Former St. Francis Xavier Academy – Xavier Hall // 1894

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

The Sisters of Mercy was established in 1831 by Mary Francis Xavier Warde, who was born in Ireland and was orphaned in her teens. At sixteen, she moved to Dublin and met Catherine McAuley, a social service worker who established the Sisters of Mercy in 1831 to provide for the education and social needs of poor children, orphans, the sick, and homeless young women. The organization flourished in Ireland before Sister Warde migrated to Pittsburgh in 1843, opening a convent there. Her educational work on behalf of the Irish immigrants in that city prompted Irish-born Bishop Bernard O’Reilly to invite the Sisters of Mercy to Providence in 1851. They started teaching Sunday school and provided food to the poor and took over the school at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul. Also in 1851, the sisters opened the first Catholic orphanage in Rhode Island, the second in New England and St. Xavier’s Academy, a boarding and day school combined. The original 1856 building (extant) on Claverick Street was added onto in 1865 with a mansard wing. Before the turn of the 20th century, it was decided that a more substantial structure be built for the academy. The Providence firm of Martin & Hall architects, was selected to design this building, an E-shaped structure that includes the two earlier wings with a new Neo-Gothic/Tudor Revival style facade on Broad Street. The 1894 school building and attached chapel operated here until it ultimately closed in the 1970s. Since then, the building has been purchased by Johnson & Wales University and operates as a residence hall named after its history, Xavier Hall.

Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral Rectory // c.1878

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

Built around the time of its neighbor, the Cathedral of Saints Peter & Paul in Downtown Providence, this handsome brick masonry building with mansard roof was constructed as the rectory for the larger cathedral next door. Like the corresponding cathedral, this rectory was likely the work of premier ecclesiastical architect, Patrick C. Keely, who designed the structure in the Victorian/Ruskinian Gothic style with polychromatic stone voussoirs, a brownstone Romanesque style arched entry with floral capitals, and a mansard roof with bracketed cornice. Since its construction around 1878, the building has been added onto and connected to the Cathedral, but still retains its architectural significance. The building is home to the Diocese of Providence offices, a library, and remains the rector’s residence.

Cathedral of Saints Peter & Paul, Providence // 1878

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

The Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul rises in Providence’s Cathedral Square, a sub-region of the city’s Downtown that was largely reshaped in the mid-late 20th century period of Urban Renewal. The monumental Romanesque style church is the mother church of the Diocese of Providence and was built on the site of the city’s first Roman Catholic parish, established in 1838. Designed by the prolific church architect Patrick Keely, the Providence cathedral broke ground in 1878 and was consecrated over a decade later in 1889. For this commission the blending of Romanesque and Gothic Revival detailing was likely inspired by both H. H. Richardson’s newly completed Trinity Church in Boston and on German and French medieval precedents. The structure is dominated by the two crenelated towers and displays strength with its bold proportions and use of reddish-brown stone. Inside, the cathedral is even more remarkable than its imposing exterior, distinguished by an overall multicolored, small-scale pattern of gray marble moldings and stained glass, complemented by a large Casavant organ with more than 6,600 pipes. Today, the miraculous cathedral is somewhat diminished in beauty due to the surrounding dead plaza, a scar on the built environment in Providence from Urban Renewal. In the 1960s and 70s, the entire western edge of Downtown had been slotted for redevelopment at a time when federal dollars funded mass demolition and rebuilding across American cities. The plan was designed by Modernist architect, I.M. Pei, who had envisioned a European-inspired courtyard, with a mix of residential and retail uses surrounding the church in the new development. Pei worked with the modernist landscape architects Zion and Breen on Cathedral Square, which was called a “conspicuous failure” within just a few years, a sentiment that has lasted a half-century since. The city has more recently pursued redesign proposals aimed at reconnecting Cathedral Square with the surrounding neighborhood, with the Cathedral of Saints Peter & Paul as the centerpiece.

Stone Estate and Gate Lodges // 1910

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

Jutting into Buzzards Bay in Marion, Massachusetts, Great Hill is significant not only as the highest point in town but it is also home to one of the grandest estates in New England. Before the present mansion and various outbuildings were constructed here in the early 20th century, the property was home to Marion House, a sprawling 1860s resort hotel that drew hundreds of summer guests every year. In the early 1900s, Boston financier and Hayden, Stone & Co. co-founder, Galen L. Stone (1862-1926) bought the entire 312-acre peninsula and had the old hotel torn down. In its place, Stone commissioned this massive Tudor-style stone mansion with a central Great Hall built from stone quarried in Pennsylvania and shaped on-site by dozens of stonecutters. The estate was designed by architect, Horace Frazer of the firm, Chapman & Frazer, and it takes strong design elements from the country estates in the English countryside. Inside, the spaces are finished largely in oak with the grounds dotted with formal gardens, greenhouses, by landscape architects, Shurcliff & Shurcliff. The castle-like Main House, was greatly reduced from its original size in the 1950s to make the residence more manageable for later descendants, but even over one hundred years later, it remains one of the most impressive English Revival country houses in the United States, and the property’s grounds are open on weekdays for walking and cycling on paved roads.

“Fair Oaks” // 1903

Buildings of New England2 Comments

One of the many grand Summer estates on the coast of Sippican Harbor in Marion, Massachusetts, is this mansion known as “Fair Oaks”. The residence was built in 1903 in the Tudor Revival style for Otis A. Shepard a wealthy lumber dealer in Boston. Given Shepard’s line of work he not surprisingly called his summer estate “Fair Oaks”, and his house’s building materials were undoubtedly supplied by his company. For his summer estate, Shepard hired Boston architect, Charles Allerton Coolidge, who spent summers at his own cottage nearby and designed many historic homes in Marion for other summer residents. A number of years later, the property was purchased by Elizabeth F. Clark and her husband Edward A. Clark (1868-1922), a stock broker in Boston. Exterior and interior images of the house during Clark’s ownership appeared in architectural publications in 1919, highlighting the architecture and interior design.

Nickerson Cottage // 1885

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

Augustus Nickerson (1860-1928) was a Boston-based accountant and avid cyclist of the Boston Bicycle Club and secretary of the League of American Wheelmen. Nickerson seemingly built this home in Marion around 1885 as a summertime retreat from the stresses of city living, but rented it to other Boston families for supplemental income. The property was sold in 1905 to Martha and Matthew Buckman (1832-1910), President of the University of Vermont 39 years from 1871 to 1910, overseeing dramatic growth for the University, which was one of the first eastern schools to admit women. This Marion home was his summer retreat while classes were out. While the architect is not currently known, it is clearly the work of a well-educated architect of the time, and likely the work of either William Gibbons Preston or Charles Allerton Coolidge, two Boston-based architects who summered in Marion and designed many Shingle style homes there. The home exhibits strong horizontal massing with an elongated sloped roof and is covered with weathered wood shingle sheathing, characteristic of the Shingle Style.

President Grover Cleveland Summer Home // c.1886

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

The H. R. Reed House (also known as the President Grover Cleveland Summer Home) is located on the iconic Water Street in Marion, Massachusetts, and is one of the town’s finest Shingle-style summer cottages. The shingled “cottage” was built in 1886 to a design by architect James T. Kelley, reportedly incorporating an earlier 1840s structure that Reed previously had enlarged years prior. Henry R. Reed was an agent for the Revere Sugar Refinery in Boston and was well-connected locally. He hosted President Grover Cleveland at the cottage during summer visits, earning the home its enduring nickname as Cleveland’s Marion “summer White House,” with the president renting the property for the 1890 and 1891 seasons, between his two terms as President. President Cleveland and his wife, Frances, apparently loved summering in Marion so much, that they named their third child Marion. Architecturally, the house presents a two-story, shingle-clad form beneath a gambrel roof, fronted by a broad porch on columns and with three gambrel dormers at the roof. Behind the house, a Shingle style carriage house remains and to the side, a pool is enclosed by a shingled wall. Reed, who died in 1905, did not long enjoy his Marion property, but his widow and daughters continued to spend their summers there until the mid-20th century. Since then, the property has sold a few times and current owners are undertaking a large renovation to this significant residence, which has been individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Leonard-Mitton Estate // c.1900

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

One of the grandest homes overlooking Hammetts Cove and Sippican Harbor in Marion, Massachusetts, the Leonard-Mitton Estate showcases the status of the coastal community as a premier summer colony for wealthy Boston families going back over 100 years. The estate was built around 1900 for Charles Webster Leonard (1844-1941) of Boston and later New York, who without formal education, became the owner of a number of mills and quarries throughout New England and was a director of several local banks and businesses. A renowned horseman, he owned a breeding farm in Lexington, Kentucky and a trotting track in Readville. He was married to Emelyn Thatcher Welch in Paris and together, they built and owned this house until 1916. The residence is a sprawling Colonial Revival style mansion clad in stucco and capped with a gambrel roof. Its form comprises of a 2 1/2-story main block with two-story wings extending at 30-degree angles from the sides to provide better views of the harbor. By 1916, the summer residence was sold to George W. Mitton (1869-1947), the eldest son of Edward J. Mitton and Sarah Wade, the second generation of a family of merchants who operated the Jordan Marsh department store in Boston. Starting as a stock boy, George Mitton eventually became president of the company. He was trained in the business by his father, Edward J. Mitton, the Jordan Marsh president, and Eben D. Jordan, the company’s founder. George Mitton was credited with growing the company into New England’s largest department store and introducing innovations such as executive training programs and employee benefits. George Mitton and his wife, spent summers at their Marion “cottage” until George’s death, but the property remained under the ownership of the family until the 1970s. The expansive waterfront property was recently renovated and sold, preserving this grand estate for another century. 

Hamlin-Spalding Cottage // c.1898

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

This historic summer cottage on Water Street represents one of the more sophisticated examples of the Shingle Style in Marion, Massachusetts, and is evocative of the type of houses built for the wealthy in the late 19th and early 20th century as their summer retreats. The “cottage” was built around 1898 as a summer residence for George Peabody Hamlin (1867-1935) and wife, Mary Farnsworth Tappan, of Boston. George P. Hamlin was a successful coal merchant who’s family business became part of the Metropolitan Coal Company in the late 1890s. George P. Hamlin was treasurer of the company until his retirement in 1927, when he turned to commercial real estate and worked in that field until his death. It is likely that for his summer residence, Hamlin hired Boston architect and Marion summer resident, William Gibbons Preston, who also designed a house for George’s brother further up Water Street. After Hamlin’s death in the 1930s, the Marion cottage was purchased by Ms. Katherine Hobart Ames Spalding (1874-1949), the daughter of Oakes Angier Ames (1829-1899) and granddaughter of Oakes Ames (1804-1873), a Massachusetts Congressman and leading figure in the development of the Transcontinental Railroad, who was one of the wealthiest men in America. Katherine Ames married Philip Leffingwell Spalding (1871-1938), President of the New England Telephone & Telegraph Company. The shingled cottage with its rubblestone base, remains one of the best-preserved in Marion and a landmark of the style. 

Point Rock Cottage // c.1894

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

One of the many beautiful late 19th century shingled “cottages” overlooking Sippican Harbor in Marion, Massachusetts, Point Rock Cottage stands out not only for its siting on the waterfront, but also for its preservation. As any good summer cottage must have a name, Point Rock Cottage derives its name from its location overlooking the rocky coast and Sippican Harbor on the tip of the village. The Shingle style cottage was built for David W. Lewis (1833-1915) of Boston, who purchased the land in 1893 and had the house built soon after. Lewis began his career in the retail shoe business in Vermont until he enlisted in the Union Army in 1862, serving in the 9th Vermont Volunteer Regiment. Lewis rose to the rank of major and saw action in several major campaigns of the war. After the war, David Lewis married Elizabeth T. Willett and they moved to Hyde Park in Boston where he shifted professions and became a dealer in building materials, which he saw immediate success as many Boston areas saw development in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The architect is not presently known, but it is probable that the cottage was designed by William Gibbons Preston or Charles Allerton Coolidge, both Boston architects who designed many of Marion’s summer homes and both of whom summered in Marion themselves. Architecturally, the residence is a blending of Shingle and Arts and Crafts styles with the low-pitched roof and continuous shingled cottage encircled by a one-story integrated porch supported by wood shingle clad rectangular posts with a Chinese-fret work railing.

Rev. John C. Brooks Cottage // c.1891

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

One of the finest cottages in the coastal community of Marion, Massachusetts, is found tucked away behind the larger Shingled mansions overlooking the harbor; and while smaller in stature, it packs an architectural punch! This is the Rev. John C. Brooks cottage, constructed c.1891 as a blend of Shingle and the emerging Arts & Crafts styles in a bungalow form. The cottage, designed by Boston architect and summer resident of Marion, William Gibbons Preston,  was built as a summer residence for Revered John Cotton Brooks (1849-1907) who descended on his father’s side from the New England Puritan clergymen, John Cotton and Cotton Mather. Like many in his family, Rev. John C. Brooks joined the ministry in the Episcopal Church and was the rector of Christ Church in Springfield from 1878 until his death in 1907. He was also the younger brother of famed preacher and theologian, Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), rector of Trinity Church Boston, Episcopal bishop of Massachusetts, and a frequent visitor to Marion, which likely inspired him to build his own summer residence here. John Brooks was additionally a colleague of Reverend Percy Browne, for whom their friend and Trinity Church architect, Henry Hobson Richardson, designed the first Shingle Style house in Marion. After Reverend Brooks died in Paris in 1907, the family sold the property to David Rice (1856-1932), the brother of noted Boston architect Arthur W. Rice, who too summered in Marion at this cottage. While somewhat altered, the cottage stands out architecturally for its varied shingle types, an integrated porch spanning the façade supported by paired square posts and a shingled knee wall, and paired gable dormers linked by a blind shed-roofed dormer which is faced with a panel with applied rectangular fretwork. 

Sippican Tennis Club // 1908

Buildings of New England3 Comments

The Sippican Tennis Club in Marion, Massachusetts, was established in 1908 for the purpose of athletic exercise and a place for social gatherings in town. Historically, the town’s population surged in the summer months when wealthy city residents would flock here and stay in their waterfront mansions for a few months of the year. This large hipped roof rectangular building was constructed just before the club opened in 1908, and it is flanked by eight tennis courts. Boston architect (and Marion summer resident), Charles Allerton Coolidge, a principal in the well known firm, Shepley Rutan and Coolidge, was one of the original shareholders as well as the architect for the building. The building is constructed of concrete and features paired, tapered columns which run the perimeter of the structure, supporting a deep porch. The broad elliptical arch and exposed rafters add to the Craftsman style flair of the building.

Old Stone Studio // c.1820

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

One of the most significant buildings in the coastal town of Marion, Massachusetts, is this stone structure, which is said to have had its beginnings as a storage warehouse. Located on Spring Street north of the main village, this building was constructed as early as 1820 as a salt works storage facility, and is an extremely rare surviving storage facility associated with the early 19th century salt industry in town. While many storage facilities we know today are void of architecture and soul, this building looks like it was plucked from the French countryside, thanks to a late 19th century renovation by one of the most prestigious architects in the United States. The salt industry in Massachusetts began on Cape Cod during the Revolution. Salt was a vital necessity for the preservation and curing of fish and meat for sale in this country and overseas. According to local lore, the Old Stone Studio was originally “a place for the conversion of sea water into salt.” Around the Civil War, the building was being used for petroleum processing facility, where kerosene, which had supplanted whale oil as a fuel for home and street lamps, was made and stored. The old stone structure had fallen into disrepair by the 1880s, that was until New York magazine editor, Richard Watson Gilder bought and restored it as a studio for his wife, artist Helena de Kay Gilder. At this point, Marion had become a premier summer colony with large waterfront estates and recreational facilities built for the wealthy in Boston and New York to spend the warmer months. Gilder hired his friend, Stanford White of McKim, Mead & White, to update the warehouse into a studio, adding the multi-light windows, decorative ironwork, and interior details, including the massive stone fireplace with a nine-foot mantle. The fireplace provided a stunning backdrop for guests, including President Grover Cleveland and First Lady Frances Folsom Cleveland, who summered in town. Ms. Gilder even painted the First Lady in the studio, and hosted her on occasions. The Old Stone Studio is now a private residence with addition off the rear.

Browne-Hosmer Cottage // 1881

Buildings of New England2 Comments

This Shingle style home in Marion was designed for Reverend William Percy Browne (1838-1901), who was educated at Kenyon College in Ohio alongside John Cotton Brooks, the youngest brother of Phillips Brooks, who would become the Rector of Boston’s Trinity Church and briefly Bishop of Massachusetts. Brooks would hire H.H. Richardson to design Trinity Church in Boston in the early 1870s. From this connection and being members of the St. Botolph Club of Boston, Reverend William Percy Browne and H.H. Richardson began a working relationship designing Browne’s summer cottage in Marion. The legend is that at the club, Browne bet Richardson that he could not design a small house for $2,500. Browne lost. This modest house was completed in 1882 and represented an early, significant example of a Shingle style home in Massachusetts. Browne died in 1901 and the house was sold to Sidney Hosmer, a Boston electrical engineer. Under his ownership, the home was expanded and altered, likely from plans by Charles Allerton Coolidge, Boston architect who summered in Marion. The cottage was eventually purchased by Tabor Academy, who in 2019, pulled a demolition permit for the house. Architects and historians quickly rallied and advocated for the preservation of the cottage, saving it from the wrecking ball, for now. The cottage remains vacant and no definitive plans as of 2026 have been unveiled to sell the property or restore it.


Austin Cottage and Moon Gate // 1885

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

The Austin Cottage and Moon Gate on Water Street in Marion, Massachusetts, are iconic landmarks in the community that showcase the architectural history of this coastal community. The Queen Anne style “cottage” was designed by Boston architect and Marion summer resident, William Gibbons Preston, for Judge James Walker Austin (1829-1895) in 1885. Early in his professional career, James W. Austin left Boston for the Hawaiian Islands, where he was recruited by King Kamehameha as a legal advisor and went on to serve as district attorney. He was elected a member of the Hawaiian parliament three times and was later appointed as judge in the Hawaiian Supreme Court and eventually became chief justice there before moving back to Boston in the 1870s. Judge Austin and his family summered at this cottage, known as “Edgewater” until his death, but the property remained in the Austin Family with final ownership held by the couple’s daughter Edith Austin (1873-1957). According to local lore, the moon gate was built for Edith around 1922 as an entrance to her extensive gardens. Edith is said to have been inspired by photographs of moon gates shared by her friend June Butler, who had married Parker Converse, who also summered in Marion, following their honeymoon in China. Local stones were used to construct the circular gate and the elements on the cornice of the gate were obtained from China. In Chinese culture moon gates are thought to offer an auspicious welcome or fortune to those who pass through with the ducks that adorn the top apparently symbolizing wealth and marital bliss. The garden has since been subdivided from the Austin estate, which was damaged in the 1938 New England Hurricane but both remain preserved today.