Furlow House was built in 1898 as a single-family residence on Durango's then-burgeoning Fourth Avenue. At that time, the town was only 19 years old - a young but strapping little mining and railroad community in the remote American West - and there were still many gaps in its development. The decades to follow would line both sides of the avenue with trees, more churches of diverse denominations, the small frame houses of miners and laborers and the fanciful dwellings of some of Durango's most prominent pioneers.

The construction of great swaths of Fourth Avenue coincided with a national burst of enthusiasm for the Queen Anne style of Victorian architecture, which had been popularized by architectural pattern books. Queen Anne houses are characterized by vertical lines with steep gables and angles to catch the light. The emphasis is on picturesque ornamentation through a variety of shapes, patterns and building materials, including stone, brick, wood, stucco, tile, shingles and stained glass.

Like many of its neighbors, Furlow House was built in the Queen Anne style. It is a two-story brick, stone, and glass house, with a hipped roof, intersecting gables and overhanging eaves. The gable ends are decorated with variegated shingles and dentils. The house's arched windows have brick relief on the side elevations as well as thick stone sills. Between 1919 and 1931, the porch was enlarged and enclosed - one of the few minor alterations done to the house.

Furlow House's original owner is unknown. Its builder, too, is a mystery. It's likely that capable immigrant masons working under a master mason built the house and no doubt worked on other houses in the area. Look closely and you may see construction details of Furlow House in the styles and sills of adjacent houses.