Colonial Revival

George House // 1929

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This Georgian Revival house on Butler Point in Marion, Massachusetts, was built in 1929 at the period of great transition of many coastal communities in New England between the Gilded Age and later summer cottage period of prosperity and the Great Depression.The “cottage” here was built for Jerome R. George (1867-1942), vice president and chief engineer of the Morgan Construction Company of Worcester and avid boater. A native of Ohio, he was a
noted designer of steel mills in the United States, Europe, and India and built this home, likely as their summer retreat.
The house is prominently sited and is one of the best examples of the Colonial Revival style I have seen in the seaside town. It is clad in cedar shingles as a nod to the vernacular coastal homes and larger Victorian-era summer homes seen in the village but resembles the 18th century Colonial homes with an elaborate pedimented entry, symmetrical facade, corner quoins, and massive brick chimneys.

Kittansett Club “Winter House” // 1925

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Across Sippican Harbor from the town village of Marion, Massachusetts, the Kittansett Club property provides some of the best views and recreation in town. The Kittansett Club was founded by a group of members of the Beverly Yacht Club in 1922, who at the time held some recreational uses on the tip of this peninsula, known as Butler’s Point. Kittansett was derived from two Native American words, “Kittan,” said to mean “sea,” and “Sett,” said to be a common word-ending for “near”, roughly translating to “near the sea”. The wealthy group of men who developed the peninsula with assistance from the Olmsted Brothers, landscape architects, totaling over 180 acres, a substantial portion was leased to the golf club while approximately 16 house lots were retained for those fronting the cost, to members of the club to help defer the expenses of developing the course. In 1925, the Kittansett Club undertook the construction of what became known as the “Winter House,” (the current clubhouse) which was a winterized building with heating and plumbing. The Colonial Revival building is sited so elegantly at the tip of Butler’s Point, looking out at Buzzards Bay. The buildings and grounds were heavily damaged by the Hurricane of 1938 and the property would soon after serve America’s defensive interests during World War II, when all of Butler’s Point was taken over by a Coast Artillery Unit. More than 100 G.l.s were billeted in Winter House. Today, the exclusive club is open to members and private events.

Burdett Summer Cottage // c.1910

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Beginning in the late 19th century, affluent urban dwellers from cities like Boston and New York were traveling by train and steamship to seaside destinations like Marion, on the South Coast of Massachusetts. The town began to attract many notable political, literary, and art world figures seeking a seaside respite away from the heat and pollution of urban centers. Initially visitors stayed at hotels or rented private houses, but as the end of the century neared and Marion became nationally known as a desirable vacation destination, wealthy individuals began to build their own permanent summer residences. The Burdett Cottage on Water Street was built around 1911 for Boston lawyer, Everett Walton Burdett and his wife, Maude. The couple hired the Boston architectural firm of Bigelow & Wadsworth, to design the Colonial Revival style “cottage” with an accompanying garden designed by noted landscape architect, Arthur Asahel Shurtleff. The house features two end wings with porches and balconies to provide sweeping views of the harbor. 

Marion Masonic Hall // 1911

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Since its founding in 1863, Marion’s Masonic organization, Pythagorean Lodge, has been one of the town’s most important social and charitable organizations. The organization originally met in a historic Greek Revival style building near the harbor, but it was eventually deemed obsolete for the well-connected group of men who were members there. In 1908, discussions began to build a new, purpose-built Masonic Hall in the village. It was intended to have a three-story building with retail space and apartments on the ground floor to supplement the cost of maintenance, reception and member’s rooms on the second floor, and the banquet hall and kitchen on the top floor. Approximately one-third of the cost for the new building was funded by Henry E. Converse, of the Converse Rubber Company (now the iconic shoe brand), who was a member of the local lodge and summer resident of Marion. Opened in 1911, the new building was designed in the Colonial Revival style with fanlight windows, corner pilasters, and columned entrance, but today lacks the original flair with its unfortunate vinyl siding.

Angier Cottage // 1939

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A rare example of a brick house in the South Coast town of Marion, Massachusetts, the Angier Cottage on South Street stands out for its architectural qualities and unique roof form. The home was built as a permanent residence for Ms. Amelia Angier of Newton, a widow who relocated to the coastal community to spend her remaining years. The brick cottage was built in 1939 and local papers noted its unique roofline that resembled that of the Aptuxet Trading Post in nearby Bourne. The steeply pitched roof is adorned by three shed dormers with the entrance treated with a Colonial Revival style louvered fan.

Ward Parker Delano House // c.1780

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During late 18th and early 19th centuries, the rise of the coastal schooner trade and whaling ushered in a long period of prosperity for coastal towns in New England, which continued unabated until the Civil War. The War of 1812 provided many Marion sailors and sea captains with the chance to experience life at sea with privateers papers issued by the United States government, these captains went to sea in their schooners to hunt down British ships, plundering them like pirates. One of these captains was Ward Parker Delano (1819-1867), who lived in this house overlooking Sippican Harbor. The house likely dates to the mid-late 1700s and was probably originally built by his grandfather, Captain Stephen Delano (1749-1821). Under subsequent owners in the Delano family, the home was modified on numerous occasions in styles popular at the time until the early 20th century when it was Colonialized, which added the portico, gable, and dentils, possibly by Ward Parker Delano II (1851-1915) or his son, Ward Parker Delano III (1883-1940) descendants, who summered at the old family home, and were both prominent architects of the early 20th century.

Mary Immaculate of Lourdes Catholic Church and Rectory // 1909 & 1938

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At the turn of the 20th century, Newton’s Upper Falls village was an industrial center in the region, with factories employing hundreds of workers, primarily recent immigrants from Ireland and Italy. A Catholic parish in Newton was originally established in the 1840s and within decades, the Roman Catholic church here included between 1,000-1,200 Catholics as far as Needham and Newton Centre. Originally known as St. Mary’s Catholic Church, the former structure was located on Chestnut Street in the village, but was eventually outgrown by the congregation. Ecclesiastical architect from Boston, Edward T. P. Graham, drew plans for the new church, which is unlike the typical Neo-Gothic edifices built in the early 20th century around Boston. The blending of Classical and Renaissance Revival styles works well with the design of Mary Immaculate of Lourdes in Newton, with its monumental classical portico and tympanum with figures in a bas-relief in the Classical style and the Italian Renaissance campanile with balconies and hipped roof towering over the structure. Inside, the sanctuary is illuminated by stained glass windows by Franz Xaver Zettler of Munich, Germany, which were custom-made for the church. On an adjoining lot, Timorthy G. O’Connell, a prominent Boston-area ecclesiastical architect, designed the parish rectory in 1938 in the Colonial Revival style.

Wonalancet Union Chapel // c.1880

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The Wonalancet Union Chapel in Tamworth, New Hampshire, is one of the most charming and photographed churches in the state, not only for its architecture, but its location with backdrop of the Sandwich Range of the White Mountains. The church was originally built around 1880 as a union chapel of multiple denominations in the Wonalancet village of town and was more vernacular in style when originally constructed. In 1896, an open tower and bell were added and the chapel saw its biggest change in 1937, when Arthur Treadwell Walden, an area resident and Klondike Gold Rush adventurer, dog breeder and participant in the first Byrd Antarctic Expedition, helped fund updates to the chapel. The present Colonial Revival appearance is following the designs of Hanover architect, Stanley Orcutt. The Wonalancet Union Chapel remains a vital institution in the village and operates sermons in the summer months. 

Former Billerica Town Hall – Billerica Public Library // 1895

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Located on the edge of the Town Common in Billerica, Massachusetts, this handsome civic building stands as one of the community’s best examples of the Colonial Revival style. The building was constructed in 1895 to replace the mid-19th century Town Hall that was destroyed by fire in 1893. The community hosted a design competition, where prominent firms from the Boston area submitted designs, and ultimately selected the plans from the firm of Warren & Bacon, led by Herbert Langford Warren and Lewis H. Bacon, who had a short-lived business partnership lasting just one year. The symmetrical, two-story brick building is trimmed with limestone and capped with a gray slate roof. The facade is embellished with a Palladianesque arched loggia sheltering the entrances with a centrally placed Palladian window above on the second floor. Additionally, the roof is adorned by a Christopher Wren inspired cupola with a gold leaf dome capped with a weathervane. The building functioned as the Town Hall with offices and a grand hall on the second floor for city meetings until the town hall relocated in 1979 to a former school building. Since 2000, the former Town Hall of Billerica has housed the Billerica Public Library, which was formerly located in a smaller historic building nearby.

St. Elizabeth’s Catholic Church, Edgartown // 1925

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Catholics on Martha’s Vineyard began worshipping in the late-1870s when a small group, mostly of Portuguese origin, began meeting in homes. As the island grew into a summer vacation destination, Catholic summer residents desired a place to have Mass celebrated on the island. Throughout the 19th century, an occasional priest from New Bedford or Cape Cod would come to the Vineyard to celebrate Mass in private residences. Residents in Edgartown purchased land in the village for a small chapel, rectory for it’s full-time summer priest, and cemetery. As the summer populations grew, it was decided that a larger Catholic church was needed for Edgartown, and the Roman Catholic Bishop of Fall River, Daniel Feehan, funded the new church and hired architect, Joseph I. Higgins, to design the new building. The church was dedicated in the summer of 1925 and features elements of Gothic and Colonial Revival styles.

Suffield Academy – Fuller Hall // 1873 & 1953

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The founding of Suffield Academy began in 1833 with the mission to educate young men for the ministry in the Baptist church. Despite its founding links to the Baptist Church, the institute quickly moved towards a non-denominational model and became the Connecticut Literary Institute. The school later rebranded as Suffield Academy serving as the only high school in town. The school received tax revenue from the community to allow boys outside the Baptist faith to study there. Later, with changing views of women’s right to education, the school allowed women into the school in 1843. Forty years later, the school constructed this building, then known as the ‘Ladies Building’, built next door to the school’s 1854 Memorial Hall. When built, the structure was Victorian Gothic and Second Empire in style but was heavily modified in 1953 in the Colonial Revival style, where the mansard roof and porch were removed and the building becoming a stripped-down version of a Colonial schoolhouse capped by a cupola on the roof.

Suffield Academy – Memorial Building // 1854 & 1950

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Initially established in 1833 as the Connecticut Literary Institute and later renamed Suffield Academy in 1937, the institution was founded with the mission to educate young men for the Baptist ministry. As the Connecticut Literary Institute was the only high school in Suffield, the town tax dollars paid for local students to attend. Originally built for the Institute in 1854, this large brick academic building was designed in the Italianate style with brackets and decorative brickwork at the cornice until about a century later when the school redesigned its campus in the Colonial Revival style. The Memorial Building was stripped down of pomp and renovated into its present appearance, but it maintains its historic form and fenestration.

Boston Dwelling House Company Houses – Woodbourne Neighborhood // c.1912

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Nestled in Jamaica Plain, the Woodbourne neighborhood is one of Boston’s most notable early twentieth-century planned residential neighborhoods, developed in early 20th century on land that had once been part of large country estates. Inspired by Garden City planning principles, the neighborhood was designed to harmonize with its natural landscape, featuring curving streets, mature trees, and thoughtfully arranged green spaces rather than a rigid urban grid. Its architecture reflects the predominant architectural styles of the period, notably showcasing modest housing in Arts and Crafts and Colonial Revival styles with many of the original buildings designed by the firm of Kilham & Hopkins off Southbourne Road. The development envisioned and funded by The Boston Dwelling House Company, a who’s who of well-connected Boston residents who envisioned the development as an attractive and healthy suburban community for middle-class families with convenient access to streetcar and rail transportation, with the grounds laid out by the Olmsted Brothers. Woodbourne remains remarkably intact today, offering a rare glimpse into the ideals of early suburban planning amidst the somewhat hectic piecemeal development and layout of streets in other parts of the city.

St. Mary’s Academy – Landmark Place Apartments // 1924

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As the St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church of Milford expanded, the diocese determined that an academy building was warranted to educate the pupils affiliated with the growing congregation. In 1924, Massachusetts ecclesiastical architect, John W. Donohue was hired to furnish plans for a new parochial school building. The two-story Colonial/Classical Revival style edifice was constructed of brick with limestone trim and follows the form of many school buildings constructed in New England in the early decades of the 20th century. In 1954, the building became the St. Mary’s Catholic High School and it was expanded in 1962 with a Modern addition. When the two local Catholic churches merged schools in the 1970s, this building was sold to the Town of Milford, who converted it to use as a public middle school, a use that remained until a new middle school was built elsewhere in town. With its future uncertain, in 2018, the Town of Milford sold the school building to developers, who demolished the 1960s additions and constructed a new addition to the rear, converting the entire building into elderly housing named, Landmark Place Apartments. Adaptive reuse is a great way to build additional housing while retaining local history and meet sustainability goals!

Milford Congregational Church // 1819

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The town of Milford, Massachusetts, incorporated from its “mother town” of Mendon in 1780 and decades later, after the War of 1812, the young town began discussions to build a new town hall. From 1741 when Milford was set of as a separate precinct, through its incorporation, all governmental functions were held at the meetinghouse, which served both religious and governmental functions. By 1819, it was decided that a new town hall structure would be built in town as residents with other religious affiliations did not want their tax dollars going to a separate institution. The Congregationalists too began construction on a new church, this building, in 1819. The Federal style edifice with towering steeple was largely reconstructed in 1868, when the church was enlarged at the rear, raised to allow a full basement, and the facade “modernized” in the Italianate/Romanesque style with round arched openings. The church was again renovated in the early 20th century, converting it back to the more traditional, New England Colonial Revival style with fanlight transoms and large Palladian window. The congregation today remains active and offers sermons in Portuguese, providing a house of worship for the large Brazilian-born population in Milford.