English: The Pierce-Wheeler House, 65 Ashland Avenue, Buffalo, New York, January 2022. Built in 1889 to a design by the architectural firm of Marling & Burdett, the Pierce-Wheeler House is an object lesson in how the line between the simultaneously popular Queen Anne and Shingle styles of architecture can be subjective and blurry. There's certainly a heavy influence from the latter aesthetic, namely the heavy massing, enormous front gable, and the fishscale shingles that serve as exterior siding on various parts of the façade. But, ultimately, the deciding factor that places the home in the Queen Anne camp is the Classical detailing, which comes in the form of paired Tuscan columns supporting the recessed full-width front porch and the swag reliefs on the cornice band between the second and third floors. The house was built for Dr. Valentine Mott Pierce (1865-1942), a physician who at the time served as laboratory manager at the World's Dispensary, a manufacturer of mail-order patent medicines founded by his father, Dr. Ray Vaughn Pierce. Dr. Pierce moved out in 1894 but continued to own the property; he rented the home to Edmund S. Wheeler (1841-1915) from that year until 1902. An erstwhile resident of Niagara Falls and a sort of gadabout businessman with an eclectic range of interests, Wheeler was employed as president of the Niagara Junction Railroad during most of the time he spent living at 65 Ashland.