Stop 29 — Torrance House

Address: 424 North Poplar Street Year built: 1906 (framing suggests earlier) Style: Queen Anne with Italianate overtones

The Torrance House at 424 North Poplar is listed as 1906 Queen Anne. Per Friends of Fourth Ward, the house was originally bought by Capt. Richard Torrance, was a ten-unit rooming house during World War II, and was restored to a single-family residence in the 1970s.

Interesting detail: during the restoration, some framing was discovered to be pegged rather than nailed together, suggesting the house is substantially older than its 1906 listed date. Pegged-mortise-and-tenon framing is a pre-industrial construction method that was largely superseded by nailed balloon framing in the mid-to-late 19th century. That detail, if borne out, would place parts of the Torrance House structure earlier than most of its Fourth Ward neighbors.

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Source: Friends of Fourth Ward, Self-Walking Tour (2016). Retrieved April 24, 2026.