File:Charles Day Swan House, Buffalo, New York - 20210702.jpg

English: The Charles Day Swan House, 319 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York, July 2021. Though the design serves ably as an example of the hybridization of the Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles that was very popular in upper-class residential architecture at the time of its construction (1894), nods to the architect's favored Shingle style pop up frequently, most notably in the roof with its enormous gables and shingle siding. Particularly remarkable is the five-part window in the projecting front gable, each segment of which is topped with a recessed round arch in a shell motif and the whole of which is crowned by an unusual louvered roundel. Modillion bracketing is a prominent recurring motif as well, undergirding the projecting third story, crowning some of the bay windows on the side elevations, and lining the flat roof atop the semicircular projection on the front porch. Charles Day Swan (1855-1914) was an architect who designed the house as his own residence, a function it would serve until 1898. Born in Buffalo, Swan started out in the field as a draftsman for and protégé of Richard A. Waite before striking out in 1881, first on his own and then in partnership with John F. Falkner. Shortly after moving into this house, Swan's 7-year-old daughter Ethel died; her obituary in the Buffalo Morning Express dated December 8, 1893 noted that "owing to the incomplete condition of the family residence, the funeral [would] be private".