Bishop's Palace Has Creatures Carved into Its Stone

Bishop's Palace rewards a slow look. Its stonework shows plants, animals, people, and made-up creatures. Iron porches sit below a busy roof. The style is called Chateausque, a grand Victorian design at 1402 Broadway.

Nicholas Clayton designed the house for Walter and Josephine Gresham and their nine children. Builders worked from 1886 to 1893. Inside, carved wood, stained glass, painted ceilings, and plaster details carried the craft into the family rooms.

When the 1900 storm hit, the house survived virtually unscathed. In 1923, the Catholic Diocese bought it and turned one room into a chapel with stained-glass windows.

The house is part of the East End Historic District. Greek Revival and Late Victorian homes stand along Broadway and Market. The district's listed periods run from 1825 through 1924. In one house, the neighborhood's chapters pile up: Gresham family life, Clayton's design, a major storm, and later years as church property.