Pinney House, Sierra Madre (California, USA)

The beautiful Queen Anne-styled Pinney House, built in 1887, lies on the west side of Lima Street in the central-western quarters of Sierra Madre in Los Angeles County, southern California.

This elaborate beauty was designed and built by well-known brother architects Samuel and Joseph Cather Newsom on account of former Civil War surgeon Dr. Elbert Pinney intended as a railroad hotel to accommodate East Coasters that arrived in great numbers during the Los Angeles land boom.

Among others, it has served as filming location for classic films such as ‘Great Man’s Lady’ (1941), starring Barbara Stanwick, and ‘The Seven Little Foy’s’ (1955), featuring Bob Hope.

Guthrie Mansion, Tunnelton (Indiana)

The beautiful Italianate Guthrie Mansion, built in 1879, lies on Tunnelton Road on the east edge of the community of Tunnelton in southeast Lawrence County, southern Indiana.

It was raised by entepreuner Alfred Guthrie who made the most of the arrival of railway at Tunnelton and a fortune as he set up a general store that engaged the locals for miles around.

Nowadays, the mansion functions as a Bead & Breakfast (Guthrie Meadows BB).

Ora Pelton House, Elgin (Illinois, USA)

The beautiful Ora Pelton House, built in 1889, is a historic and the only Victorian residence that remains on South State Street in what used to be an affluent quarter along Fox River in Elgin, Kane County in northeast Illinois.

Also known as the Izzo-Pelton House, it was designed and built by architect Gilbert M. Turnbull on account of physician and surgeon Dr. Ora A. Pelton.

It displays a rectangular shape and counts three storeys while it blends elements of both Queen Anne and Stick-Eastlake (or sometimes called Stick Victorian) style.

Only two familes, the Peltons and the Izzos, have occupied the residence since it came into shape, reflected in the alternate name thereof.

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), Philadelphia

The Victorian beauty of Furness-Hewitt building houses the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) lying on North Broad Street, the east boundary of the neighbourhood of Logan Square, and Cherry Street (right) in the Center City, Philadelphia (Pennsylvania).

The institution, which doubles as a museum and private art school, was founded as early as 1805 by painter-cum-scientist Charles Willson Peale and sculptor William Rush among several artists and business leaders to shape the first and oldest of its kind across the US.

For that matter, the museum enjoys international stature and presents collections of 19th and 20th century American paintings, sculptures and works on paper as well as an archives of significance as regards the study of American art history, art training and museums.

Construction of the edifice got underway in 1871 to be completed and opened in 1876 with regard to the Centennial Exposition, the first official expo to be held in the US, for the celebration of a full century since the signing of the Declaration of Indepence in Philadelphia.

It was designed by American architects Frank Furness and George Hewitt, hence its name, and combines elements of Renaissance Revival, Gothic Revival and Second Empire styles among others.