Wednesday, June 25 at 9:30 a.m.

It’s your chance to spend a morning with one of the queens of Rochester …architecturally speaking, that is. Several of the city’s stately Queen Anne houses in the University Avenue/Strathallan Park neighborhood are the feature of this weekday Coffee Walk. This morning event will include a talk AND a walk, along with the traditional treats and coffee.

Admired for its picturesque grace, the Queen Anne architectural style became enormously popular in the 1870’s. To some, Queen Anne architects were considered deserters from the Gothic school and critics of the time were torn between admiration and dismay with some even going as far as to call it “a bastard style.”  However, the architects themselves reveled in the freedom this artistic style gave them. The Queen Anne style, with its many textures, materials and asymmetry, was exactly what the public wanted in the 1870’s. It was sensible and pretty, non-religious, un-aggressive, eclectic and middle class.

Our presenter and tour guide, Arlene Vanderlinde, is a former president of The Landmark Society, an interior designer, and the owner of Wright Design Associates. She specializes in historic preservation and adaptive-reuse projects. We’ll start the morning with her acclaimed slide talk “When More was More: Eclecticism and the American Interior, 1880 -1910,” liberally illustrated with historic house images, inside and out. After discovering the quirks of Queen Anne and enjoying our breakfast treats and coffee, we’ll head outside for the walking tour.