Description

STRATFORD-UPON-AVON

SP2054NW HIGH STREET
604-1/10/123 (West side)
25/10/51 No.26
Harvard House

GV I

House. C15; front, dated 1596, largely rebuilt after fire of
1595, when rear extended; C18 and C19 rear additions; restored
1905-9, for Marie Corelli and Everard Morris, and 1980s; being
extensively restored April 1991. Timber-frame with plaster
infill on rubble plinth; tile roof with rear brick stacks.
Right-angle plan.
2 storeys with attic; single-window range. 1st and 2nd storeys
are jettied on consoles; gable with enriched barge-boards.
Entrance to right has Tudor-headed wide-board studded door
with strap hinges and 6-pointed handle plate. 5-light wooden
ovolo-mullioned and transomed windows with leaded glazing;
that to ground floor with enriched sill, that to 1st floor is
consoled oriel, that to 2nd floor is bracketed oriel with
lean-to roof.
Timber-framing is enriched with a great variety of carved
decoration: ground floor has consoles with figures; 1st floor
has enriched timber-framing, bressumer and consoles,
fleurs-de-lys flank lettering: TR: AR: 1596 (Thomas and Ann
Rogers); 2nd floor similar, enriched bressumer, masks to
window brackets and some decorative framing over window. The
plaster panels were sunk and carved with various patterns in
1972. Stack has 2 shafts with triangular fillets. Narrow left
return has enriched rainwater gear.
Rear has 2-storey gabled wing with single-storey range and
2-storey cross-range; timber-frame with brick infill; 2-light
windows. Cross wing has segmental-headed entrance with heavy
frame to door and segmental-headed entry with gate; later
entrance and window; rear has some square framing.
INTERIOR: rubble cellar with winding stair and C20 joists on
girder. Ground floor, much altered, has exposed beams, mid C17
dogleg stair with square newels, moulded balusters and
handrail. 1st floor has front room with late C16 panelling
with fluted frieze, 6-panel door; fireplace has elliptical
brick arch and plaster overmantel with 3 shields, in scrolly
frame, with fleur-de-lys, lion rampant reversed and rose (cf
work in No.6 Wood St (qv) and Packwood House); chamfered beam
and stop-chamfered joists. Room behind has doorway with
slightly ogee head and 2 rear doorways with 4-centred heads;
panel of ex-situ stained glass quarries with flowers.
2nd-floor front room has some square panelling and plastered
wall with remains of red-lined pattern imitating panelling;
fireplace and renewed roof truss; wide-board door; 3 gabled
valley dormers to left return.
HISTORICAL NOTE: formerly the home of Catherine Rogers, mother
of John Harvard, the founder of Harvard University USA. It was
restored by the novelist Marie Corelli, the work financed by
Everard Morris of Chicago, and presented to Harvard University
for use by students and visiting Americans.
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Warwickshire: Harmondsworth:
1966-: 418; Bearman R: Stratford-upon-Avon: A History of its
Streets and Buildings: Nelson: 1988-: 39-40; VCH (offprint):
Styles P: The Borough of Stratford-upon-Avon and the Parish of
Alveston: London: 1946-: 10; Forrest H E: The Old Houses of
Stratford-upon-Avon: London: 1925-: 73-5).

Listing NGR: SP2011354880

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Harvard House at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q3128014

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability