United States Department of the Interior

National Park Service

National Register of Historic Places

Registration Form
1. Name of Property: Porter House
historic name Porter House
other names/site number ________________________________________________________________
Related Multiple Property 727 East 11th Avenue

2. Location
NA & number
street 727 East 11th Avenue and Hawthorne Alley not for
NA publication
city or town Bowling Green vicinity
state KY code county Warren code zip code 42101

3. State/Federal Agency Certification

As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended,
I hereby certify that this X nomination _ request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards
for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional
requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60.
In my opinion, the property X _ meets _ does not meet the National Register Criteria. I recommend that this
property be considered significant at the following level(s) of significance:
national statewide X local

Applicable National Register Criteria:

___A ___B _X _ C ___D

Signature of certifying official/Title Craig Potts/SHPO Date

Kentucky Heritage Council/State Historic Preservation Office

State or Federal agency/bureau or Tribal Government

In my opinion, the property meets does not meet the National Register criteria.

Signature of commenting official Date

Title State or Federal agency/bureau or Tribal Government

1
 4. National Park Service Certification
I hereby certify that this property is:
entered in the National Register determined eligible for the National Register
determined not eligible for the National Register removed from the National Register
other (explain:) _________________

Signature of the Keeper Date of Action

5. Classification

Ownership of Property Category of Property Number of Resources within Property

(Check as many boxes as apply.) (Check only one box.) (Do not include previously listed resources in the count.)

Contributing Noncontributing
X private X building(s) One buildings
public - Local district district
public - State site site
public - Federal structure structure
object object
One Total

Name of related multiple property listing Number of contributing resources previously

(Enter "N/A" if property is not part of a multiple property listing) listed in the National Register

727 East 11th Street, Bowling Green, KY 42101

6. Function or Use
Historic Functions Current Functions
(Enter categories from instructions.) (Enter categories from instructions.)

DOMESTIC/Single Dwelling DOMESTIC/Secondary Structure

7. Description

2
Architectural Classification Materials
(Enter categories from instructions.) (Enter categories from instructions.)

Mid-Nineteenth Century foundation: Stone: Sandstone

Other: Wooden frame Saddlebag House walls: Heavy timber frame
Sideboards: Outer and Inner Layers
Corrugated metal, covering wooden plank
roof: rafters
other:

Narrative Description
(Describe the historic and current physical appearance of the property. Explain contributing and noncontributing
resources if necessary. Begin with a summary paragraph that briefly describes the general characteristics of the
property, such as its location, setting, size, and significant features.)

Summary Paragraph

The building being nominated is a traditional timber frame saddlebag house, likely from ca. 1870s or 1880s. The building
is located on Hawthorne Alley to the south (or, more precisely, southwest) of a ca. 1897-98 bungalow located at 727 East
11th Avenue, Bowling Green, KY. It is just within a couple blocks from the citys downtown and from the historic Shake Rag
district, an African American district established in 1802 and elected to the NRHP in 2000. The building is a traditional
timber frame saddlebag house with two symmetrical rooms saddled around a central chimney. The building is not in the
best possible shape; however, it seems to retain the integrity of the significant parts of its constructionthe foundation, the
timber frame, the sideboard walls, the doors and windows, the fireplaces, the chimney, and the wooden rafters and deck
under the later-added metal roof.

Description of the Site

The building is located on Hawthorne Alley between 11th and 12th Avenues in Bowling Green. The Alley runs parallel to and
midway between Park and High Streets. The back doors of the house open to Hawthorne Alley and each room also
features a window opening to the alley. The symmetrical doors for each room at the other end, which would traditionally be
viewed as the front doors, in the case of this house open into a larger, now fenced-off, yard to the east of the building. The
building is now part of a complex that includes two other buildings aligned along Hawthorne Alley to its north. This includes
a smaller and much newer functioning work shed, removed from this building by about 50 feet, and, 15 feet further north,
the main property of the current owners at the corner of Hawthorne Alley and 11 th Avenue at the aforementioned address.
In this section of the alley, there are no other independent residential structures and no addresses numbered with respect
to alignment of buildings along the alleythe buildings on the other side across the alley have fronts facing Park Street.

History of Property Ownership

Most extant documentation relates to what is now the main building on the property at 727 East 11 th Avenue, a turn-of-the-
century bungalow-style cottage inhabited since 2000 by current owners John and Sandy McAllister. Deed Book 48, page
80, at the City of Bowling Greens Old Courthouse, however, does document the earliest recorded sale of the property (the

3
land) by an A.P. Durham to B.W. Porter on March 3, 1877; the property was mentioned as a part of a 60-acre tract known
as Skiles Enlargement of the City of Bowling Green. There is no specific reference in that document to the building that is
being nominated here. While the 1891 and 1895 Sanborn Insurance Company Maps of Bowling Green stop just short of
this block, the 1901 and 1909 maps do show both the main house and this house along the alley.

The main house is a late 1890s cottage and has better documentation, some retrieved and maintained by the Landmark
Association, a small non-profit organization that promotes preservation and dissemination of Bowling Green history. That
home was built in the late 1890s for Robert W. Browder (1853-1916), a graduate of Vanderbilt University and a Methodist
Minister. Browder was pastor for the State Street United Methodist Church from 1898 to 1899. Upon Browders death, the
house was purchased by Bishop S. Huntsman, who went on to serve in the General Assembly as a Republican
representative from Allen County and later as a Senator from Warren County. After his death, the house was inhabited by
his daughter Mary Clyde Huntsman, an accomplished and locally popular classical music performer (violinist, pianist, and
organist), until her death in 1959. Lloyd K. Cromwell, a postal employee, was the next owner, and lived in the house with
his wife Sara and their family. Gary West and Deborah Fisher were the last owners before the current ones, the
McAllisters, who bought the whole property in 2000. The relationship of that upscale main street house to this modest
building through various ownerships of the former remains to be determined.

Exterior Description

Porter House is a traditional timber frame saddlebag house with two symmetrical rooms saddled around a central chimney
located above symmetrical fireplaces on the central wall. Its back doors open to Hawthorne Alley and each room also
features a window opening to the alley. The symmetrical doors for each room at the other face, which would traditionally
be viewed as the front doors, in the case of this house open into a larger, now-fenced, yard to the east of the building. The
building is now part of a complex that includes two other buildings aligned along the Hawthorne Alley to its north. This
includes a smaller and much newer functioning work shed, removed from this building by about 50 feet, and the main
property of the current owners at the corner of Hawthorne Alley and 11th Avenue at the aforementioned address. In this
section of the alley, there are no other freestanding residential structures and no numbered addresses with respect to
alignment along the alley.

The building can be viewed by outsiders only from Hawthorne Alley, which is faced by what would traditionally be the rear
end of a saddlebag house. From that end, it appears like an abandoned, humble, old, house among a district of currently
lived-in and more upscale buildings. From that end, one first notices the horizontal sideboard walls with the vertical and
oblong heavier timbers of the underlying frame exposed where the sideboards have broken in parts. The back doors are
symmetrical and arranged roughly at 45 degrees to the back wall to face each other obliquely; they are separated by the
intervening wall that houses the fireplaces and the chimney.

The main current access to the house is from the other end, which opens into a yard owned by the owners of the
aforementioned main bungalow. The historical relationships, across time, of the two dwellings remain undetermined. The
front end features an attached porch, also covered by the main corrugated metal roof, which is dipping a little on the left
side. This and the sundry equipment stocked on the porch somewhat obscure the front details. The front doors are also
symmetrically located, each opening into symmetrical rooms. There are no windows on the front wall.

Interior Description

4
Both rooms are symmetrical and seem identical in construction. The central wall features the two fireplaces. The ceiling is
made of board similar to the walls, and a few missing boards reveal the rafters and the broader and heavier planks of the
roof deck, covered on the outside by the corrugated metal roof. The chimney is lined by brick and can be seen from the
inside through the same chinks in the ceilings boards.

The windows on the back walls measure 2 by 4.5. They have simple wooden frames and are partitioned to feature eight
rectangular pieces of glass; the lower half slides up. The side walls feature larger windows that are 1.5 times as wide as
the rear ones; these have twelve glass pieces and also open similarly. The rear doors are 3.5 by 6.4 and are each topped
by a glass eyebrow window that does not open.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Narrative Description

8. Statement of Significance
Applicable National Register Criteria
(Mark "x" in one or more boxes for the criteria qualifying the property for D a cemetery.
National Register listing.)

E a reconstructed building, object, or structure.

A Property is associated with events that have made a
significant contribution to the broad patterns of our F a commemorative property.
history.
B Property is associated with the lives of persons G less than 50 years old or achieving significance
significant in our past. within the past 50 years.

C Property embodies the distinctive characteristics

X of a type, period, or method of construction or
represents the work of a master, or possesses high
artistic values, or represents a significant
and distinguishable entity whose components lack
individual distinction.

D Property has yielded, or is likely to yield, information

important in prehistory or history.

Criteria Considerations
(Mark "x" in all the boxes that apply.)

Property is:

A Owned by a religious institution or used for religious

purposes.

B removed from its original location.

C a birthplace or grave.

5
Areas of Significance
(Enter categories from instructions.)

Architecture

Period of Significance
1877 to early 20th Century

Significant Dates
1877: Year of earliest recorded sale of property
1897-8: Year of construction of the main
house/bungalow adjoining the property
1901: Earliest date Sanborn Insurance Maps cover
the block and do show the property

Significant Person
(Complete only if Criterion B is marked above.)

Cultural Affiliation

Architect/Builder

Period of Significance (justification)

Criteria Considerations (explanation, if necessary)

6
Statement of Significance

Summary Paragraph

Porter House is a traditional wooden frame saddlebag house, likely from ca. 1870s or 1880s. It is an example of the
commonest rural Upland South two-room house type from 1840s to the turn of the century. This particular example, a very
typical and representative one, is likely the only really modest residential building from that era in this area of the city. The
area and its common historiographies boast of more upscale housing structures and usually present narratives of upward
mobility of the areas European American and African American communities. Yet, a building such as this stands as a rare
extant marker of possibly more modest beginnings or extended economic realities, at least of some sections of society. It
can serve a pointer to what could be a significant chapter in a more comprehensive history, as yet unwritten. Not only that,
without recognizing material documents such as this, still writ (albeit not large) on the built landscape, any sense that such
an unexplored chapter ever existed might be buried under more comfortable sounding histories. This building, ignored by
time and without even an official address, meets the National Register Criterion C in the area of Architecture as a
representative example of the traditional wooden frame saddlebag house, a vernacular form common to the Upland South
in the second half of the 19th Century but mostly replaced by more upscale houses around the turn of the 20 th century, a
trend that seems to have been replicated in this district. We are fortunate to have one such representative structure still
standing and with relatively preserved integrity in this gentrified area, where it is likely the oldest example of this much
more modest older vernacular dwelling type.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Narrative Statement of Significance (Provide at least one paragraph for each area of significance.)

Historic Context: Traditional Timber Frame Vernacular Housing in Warren County, 1877-1900

The Saddlebag house emerged as the commonest of double-pen rural vernacular house types in America in the first half
of the 19th century and remained the preponderant double-room plan until the end of the century. Its origins in America
have been traced to New England; they were also common in the Tidewater and Piedmont regions of Virginia and North
Carolina. From the Watauga Settlements of East Tennessee, they spread in into the rest of Tennessee, Kentucky, and the
Deep South, and into portions of Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri (Montell:25-26). All double-pen houses have been
described as impermanent architecture that emerged as a result of migration away from the original settlements on the
Eastern Seaboard; they were typically inhabited by poorer whites and black sharecroppers (Montell:18). These were
always modest houses, considered inferior, and replaced by better, more permanent houses, whenever possible
(Montell:25). While earliest saddlebags were built of log, and often had the second room as an addition, later structures
were built together and moved toward traditional heavy wooden frame construction. This construction type, the commoner
type in the second half of the 19th century, is featured in the Porter House.

An extension of the idea of the saddlebag house was the tenant house. All saddlebag houses were modest dwellings, and
with prosperity, any American who could afford a more permanent and desirable dwelling moved on to the more
contemporary, turn-of-the-century house types such as bungalows and cottages. Tenant farmers and sharecroppers,
however, often had to continue to live in this type of modest dwelling, a somewhat distinct version of which has invited the
descriptor tenant house (Montell:26). The Porter House seems to fit this historical narrative very well. It stands as a lone
modest, impermanent rural dwelling-type in an area now urbanized and gentrified. At least since 1901, it can be seen in
Sanborn Insurance Maps standing behind the larger bungalow to its north, with the saddlebags traditional front entrances
7
opening into the shared open space between the two houses. There are no windows on that front wall of the saddlebag,
which makes one wonder about the use of the building and its relationship to the adjoining better-appointed cottage. Could
it be that the humble building in the back was for tenants or servants whose personal and social lives were aligned along
the alley, the side featuring the windows, with the traditionally front side, in this case, being mainly a way to access the
main house for housework? Could these servants have been African American, given the proximity to the Shake Rag
community, which perhaps hit its economic stride at a later time? Alternatively, the humbler building could have been an
impermanent dwelling from an earlier time, perhaps 1870s or 1880s; once economic stability allowed for the city to move
to more permanent and better appointed architecture, a rare such older impermanent dwelling was allowed to stand as it
changed occupants or function. The Sanborn Maps from 1895, which do not include this block, do show that the same
alley in the next block had a large stable, which hints at a possibly more rustic orientation of Bowling Green in that time
and also suggests that poorer servants or stable hands were likely working in such a setting.

One thing remains strikingthis residential building is clearly much more modest than any of the surrounding buildings. It
is a wonder that it has not been torn down, especially comparing it with the counterpart lot on Hawthorne Alley in the
adjoining (northern) block, which once hosted the aforementioned stable but now houses a contemporary apartment
building. Thus the history it could still point to is not entirely lost as long as a rare seemingly out-of-place reminder stands
questioning more comfortable histories. The common histories of the area, told both by European American and African
American communities and their official spokespersons, are of upward mobility and realization of middle class dreams.
Documentaries posted online by government, non-profit, and media organizations all evidence their investment in
accentuating the positive. Yet, can we afford to deny the less becoming aspects of the built landscape and aspects of
history to which they might testify, or at least point?

Integrity considerations

Historic integrity can be viewed as a retention by the property of aspects that had established its connection to its historic
period of significance. Below is a consideration of five of the seven areas in which a structure can evidence integrity, as
they relate to the Porter House.

Integrity of Location: The Porter House appears in the same location today as in the 1901 and 1909 Sanborn Insurance
maps. Thus it fully retains its locational integrity.

Integrity of Design: The essential overall saddlebag design and the orientation of all components appears unchanged
from that of typical traditional timber frame saddlebag houses from the second half of the 19 th century.

Integrity of Materials: The essential heavy wooden frame, sideboard walls and ceiling, brick chimney, heavy timber rafters
of the inside of the roof, and wooden frames of the doors and windows all maintain the integrity of the original build. The
only significant change is the replacement of the shingle roof, which was noted in the 1901 and 1909 Sanborn Maps, with
a corrugated metal one.

Integrity of Association: The Porter House has retained its subordinate and seemingly intimate association with the
surrounding structures, especially the adjoining bungalow, constructed ca. 1898, and seen to its North in maps from 1901
onwards. The Porter House, when viewed as a traditional saddlebag house or its derivative tenant house, has two doors

8
(the traditional front ones) opening into the open space shared with the bungalow, which seemingly points to a specific
historic social hierarchical association between the inhabitants of the two buildings.

Integrity of Feeling: The house retains the integrity of feeling of the late 19th Century timber frame saddlebag house
common throughout the rural Upland South, including Kentucky.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Developmental history/additional historic context information (if appropriate)

9. Major Bibliographical References

Bibliography (Cite the books, articles, and other sources used in preparing this form.)

Books

Montell, William Lynwood and Michael Lynn Morse. Kentucky Folk Architecture. (Lexington: The University Press of
Kentucky, 1976)

Williams, Michael Ann. Homeplace: The Social Use and Meaning of the Folk Dwelling in Southwestern North Carolina.
(Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1991)

Pamphlet

Landmark Association, The. The Landmark Association and Meyer Mortgage present a Christmas Tour of Historic
Homes, December 15, 2001. (Bowling Green, KY, 2001)

Previous documentation on file (NPS): Primary location of additional data:

preliminary determination of individual listing (36 CFR 67 has been State Historic Preservation Office
requested) Other State agency
previously listed in the National Register Federal agency
previously determined eligible by the National Register Local government
designated a National Historic Landmark University
recorded by Historic American Buildings Survey #____________ Other
recorded by Historic American Engineering Record # __________ Name of repository:

9
 recorded by Historic American Landscape Survey # ___________

Historic Resources Survey Number (if assigned): _____________________________________________________________________

10. Geographical Data

Acreage of Property
(Do not include previously listed resource acreage.)

UTM References
(Place additional UTM references on a continuation sheet.)

1 3
Zone Easting Northing Zone Easting Northing

2 4
Zone Easting Northing Zone Easting Northing

Verbal Boundary Description (Describe the boundaries of the property.)

The nominated saddlebag house has the traditional rear end with two doors and two windows facing Hawthorne Alley. A
newer fence runs from its edges to demarcate the larger property of the current owners, which sits to its north at the
corner of Hawthorne Alley and 11th Avenue at the aforementioned address. In between the two is the in-use work shed
that opens on both the alley and the yard ends. The saddlebag house, like this shed, is not fenced off from the alley. On
11th avenue, another fence parallels the avenue and demarcates the larger propertys yard from the next house to its
east. The fence continues backward to demarcate the yard from the properties behind that neighboring house on 11th
Ave.

Boundary Justification (Explain why the boundaries were selected.)

11. Form Prepared By

name/title Ajay Kalra

organization Western Kentucky University, Dept. of Folk Studies date 11/07//2016
street & number 1019 High Street telephone 270-792-9098
city or town Bowling Green state KY zip code 42101
e-mail kalraajay@hotmail.com

Additional Documentation
10
Submit the following items with the completed form:

Maps: A USGS map (7.5 or 15 minute series) indicating the property's location.

A Sketch map for historic districts and properties having large acreage or numerous resources. Key all
photographs to this map.

Continuation Sheets

Additional items: (Check with the SHPO or FPO for any additional items.)

Photographs:
Submit clear and descriptive photographs. The size of each image must be 1600x1200 pixels at 300 ppi (pixels per inch)
or larger. Key all photographs to the sketch map.

Name of Property: 727 East 11th Avenue (Walnut Street, ca. 1877, when the property was first sold)

City or Vicinity: Bowling Green

County: Warren State: Kentucky

Photographer: Ajay Kalra

Date Photographed: 10/28/2016

Description of Photograph(s) and number:

1 of 10.

The northern side of the saddlebag house, opening into the shared yard; the other building is a newer, in-use work shed
to its north along Hawthorne Alley.

11
Date Photographed: 10/28/2016

2 of 10.

The main house, a bungalow-inspired cottage built ca. 1897-98, and the work shed to its south separating it
from the nominated saddlebag house.

12
Date Photographed: 10/28/2016

3 of 10.

The front of the saddlebag house, opening into the shared yard.

13
Date Photographed: 10/28/2016

4 of 10.

The end of the saddlebag house opening to Hawthorne Alley.

14
Date Photographed: 10/28/2016

5 of 10.

The two doors on the Hawthorne Alley side.

15
Date Photographed: 10/28/2016

6 of 10.

The yard-side face of the house.

16
Date Photographed: 10/28/2016

7 of 10.

Partly exposed frame on the south wall.

17
Date Photographed: 10/28/2016

8 of 10.

Windows on the side (left) and back (right) walls on the room toward the south (toward 12 th Avenue).

18
Date Photographed: 10/28/2016

9 of 10.

Window on the rear wall and the closed rear (Hawthorne Alley side) door of the south side room

19
Date Photographed: 10/28/2016

10 of 10.

Brick chimney and rafters and wide planks of the gabled roof seen through a chink in the lower roof planks.

20
Property Owner:
(Complete this item at the request of the SHPO or FPO.)

name Sandy and John McAllister

street & number 727 East 11th Avenue telephone 270-303-2842
city or town Bowling Green state KY zip code 42101

21