We've always kinda had a thing for 514 Fitzwater St., one of the more unique structures in Queen Village. Perhaps you've noticed it in your travels around town, it's really pretty striking with its painted bricks, colorful cornice, and use of tile and ice cube windows on the first floor. Oh yeah, and it also has a clock tower, just in case your Delorean happens to need a charge.

Check it out

Lower floors

Clock tower

View from the west

We don't have a ton to share about the property, but did find some interesting tidbits by combing through the Zoning Archive. First of all, believe it or not, this place is actually a duplex. At some point in its history, a former owner chopped out a section of the building on Randolph Street and created a one bedroom/one bathroom unit. So there's that.

Here's the bigger bombshell. We always assumed that this building had some impressive history, perhaps originally being home to a bank. But that's totally not true! The clock tower was added to the building in 1985 (we are not making this up, Doc Brown), at the same time the owner legalized the duplex conversion. We'd like to think that we can guess what inspired the addition, but certainly couldn't tell you for sure what was in the heads of the owners at the time. Whatever the reason, it gives the building all kinds of character. As for the paint and tile job, we're pretty sure that happened after Y2K. An image from a listing in 1998, too low res for us to include, showed a cool building with a clock tower but lacked many of the other details that make the building what it is today.