A period revival cluster

Plenty of period revival homes grace the north shore. Yet a sadly large proportion of them draw on Classical influences, a sad reflection of America's adolescent growing pains, in which the far more interesting (in your humble narrator's opinion, at least) Gothic and associated styles were passed over in favor of dime-a-dozen, staid, stolid, snoozy Greek influences.

For that reason, this batch of period revivals along Tower Road stands out in particular.



The centerpiece is this brightly colorful, cheery home, of striking gables.





It is surrounded by a trio of homes in a comparatively rare style, which doesn't seem to go by any one name. It's not truly Tudor Revival; "English Medieval Cottage" is more a description than a name. "Cotswold Cottage" includes some houses with that same sort of wavy, curvy-cornered, crazy simulated-thatched roof, but it doesn't seem to be requisite to the style, whereas I would call it the defining element of these homes. "English cottage" or "Medieval Revival" might be as close as you get. One expects to see Hobbits coming out of their charming confines.

Edit: After some further research, these three are Storybook Style houses. Unsurprisingly, given their charm, there's a whole web site and even a book devoted to Storybook architecture. The author, right up front, shares my assertion that there should be Hobbits on the premises.





Whatever they're called, they're fantastic, a treat for the eye.



These three also have a cousin a few miles south, in Evanston.