A Glimpse of Grandness Under the Siding

A lot of crimes against humanity and beauty were committed fifty years ago or so when the aluminum siding came a-callin' along the streets of eastern Williamsburg. Homes along thoroughfares like Frost, Richardson, Withers and Humboldt are papered with the ugly stuff, masking what are probably fairly handsome, but humble, brick, brownstone and wooden homes. You just know you might be strolling down an attractive lane if it were not for some vile mid-century sales pitch by some itinerant tin man.



Some home owners, apparently, resisted the aesthetic onslaught a bit, even as they gave in. Take the odd specimen above, on Frost Street. The personality-fleecing siding is there, all right. And beige, to boot! But someone who didn't care about architectural beauty would have given up on that ornate central window, yanked it out, and replaced it with a new, pane-less, rectangular job. Instead, this citizen, however, made the siding men work around the lovely, arched window. The doors also look old. A little bit of 19th century peeking out from beneath the horror of the 20th.