, located at the western corner of Third Street and Nebraska Avenue at the edge of downtown McComb, Mississippi, about two blocks southwest of the City Hall. The house is a locally notable example of the "Free Classical " mode of the Queen Anne Style, characterized by the picturesque, asymmetrical massing of the Queen Anne style combined with Classical Revival detailing.

The house, which faces southeastward on a corner lot, is asymmetrically composed, consisting of a roughly cubical hip-roofed center mass, from which a front-gabled block projects forward on the southern half of the front façade. On the eastern corner of the front façade is a three-story corner tower with a conical roof. A one-story veranda extends across the eastern half of the front façade, wraps around the corner tower, and extends about half-way back on the northeastern side wall. The veranda roof is supported by eight Roman Ionic columns and two matching half-columns. At the center of the front façade, the veranda steps forward slightly to form a projecting portico, surmounted by a pediment containing plaster ornamentation. The front door is set into an alcove with paneled walls matching the interior paneling, and a mosaic tile floor.

The windows have a variety of different forms. Most of them are one-over-one double-hung sash windows, but there are also two diamond-mullioned decorative fixed windows, a decorative-mullioned lozenge window at the 2nd to 3rd floor stair landing, a double-hung window with decorative mullions on the first story of the gabled projecting block, and two stained glass windows on the stair landing between the 1st and 2nd stories. There is also a leaded, beveled glass transom above the front entrance door. On the roof are two dormers. The one facing toward the front has a curved top and a pair of small four-over-four double hung sash windows. A second dormer, on the northeast side, has a hipped roof and a pair of small four-over-four double hung sash windows.

The interior of the house retains a high degree of integrity and contains most of its original hardwood flooring and millwork, including paneled wainscoting and several fine Colonial Revival mantelpieces.

There are 3 sets of pocket doors, each of which is 11 feet in height. Two of the pocket doors are 5 feet wide and are hung as a single door and the third is 6 feet in width with two sliding leaves.

From the main parlor, there are another set of doors, also 11 feet in height that open onto the stair hall. These are hinged doors, rather than sliding doors, but they are paneled to match the pocket doors and the paneling in the dining room.

The front door opens from the tiled alcove off the veranda into a main parlor which is dominated by an ornate Colonial Revival mantel, with glazed tile facing and a mirror over the mantel shelf, framed by a pair of slender columns. Another noteworthy feature of the main parlor is the round alcove, eight feet in diameter, that forms the lowest story of the corner tower. The opening into the alcove is flanked by pilasters supporting a dentillated cornice. On the far (northwest) side of the main parlor is the very tall double-leaf door that opens to the stair hall. On the right-hand (southwest) side of the front parlor are sliding pocket doors opening into the front (south) parlor and the dining room.

The south parlor contains another ornate Colonial Revival mantel, also, with glazed tile facing and a mirror over the mantel shelf, framed by a pair of slender columns of a different design than the mantel in the main parlor. In the northwest wall of the front parlor is a sliding pocket door opening into the dining room.

All four walls of the dining room are finished in five-foot-high paneled wainscoting with a bracketed plate rail. This room, too, contains a Colonial Revival mantelpiece of yet another design with glazed tile facing and a mirror over the mantel shelf. To the rear of the dining room is a butler's pantry (now used as a dining area), with an adjacent bathroom. Beyond the butler's pantry is the kitchen, which has been modernized.

From the butler's pantry a door opens to the stair hall, which also connects to the main parlor through the tall double-leaf door. The stair features a paneled square newel and turned balusters. It rises in two runs to the second story and continues in two additional runs to the attic story.

The second story contains three bedrooms, each with a Colonial Revival mantelpiece. Also on the second story is a wainscoted bathroom with an original seven-foot-long clawfoot bathtub.

Behind the house, to the northwest, is a three-car garage with an apartment above, built in the 1940s. Because this building is much later than the house and unrelated to its architectural significance, it is considered to be non-contributing.

Verbal Boundary Description

Commencing at the Northeast corner of Square 46, West McComb, McComb City, Pike County, Mississippi, and run thence Southwesterly along the West boundary line of Third Street a distance of 70.0 feet, thence run Northwesterly, parallel with Nebraska Avenue, a distance of 127.0 feet, thence run Northeasterly parallel with Third Street, a distance of 70.0 feet along said boundary line of Nebraska Avenue; thence Southeasterly along said boundary line a distance of 127.0 feet to the point of beginning, containing 0.204 acres, more or less, and being situated in Lots One (1) and Two(2) of Square 46, West McComb, McComb City, Pike County, Mississippi.

Boundary Justification

The described property consists of the parcel of land historically associated with the house.

Bibliographical Reference

Cawthon, Richard J. "Victorian Queen Anne Architecture in Mississippi." Unpublished report, Historic Preservation Division, Mississippi Department of Archives and History, 1991, revised in 1997 and 2003.

Suggestions

Overall, this is a surprisingly well-written article for a new NRHP. Having said that, let me nitpick.

• The article has a very short, one-paragraph lead with a single section heading holding the rest of the main article text (not counting the obligatory references and link sections that typically follow articles). If there is enough material to justify section headers, always have at least two. You have a section header called "History". I suggest adding one before that called "Description" or something similar. Use the new heading to describe the house as it appears in the here and now, the address of the house, and the current use of the house such as a closed private residence or a house museum, bed and breakfast, or other commercial property that welcomes the public. Then describe the neighborhood environment of the house such as whether there are other properties on national or state registries nearby or whether the surrounding properties are all newer with no historic value that detract from the home's historical setting. Let the "History" section describe the house as originally built, modifications over the years, and the brief biographies of notable previous residents.
• The article mentions the circumstances in which the present owner found the house and the improvements the owner seeks. However, this owner is unnamed and these statements of the owner are unsourced (and because the article states that the NRHP registration process was begun on the owner's initiative, the owner is no doubt on the public record within the NRHP nomination document). Because there are no citations for any of this, these statements smack of original research, a big Wikipedia no-no. Please find reliable backing for these statements, such as the owner saying these things to reporters for local media, or remove them.
• Add a "See also" section with a link to the county's NRHP listings and to the NRHP and Mississippi state Wikipedia portals. If the state or county historical societies have online pages dedicated to this house, then link to them in an "External links" section. If Commons has more images of this house other than the one displayed in the article, then group them together in a new Commons category and add that link under "External links" as well.
• Has the site been designated a Mississippi Landmark? Check the state's historical authority, not the Wikipedia list which is probably out of date. If so, then mention that status in the article text and in the infobox.
• Once the article is expanded, then I suggest you rewrite and expand the lead. The lead should be a general outline and summary of the entire article and, as such, doesn't require any references provided the meat-and-potatoes of the article is well-cited. While the lead should be sparse on details, it should be long on comprehensiveness and entice the reader to continue further.

With these improvements, the article could easily become a class B article or even be submitted for GA review. I wish you luck. Fortguy (talk) 09:49, 19 July 2018 (UTC)