What is this?

[Old house lady]

The house we're working on buying has a "feature" I haven't seen before - though after seeing it, I've noticed it on a few other buildings in the area.

It looks like concrete, at the peak over a window (several actually). Currently, it appears to have been spraypainted grey.

My initial thought was that something was over this in the past, which has either fallen off or been removed.

[Gothichome]

Old house lady, welcome to the District. It does look like a scab fix to me. Some one just knocked down some parging . It does look blown in though. Still, I highly bought it should be there. What should be there might be wood decorative shakes or a fancy panel in a Greek revival style. We have some sharp folks here who may no better. A picture of the house as a whole might help as frame of reference.

[Texas_Ranger]

To me it looks like a very coarse stucco finish that was common in some rural European styles. I've seen it used on various buildings ranging from early-20th century to ca. 1980. Not exactly my cup of tea but if it's there I tend to leave it. In case of an all-stucco building (such as the one I'm working on right now) it does add some interest to an otherwise flat wall.

[GibsonGM]

Wouldn't that look nice with some stamped tin there, maybe grape vines or something? Can we see the whole front?

[Old house lady]

Thank you all! Interesting ideas... Once its officially ours, there'll be lots of pictures - and soooooooooo many questions

[JacquieJet]

The entire exterior of my house looks like that (well, not spray painted, but the texture, I mean!)
We call it stucco, but in reality its more like cement that was sprayed on. It is the original finish on our home (1920's).
It's hard to say if that was the case with your home without seeing the whole exterior, but if it sticks out like a sore thumb and doesn't match the rest of the house, that may be a clue that it was done after the fact.

[1850Farmer]

It looks like a "pebbledash " plaster finish, popular in the 1920s.

[Casey]

It looks like a "pebbledash " plaster finish, popular in the 1920s.

Spot-on.
Casey

[Gothichome]

Pebble dash, eh! Had to look that up, it's a totally new name for me. In Calgary we have large areas with peddle dash, just not like what was pictured. All the pebble dash I have generally called stucco with stone. Calgary had a building boom shortly after the discovery of oil and soon became a big city so almost all the inner core and what would have been outer core in the teens all had it. Had a bit of a revival in the 60's.

[JacquieJet]

Never heard of pebbledash! I'll have to look that up as well! Thanks!