Colonial Revival

Arthur Jones Double House // 1896

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As Brookline Village developed in the mid-late 19th century, house lots were scarce. Demand for housing saw the demolition of a number of older 1840s Greek and Gothic Revival style cottages for multi-unit dwellings as duplexes and three-deckers which surged in popularity in the Village from the late 1890s to the 1910s when three-deckers were effectively banned in Brookline. In 1896-1897, Arthur R. Jones had large double houses built here and nextdoor, which were rented out to families. Newton architect Henry McLean designed these double houses as pairs of attached single-family dwellings separated by a brick party wall blending both Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles under one roof. The homes show what housing was available to middle-class residents of the Boston area, a price-point that is unattainable to most in the area today. Though, it is great to see these old homes lovingly preserved so well by their owners!

Parker House // 1814

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Wrapping up this series on a tour of buildings in Blue Hill, Maine, we have two stunning old homes left! 

This landmark Federal style house was built sometime between 1812 and 1816 by Robert Parker, whose wife was a daughter of Joseph Wood, one of the first two white settlers of Blue Hill. The home is significant not only architecturally, but for its connections to a number of old settlers to Blue Hill and their families.

By the turn of the 20th century the farming, mining and granite producing town of Blue Hill had been discovered. Writers, artists, musicians, and wealthy urban families from all over the East Coast found inspiration or retreat in many coastal Maine communities including Blue Hill, building “cottages” to summer at. Not all those who arrived to Maine were ‘from away’, as many built new or renovated their old ancestral homes to be occupied when seeking the peace and tranquility of coastal Maine. The Parker House was no different. In 1900, it was renovated in the Colonial Revival style as a summer home for Frederick A. Merrill and his wife, Elizabeth, residents of Boston. The couple hired George A. Clough, who worked as the first City Architect of Boston, but grew up locally in Blue Hill. Mrs. Merrill was descended from Mrs. Robert Parker’s sister. The current owner, the Merrill’s great-grandson, has undertaken a restoration of the house which pays homage to its Colonial Revival past. The stunning house can even be rented!

Blue Hill Public Library //1938

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Some small town libraries really pack an architectural punch! Blue Hill had long had a public library building, which eventually outgrew its limited space in the 1895 Town Hall building. During the mid-late 1930s, in the depths of the Great Depression, plans began for a new library. Adelaide Pearson, who had moved to Blue Hill in 1928, took on the formidable task. She was described as “a small woman who got things done” and had a vision for a library that was an integral part of the community, serving more than as a place to store and retrieve books. To fulfill that dream, she organized a fundraising campaign to buy a vacant lot in town. Local pledges came in ranging from 25 cents to “one dollar or a day’s work.” With the help of librarian Anne Hinckley, Adelaide Pearson petitioned the federal government for funds from the Public Works Administration, part of the New Deal program. At last, in March of 1940, the Colonial Revival style library building designed by Bunker and Savage Architects of Augusta opened its doors. The library has been a centerpiece of life in the coastal town of Blue Hill ever since.

George Stevens Academy Building // 1898

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For part one of the George Stevens Academy, see the previous post on the George Stevens House here.

In his 1852 last will and testament, Blue Hill shipbuilder George Stevens appointed five trustees, providing them with land, his “homestead and appurtenances,” and generous funds “to erect, when they deem it expedient, a suitable and convenient building for an Academy, for the purposes of education forever.” After George’s widow died, the trustees made good on George’s will, and in 1898 this Academy Building was opened to its first class of students. The Colonial Revival style building has many full-height windows to allow light and air into the classrooms and a belfry at the roof with a bell to notify pupils when class would begin!

Blue Hill Town Hall // 1895

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Blue Hill is a charming coastal town in Hancock County, Maine that retains so much of the charm that has been lost in many other coastal New England villages. Originally settled by the Penobscot Tribe, the town as we know it was incorporated in 1789 under the name “Blue Hill”, named after the summit overlooking the region. The town thrived early as a lumber and wood shingle exporter, later shifting to shipbuilding. The town was also noted for the quality of its granite, some of which was used to build the Brooklyn Bridge, New York Stock Exchange Building, and the U.S. Custom House at Norfolk, Virginia. In 1876, local quarries employed 300 workers. The town’s wealthy summer residents likely sought a new Town Hall for Blue Hill, as in the 1890s funding was acquired to erect a new building. It came as no surprise that George Albert Clough, an architect born in Blue Hill would furnish the plans for the new town hall. George was the son of Asa Clough an early settler and shipbuilder in town. He moved to Boston to work as an architect and later became the City of Boston’s first “City Architect” designing municipal buildings. For the Blue Hill Town Hall, he designed it in the Colonial Revival style, which remains well-preserved to this day.

Esser Cottage // 1894

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Hermann Esser (1845-1908) was born in Elbertfeld Germany and emigrated to the U.S. in the fall of 1866 and settling in Hoboken, NJ. On September 30, 1869, he married Bertha Michelmann of Hanover, Germany, who also emigrated to the U.S. years prior. In the states, Essen joined his old business partner Wilhelm J.D. Keuffel (also a German) and they ran the Keuffel & Esser Company, a scientific instrument manufacturing firm originally founded in New York City in 1867. Best known for its popularization of the slide rule, Keuffel & Esser was the first American company to specialize in the manufacture and sale of drafting and surveying tools. By the early twentieth century, it was one of the largest manufacturers of scientific instruments in the world. Their original store was located at 127 Fulton Street in Manhattan. Esser, with his wealth, decided to build a cottage in summer colony of Elka Park, New York, just north of Manhattan. The enclave was founded and has long been inhabited by wealthy German residents from New York City. This cottage was built for Mr. Esser in 1894, and is decidedly more Colonial Revival than many other cottages here. Esser only enjoyed a few summers here as he moved back to Germany in 1902, and died in 1908.

Amen Farm // c.1850

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Can I get an “Amen”?! Amen Farm was built in the mid-19th century on 47 acres in Brooklin, Maine, overlooking the Blue Hill Bay and Acadia National Park in the distance. The Cape house, like many on Blue Hill peninsula, is modest and was enlarged by telescoping ells as space was needed. The house was long owned by the Bowden Family who farmed the land, later adding a small gas station to the side of the road (since removed). Later owner, Joseph “Roy” Barrette (1896-1995) likely helped give the home its name. Barrette got his first look at Maine in 1919 from a ship, when he was a deck-hand on an 800-ton coal barge, hauling West Virginia coal from Norfolk to Portland. He had bought this farm in 1958 and was looking forward to his retiring years, which he intended to spend in a library of some 3,000 volumes and indulging his hobbies as a gardener, a gourmet, and a connoisseur of fine wines. John Wiggins, associate editor of The Ellsworth American newspaper, impressed by Barrette’s garden, his literary tastes, and his writing style, persuaded him to write a column, which he called “The Retired Gardener.” He wrote many essays and three books from this home in Brooklin where he never fully retired. Roy died in 1995 and the property was eventually listed for sale in 2019. The house is undergoing some work and landscaping upon the time of the photos.

Friend Memorial Library // 1912

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The Friend Memorial Public Library in Brooklin, Maine was built in 1912 on land donated three brothers in the Friend family. The brothers, Leslie, Robert and Victor Friend were born in Brooklin, but were raised in Melrose, Massachusetts. There, they made a fortune producing Friend’s Brick Oven Baked Beans. With their new wealth, the brothers had the bright idea of building a roller-skating rink for the enjoyment of the Brooklin community. As the need for a library overtook that of a roller rink, the brothers sought to cement their name in the town’s history by funding a new library building. The previous library was located in a small space in the IOOF Hall nearby (featured previously) and a new, purpose-built space for a library was a desire for the small community. William Nelson Wilkins, an architect of Magnolia, Massachusetts, and husband of Brooklin native Ella McFarland, was hired to furnish plans on the new building which was built in 1912 in the Colonial Revival style. In 1940, Katerine and E.B. White (author and summer resident), Owen Flye and others were instrumental in revitalizing the library, increasing the collections and hours of operations. About ten years ago, the library was restored and renovated inside by Elliott Architects.

The Billows Cottage // 1895

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The Billows Cottage in Kennebunkport, Maine was built in 1895 for a B.S. Thompson, a wealthy coffee and tea merchant. The house was originally designed by Henry Paston Clark, a Boston architect who was very busy furnishing designs of some of the summer colony’s most iconic buildings and cottages. For this cottage, he designed it in a blending of Shingle and Colonial Revival styles with a side-gabled roof punctuated by dormers and sweeping verandas with rubblestone foundation. By 1904, the cottage was purchased by Robert C. Ogden of Philadelphia, who helped establish Wanamaker’s Department Store. Under Ogden’s ownership, the house was remodeled and expanded numerous times, but still retains its charm!

Edwin Packard Cottage // 1899

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Yet another of the large summer “cottages” in the Cape Arundel Summer Colony of Kennebunkport is this stunning eclectic home, built in 1899 for Edwin Packard of New York. As a young man, Edwin married Julia Hutchinson and would soon amass an ample fortune. He became European buyer for A.T. Stewart & Co. In 1889 he came President of the Franklin Trust Company, resigning in 1892 to become President of the New York Guaranty and Indemnity Company. He was a Director of the Franklin Safe Deposit Company, the American Writing Paper Company, the Fajardo Sugar Company and the Brooklyn YMCA, and a member of the New York Chamber of Commerce. Busy man! From his wealth, he sought solitude and relaxation in Kennebunkport, hiring Maine architect John Calvin Stevens to design this cottage for his family to retreat to for summers away from the city. The Shingle style and Colonial Revival style house features a prominent gambrel roof, Palladian windows, and bay windows, all covering a sweeping front porch.

Grayling Cottage // c.1900

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John Bach McMaster (1852 –1932) was born in Brooklyn, New York to a rich plantation owning father and mother who ran operations in New Orleans until the outbreak of the Civil War. After this, John graduated from the College of the City of New York in 1872, worked as a civil engineer in 1873–1877. Falling in love with the field of American History, he switched careers and in 1883, became professor of American history in the University of Pennsylvania. McMaster is best known for his History of the People of the United States from the Revolution to the Civil War (1883), a valuable supplement to the more purely political writings of earlier years. The book was a huge success and John was able to purchase house lots in the newly established Cape Arundel Summer Colony in Kennebunkport, Maine, a colony populated by many wealthy Philadelphians for summer homes. He first appears to have built “The Kedge”, a chunky, but beautiful cottage on a cliff. McMaster would also have this larger cottage built by the turn of the 20th century, which in design, appears to be a more eclectic Shingle style dwelling. Just a stone’s throw from the Atlantic, the house features continuous cedar shingle siding, sweeping porches to provide views of the ocean, a prominent chimney, and Colonial-inspired fanlight motifs.

Richard E. Edwards House // 1981

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The Colonial era has had a grip on New England residential design since the 1700s, with each subsequent “revival” showcasing the character-defining features in bold new ways. With this house on College Hill in Providence, Rhode Island, the architect, Friedrich St. Florian, blended traditional Colonial Revival residential design with the flair and quirkiness that comes with the Post-Modern style, popular in the 1980s. The house is five bays wide at the facade with a central projecting bay at the entrance. Post-Modernism takes architectural precedence and turns it on its head, with quirky takes on features and larger proportions. The Edwards House exhibits decorative stone lintels, a Classically inspired entry with pilasters, and a very large cupola at the roof. What do you think of this house? I feel it works well for the neighborhood as it is contextual to the surrounding Colonial-era and Colonial Revival style residences while clearly being of the late 20th century.

Stephen O. Metcalf House // 1892

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I am on a Colonial Revival style kick lately, so bear with me on this recent span of posts on houses in the style! This estate house is an earlier example in Providence, built in 1892 for Stephen Olney Metcalf (1857-1950) a multi-millionaire who was in business in woolen textiles and insurance before diversifying his portfolio further serving as President of the Providence Journal and Evening Bulletin. To make an architectural statement, Mr. Metcalf called the renowned Boston firm of Andrews, Jacques and Rantoul to design his new residence. The oversized Colonial Revival house is an excellent example of how Revival architecture tend to be a more free interpretation of their prototypes, being larger and having exaggerated features and proportions. In his will, Stephen O. Metcalf bequeathed this residence to the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), an institution his mother helped found, and his daughter served as President. The mansion remains the RISD President’s House to this day.

Henry Samuel Sprague House // 1902

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Colonial Revival houses just exude New England charm! This house in Providence’s East Side/College Hill neighborhood was built at the turn of the 20th century in 1902 for Henry Samuel Sprague, a Providence grain dealer, for $15,000. Mr. Sprague clearly did well for himself financially as he could afford a house lot on one of the city’s most beloved streets, Prospect Street. The large mansion has many architectural details which stand out including contrasting brick and shingle on the first and second floors, a massive projecting portico covering a prominent entry, bold fluted pilasters at the center bay, and three pedimented dormers at the slate roof. Inside, this old house has some amazing woodwork and details too!

Sarah and John Tillinghast House // 1904

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This stately yellow brick Colonial Revival sits on the edge of the College Hill neighborhood of Providence, and I couldn’t help but to take a few photos! This residence was completed in 1904 for Sarah and John Tillinghast in the later years of John’s life (he died less than two years of moving into this home). The house exhibits a large semi-circular portico with balustrade above, the portico is flanked and surmounted by Palladian windows with elliptical reveals. The house was recently proposed to serve as a suboxone clinic, but that was shut down by neighbors. It appears to be divided into residential units now.