Laurel Hall is a large, two and 1/2 story, wood-framed Queen Anne style house with Eastlake and Stick Style influence. The building has a complex gable and hipped roof covered in cedar shingles with the exterior wall covered in clapboards. The house's plan is accentuated by a three-story tower centrally located on the front facade. A broad porch extend across the front facade detailed with decorative brackets, railing and porch roof. The south elevation extends beyond the main mass of the house, forming a kitchen wing. Projecting from the middle of the northern facade is a wing whose eastern wall becomes the meeting point for the porch floor to form a deck. The house retains much of its original fabric except for interior repairs to correct water damage and its current exterior color scheme.
Laurel Hall, originally the summer residence of John P. Bowman, was built so that he could be near to the family mausoleum he had erected in 1881 for his deceased wife and children. The house overlooks the Laurel Glen Cemetery, where the Bowman Mausoleum is sited, and a conservatory that was constructed on the grounds of the cemetery.
The Queen Anne and Stick/Eastlake style of the large summer house is characterized by an asymmetrical plan with numerous projections including the tower, porch, a variety of surface textures, and complex roof pitches. The wood-framed and mostly clapboarded main block rises two and one-half stories from the marble-faced foundation to a hipped roof sheathed in cedar shingles. The original wooden ridge cresting was removed at the time of the most recent roofing. Wooden panels with diagonal wood trim encircle the house between the first and second stories.
A molded wood cornice follows the eaves line of the main roof, continuing across the various wall projection. A frieze panel with carved laurel boughs surrounds the house. The laurel boughs are painted in green to accent the white finish of the house. The laurel bough carving appears over all windows and door openings. On the mullion of the large paired windows, a laurel bough is present also. Dormer gables of various sizes project from the roofs which carry four brick chimneys with crown molding caps and architrave on the shafts.
The main (east) facade of the house possesses a complex array of elements. The dominant feature is centrally located; a three story square tower that projects from the main body of the house, culminating in a high pyramidal-peaked roof above a small shed roof protecting the balcony on the front of the third story. On the center of the tower roof is a false gable with a large carved representation of a laurel bough painted green. The apex of the gable is topped by a small wooden finial, with a larger finial on the apex of the tower. There is a frieze on the tower with small diagonally crossed wood strips painted red.
Centered below the shed roof, supported by posts with decorative brackets carved with laurel boughs, are casement doors with large panes of clear glass bordered on the top and bottom panels of small colored glass panes, a variation of the Queen Anne window. Above the doors is the repeating laurel bough motif in carved wood painted green. A small carved bough is also on the casing between the doors. A low rail and balustrade surround the balcony.
The style of doors and decorative carving is repeated on the second story balcony where the floor of the third story balcony forms the roof for this area and is supported by brackets from the body of the tower. The floor of this small balcony is surrounded by a low balcony rail and balustrade resting on the roof of the main porch below.
The porch roof shelters the front facade. The base of the tower forms the vestibule for the large front doors. Upon entering the vestibule, the formal front door is set flush with the facade of the main building. The porch has a skirt consisting of round cut-outs, oblique openings and a full complement of elements: balustrade, posts, and valance, the latter and the cornice being supported by diagonal brackets with a cut-out design. The porch posts have the recurring laurel bough motif at the top of the post shaft. The porch balustrade is of ornamental panels in Eastlake design. A set of six steps with a simple rail on each side projects from the center of the porch to meet the driveway that gently curves in front of the house. The wood plank porch floor continues to the north of the building and wraps around to meet the projecting wing on the north elevation.
The southern facade of the main block has a central gable with two small false gables set on either side on the hipped roof. The windows on this facade are different on each story. The windows on the second floor are one-over-one window to the east and a paired set of one-over-ones to the west. On the first floor, a set of larger paired one-over-one windows are under the single window and two large single
one-over-one windows are set on either side of the position of the single second floor window. The facade then indents to form the pantry and kitchen wing area of the house. The kitchen wing is three-by-two bay with one-over-one windows on both the first and second floors. The kitchen entrance is reached by a set of wooden steps that are attached to the house on one side with a simple wooden hand rail on the other. The kitchen door is wood with a two-over-two glass insert.
Access to the basement is gained by an entrance on the west facade of the kitchen wing. A concrete stairwell below grade leads down from ground level to a basement door.
The only window on the western facade of the north wing is where the large multi-paned Queen Anne style window is positioned to provide light for the wide interior staircase that rises from the first to the second floor.
The western edge of the northern elevation is slightly recessed from the main facade of the northern wing, and this thin portion of wall provides room for another multi-colored window, providing light for the interior staircase.
The projecting north wing is capped by a jerkinhead gable. It is a single bay with paired one-over-one windows on the first and second floors and a small attic window below the roof line. The east facade of the north wing is also a single bay with one, one-over-one window on the second floor and a set of large casement doors on the first floor that open onto the porch. The north facade then recesses to meet the front massing of the house. On the east section of the north elevation there is one, one-over-one window on both the first and second floors.
The estate grounds, 1882
An unpaved, half-oval driveway with entrances northwest and southeast of the house curves in toward the front of the house from the road. At one time the driveway split and circled the house. Although mostly grass-covered now, its path around the back can still be clearly seen. Lining the road are eight marble fenceposts, one on each side of each driveway entrance, one on each end of the estate, and two opposite the front steps of the house. Each has a plinth, dado, and cornice, with a recessed panel in the dado. A low fence with a repeating geometric pattern once ran between the posts, and urns once sat on the posts. The fence and urns no longer exist. There is a cast iron fountain topped by a classical female figure to the southeast of the house. Its octagonal pool, with urns on each corner, is terraced above the level of the surrounding yard. Behind the estate the hill slopes into the river plain. A fieldstone retaining wall runs from behind the house around to its northwest side.
Icehouse, 1882
A wooden icehouse stands at the base of the wall behind the house. Wooden ventilators with gabled tops rise above the ridge of the wood shingle gable roof at the front and rear. The only opening is a door in the front gable end. Traces of red, yellow, and green paint cling to the door and clapboards on this end. The icehouse has tilted forward and pinned the door against the stone wall.