Victorian on Main Street- Hollister, California

The article in the Morgan Hill Times begins this way:  "When Steve P bought the crumbling Victorian house on

Sixth Street, he may have gotten a little more than he bargained for."  The story goes on to talk about the discoveries

of Victorian era collages inside the walls.  The house was built in 1893 by A.H. Coy, but by 2006 it had been converted into

apartments and painted all white.  I saw great hidden potential in this lovely Victorian with all its great exterior gingerbread woodwork.

Being on a commercial street this is a highly visible building.  The owner had leased it to a Day Spa and wanted

it to look "Classy, with a little fun." He understood that it had great architectural features and wanted those to

show through to customers as well as those who drive by on the busy street.  The house needed a strong color

scheme that allowed it to compete with other, more modern, and colorful structures on the street. Note the large

diamond design on the building side below.

A gray-green two-colored body was selected and a period red/brown trim was employed to outline the building

and provides a strong, colorful contrast.  A combination of white, gray-yellow, and red accents were used to highlight

the many great woodwork features. 

The property also had an outbuilding located in front that touched the sidewalk.  It was an old law office from the

second owner, Ambrose Cunning, a former Supreme court justice from Indiana.  The owner wanted this building

to stand on its own, but tie back visually to the main house.  I employed the same color scheme as the house with

inverted placement that provided the coordination yet let the building stand on its own visually.

Copyright 2002 - 2008: Robert Schweitzer. December 19, 2007