Walter Cary House

186 Delaware Avenue

owner: Walter Cary

years built: C. 1851

demolished: 1966
(Fire 1965)

In the building boom of the fifties the large mansions, like the commercial buildings, grew more complex and more richly decorated. Whether their inspiration was gothic, as in this case, or Renaissance, the delicate fantasy of the earlier romantic period as seen in the Lord house, gave way to heavier and more pompous effects. Even large mansions like this were often derived from the house pattern books. The French roof was added in the seventies.