Jacob Lott Ludlow was born in Spring Lake, New Jersey in 1862. He moved to Winston-Salem in 1886 after visiting various sections of the country in order to find a place to open his new civil engineering practice. The Ludlow House was built in 1887 for his new bride Myra Margarette Hunt of Easton, Pennsylvania. The Ludlows had three daughters: Annie, Margarette and Louise.
From 1889 to 1892, Ludlow served as the first engineer for the township of Winston, a post which carried the salary of $1000 per year plus commissions. He later organized and directed the movement for the consolidation of Winston and Salem which occurred in 1913. Ludlow attained the rank of colonel during WWI. During his forty-year career, Ludlow gained a national reputation as a municipal, sanitary and hydraulic engineer who pioneered in efforts at achieving improved conveniences and more healthful living conditions. He died in 1930. His wife, Myra Margarette, died in 1938.
The Ludlow House is a late Victorian frame dwelling of Queen Anne style influence. The basic form of the house is a rectangular block with hipped and gabled roof, shallow rectangular bays on either side, and a small one-story ell at the rear. Original stained glass is a prominent feature of the house. Nearly all of the upper sashes are bordered by square and rectangular panes of multi-colored glass, while the lower sashes of the stairway windows are completely infilled with small squares of brightly colored glass. Even the semi-circular fanlight of the front entrance is of stained glass.
A particularly interesting feature of the house is its original heating system. It consisted of stoves set within the basement and front parlor fireplaces which fed heat by convection up the two chimneys and out through metal registers into each room. Metal flues from the stoves extended up through the chimney flues to exhaust the combustion gases. Steel plates above the second story registers prevented any of the warm air from escaping through the top of the chimney. Consequently, the house, unlike others of its age, does not have a fireplace in every room.
The house was originally lighted by gas fixtures and had no indoor plumbing. The kitchen, which was dominated by a large wood cook stove, was located in the basement. The location of the water well is still in evidence by the sink hole near the back of the house.
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