Emlenton
Franklin
Oil City
Tionesta
Titusville
Pleasantville
Meadville
Tidioute
Endeavor
Warren
Sheffield
Bradford
Smethport
Ridgway

Styles

Adam
Greek Revival
Classical Revival
Gothic Revival
Italianate
Second Empire
Stick
Queen Anne
Shingle
Colonial Revival
Neoclassical
Tudor
English Cottage

SECOND EMPIRE

Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte and generally referred to as Napoleon III, declared himself Emperor of France in 1852.  The French allowed him to have his way until 1870 when Louis made the mistake of going to war with Prussia...and losing.  The period 1852 - 1870 in France was called the French Second Empire by the Europeans of the time.  During this period, a grand architectural scheme was developed to emphasize the linear, horizontal character of the Parisian streetscapes.   Much of old Paris was demolished, and rows of new apartment buildings were constructed along the city’s long, straight streets.  The apartments continued the French architectural tradition of restrained classical designs and were almost always topped with a mansard style roof, a roof form common in Paris since the 1700's.  The uniformity of height and decorative detail of these new apartment buildings was striking.

 The apartments built in Paris during the Second Empire were considered by some, however, to be too plain, too dull and woefully lacking in individuality.  The “new rich” and Parisians who had achieved influence by association with the new political regime were inclined to flaunt their recently acquired wealth and power by constructing free-standing mansions, the French called them “hotels”, which were lavishly decorated.  While maintaining the general horizontal massing and mansard roof forms of the Parisian apartments, the new hotel details were more baroque than classical, nonconforming and visually outstanding.  Manyolder Parisians thought these flamboyant hotels  to be in poor taste.  Nonetheless, it was these Parisian mansions that caught the eye of both the wealthy English and Americans of the time. 

Samuel Dale was the son of an old and prominent Pennsylvania family from Lancaster.  In Franklin, Dale developed interests in iron works and grist mills along French Creek and established a stagecoach line between Pittsburgh and Erie.  In 1874 he built a fine Second Empire residence at 1409 Elk Street.

This home consists of a very regular, rectangular mass with a two-story bay facing east to capture the morning sun.  The attic dormers are surrounded with highly decorative baroque hoods; paired windows on the second and first floor repeat the elaborate hood design.  Paired brackets and modillions give decorative support to the building’s cornice.  A centered entrance is defined by a prominent elliptical hood.  The full width veranda with its squared posts is original, emphasizes the horizontal nature of the building and is  representative of the style.  Mr. Dale lived in this house just two years before passing away at the age of sixty-one.