Edgar Allan Poe’s friend and fellow poet John Lofland lived at the Towers, which was once the Milford home of Lofland’s stepfather, Dr. John Wallace. Lofland was an opium addict and Poe an alcoholic, but in their wildest hallucinations neither could have dreamed up a house like the Towers, a steamboat Gothic palace adorned with 10 varieties of gin-gerbread painted in 12 colors. Here flamboyant Victoriana radiates from the cherry, mahogany, and walnut finishings. Inside, the music room has a coffered sycamore ceiling and an 1899 Knabe grand piano. You’re likely to find a record—perhaps Gene Autry’s rendition of”Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”— spinning on the Victrola. The parlor is decorated with French antiques, and the dining room provides views of the gazebo, pool deck, and rose garden in back.
The warm but unobtrusive custodians of this 200-year-old marvel (it’s on the National Register ofHistoric Places) are Rhonda and Daniel Bond, who bought it in January 1992 and now live on the premises in the old servants’ quarters. They couldn’t resist the ubiquitous stained glass, the carved garlands on the fireplaces, and the gold leaf peeking from behind the plywood walls. Rhonda can tell you about the Italian architect commissioned in the 1890s to transform the structure into the Victorian extravaganza you see today; it is said that between $30,000 and $40,000 was spent on that renovation.
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