American Villa

Cadw's description

Location

At west side of Ammanford Road, between the Afon Marlais and Rawling Road

History

One of two houses built in 1897 to a design brought back from Pennsylvania. Built by a local carpenter, Thomas Davies, who had lived and worked since the late 1870s in the USA. They have since remained in the occupation of his family and descendants.
Such examples of modern house-carpentry are very rare before the Great War created the need for innovative constructional experiment.

Exterior

A 'balloon-frame' timber house of slightly different design to No. 39. Two storeys and an attic. Gable facing the street, and three bay return elevations; central advanced full-height gable on north side corresponding to a flush gable on the south side. Veranda in the north-east angle forming a porch at the street front serving the main doorway. Clap-boarded walls, slate roofs with tile ridges, brick chimneys; gutters formed with wooden troughs above the roof boarding. Veranda with turned timber posts and curved brackets. Timber bargeboards. In places the house is supported on dwarf brick piers.
Sash windows of two pairs, singly at the sides and in pairs in the gables, without glazing bars. Semi-glazed doors with margin panes. An almost plain design, apart from a slight decorative notching to the underside of the cladding boards within the gables.

Reason for designation

Listed as a very unusual instance of the introduction of a foreign constructional technique, American in construction and design character.