File:Sievert-Taubman-Brace House, Buffalo, New York - 20211009.jpg

English: The Sievert-Taubman-Brace House, 203 Colvin Avenue, Buffalo, New York, October 2021. This remarkable structure was unveiled in November 1924 as a show house designed and built by contractor Fred Rievert (1884-1936), which the public was invited to gawk at through advertisements that described it as "a unique model of the most up-to-date architecture and building construction". That architecture could be specified as a minimalist take on the Spanish Colonial Revival that points the way forward toward the Modernism that would take the design world by storm in about a quarter-century's time. Witness the smooth-textured stucco façade (originally white, now repainted light gray), graceful arched windows (the triple window facing the front patio is interspersed by simplified Doric pilaster strips), and especially the oversized, club-shaped tails of the exposed rafters (dubbed vigas in the parlance of the style) on the shallow-pitched roof. The 1925 New York State census lists Sievert himself as living in the house with his family, but he must have sold it very quickly after that, as the city directory for the same year gives its resident as Samuel Taubman (1894-1974), owner of a large national chain of auto accessory stores that had just opened its newest location that year on Main Street downtown. Taubman's tenure at the address was short-lived as well; the next year saw the arrival of Lloyd H. Brace (1887-1933), the titular co-owner of Brace-McGuire & Co. (a dry cleaning firm) who lived in the house until his death of a sudden heart attack.