File:Gridley-Prentiss House, Buffalo, New York - 20220712.jpg

English: The Gridley-Prentiss House, 577 West Ferry Street, Buffalo, New York, July 2022. Aside from the atypicality of the roof design - hipped rather than gabled - this 1890 specimen is otherwise a classic example of the then-popular Shingle Style of architecture with its squat, bottom-heavy massing, rusticated stone foundation, prominent corner tower (in this case round and with a finial crowning its conical roof), understated entrance tucked in the back of a recessed terrace, and - of course - exterior walls clad in shingles. The pleasant landscaping in the front yard completes the countrified effect for which the style is known. According to advertisements offering the then-newly constructed house for sale, the house's interior was finished in exposed hardwood and it boasted a hot-water heating system. The house was built by and for Frederick D. Gridley (1855-1936) - a gadabout businessman who worked at various times as a banker, barrel factory owner, and staff accountant for the behemoth Larkin Company - but he only lived there for four years. Much longer-tenured at the address was Jerome Prentiss (1839-1921), a Civil War veteran-turned-grocery wholesaler who moved into the place in 1895 and stayed there till his death.