Colonial Revival

Benjamin and Almira Pitman House // 1900

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Benjamin Franklin Keolaokalani Pitman (1852-1918) was born in Hilo, Hawaii, to parents Benjamin Pitman, a Salem businessman, and Kinoʻoleoliliha, high chiefess in the Kingdom of Hawaii. After the sudden death of Kinoʻoleoliliha, Benjamin Pitman Sr. remarried and sent his children to attend schools in Boston. Benjamin F. K. Pitman would meet and marry Almira Hollander Pitman (1854-1939), a suffragist who was instrumental in working for women’s suffrage in Hawaii. The couple purchased a house lot in the exclusive Cottage Farm neighborhood of Brookline, and hired architect Edwin J. Lewis, to design a home for their family. Early atlas maps and photos show that the house was originally clapboarded on the front and rear elevations with large brick end walls containing the chimneys. The facade was given a brick veneer sometime in the 20th century. After Benjamin died in 1918, Almira had a small gambrel-roofed cottage built in the rear yard for her son to live in. The residence is one of the finest Colonial Revival style homes in the area.

Joseph and Jane Cotton House // c.1905

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As the heirs of Amos A. Lawrence began subdividing and selling off desirable house lots in the Cottage Farm neighborhood of Brookline in the 20th century, we can see a visual representation as to the ever-changing architectural tastes of wealthy residents, from Colonial Revival to Tudor Revival. This residence, the Joseph and Jane Cotton House, was built adjacent to the Amos A. Lawrence Cottage, and is an excellent example of a Colonial Revival style brick home. The property was built for Joseph Hall Cotton (1869-1919), treasurer of the American Tube Works, and his wife, Jane Eaton Cotton. The couple remained in the home for about a decade until they relocated to the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston. The architectural firm of Chapman & Frazer, esteemed suburban architects, designed the house as an elongated rectangle with projecting columned porches on the first floor, pilastered entrance and window above, and hipped roof with overhanging eaves and shed dormers, a nod to the Arts and Crafts style.

Briggs-Lyman House // 1903

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Built in 1903 for Walter Briggs, this stately Colonial Revival style residence showcases the bold proportions and scale of the style. Located on Euston Street in the Cottage Farm neighborhood, this house was designed by Walter H. Kilham of the firm, Kilham & Hopkins, who specialized in large, suburban homes in the Boston area during the early decades of the 20th century. The symmetrical facade includes a projecting center vestibule, an arched window with blind fan above, bold window trim, and a shallow hip roof broken by two pedimented dormers. The house is so special that it was featured in a 1909 publication highlighting 100 country houses of various styles of the United States.

Rowe House // 1911

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The Rowe House at 11 Mason Street is an over-the-top, and high-style example of the Colonial Revival style, showcasing the oversized proportions and scale that architects in the early 20th century followed when referencing Colonial American architecture. The house here was built in 1911 for Edward Prescott Rowe (1879-1936) and his wife, Eleanor Livingstone. Designed by the firm of Rowe & Keyes of Boston and New York, the commission was likely a relative of Mr. and Mrs. Rowe. The symmetrical house features a broad gambrel roof with Palladian windows in the side gable and central dormer at the facade, large pilasters breaking up the bays on the facade, a projecting Colonial Revival entry, and squat windows at the second floor terminating at the entablature above. The property even retains its Colonial Revival gateway.

John Endicott Peabody House – Ivy Street School // 1910

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This stately mansion is located at 200 Ivy Street in the Cottage Farm neighborhood of Brookline and was built in 1910 for Martha and John Endicott Peabody. Designed in a Renaissance/Colonial Revival style by architect John Worthington Ames, the house has since been converted to institutional use, but retains much of its original character. John Endicott Peabody (1853-1921) was a businessman and later got involved with the arts in Boston. The building was acquired for institutional use beginning in the 1950’s and was occupied as the St. Dominic’s Institute and has been owned by the Massachusetts Association for the Blind since 1976, and today is occupied by the organization’s Ivy Street School, a special education residential and day high school for neurodivergent youth to help prepare pupils for adulthood with the tools they need to achieve their greatest independence. The brick house is covered in stucco and features an elaborate stone door surround, symmetrical facade, and massive chimneys.

Almy-Palfrey House // c.1858

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The area was developed thanks to Amos A. Lawrence (1814-1886), a wealthy second-generation Bostonian, who provided much of the capital and enthusiasm for the growth of the cotton industry in New England prior to the Civil War. Lawrence’s involvement in the industry aided the development of the Massachusetts mill towns of Lowell and Lawrence, whom the city was named after. In 1851, Amos Lawrence purchased 200 acres of land from David Sears, who himself developed the equally beautiful Longwood neighborhood of Brookline on the other side of Beacon Street. Amos began to subdivide the land, working with the architect George Minot Dexter and landscape architect and surveyor, Alexander Wadsworth, who designed Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, to create an early picturesque residential suburb. With houses designed in the newly popular Gothic Revival and Mansard styles and several small parks, the area became known as Cottage Farm. This house was built for Amos Lawrence as an early, brick Mansard home, and rented out to Frederick Almy, a wealthy Boston attorney. The property was sold out of the Lawrence Family and later purchased by John Gorham Palfrey (1875-1945) a lawyer, who modified the house by removing the mansard roof and replacing it with a full third story with a brick veneer to match the walls below to give it a more Colonial Revival design.

Abington Savings Bank // 1930

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Built in 1930 for the Abington Savings Bank, this handsome Colonial Revival style building is located in the center of Abington, Massachusetts and has been a bank for almost 100 years! The bank was originally incorporated in 1853 and grew as Abington and adjacent towns saw suburban growth. The corporation hired the firm of J. Williams Beal & Sons, who specialized in commercial developments, to furnish plans for the building, resulting in the present structure. The firm also designed the Abington Mutual Fire Insurance Company Building (1931) across the street and the Dyer Memorial Library (1932), the town library. The brick and limestone building has three main bays, with the center rising above with a gable, resembling as a pediment of a Roman temple. In the gable, a shield with swags is adorned with the letters “ASB” (Abington Savings Bank) with the original incorporation date of 1853. The bank merged with others and eventually became a Sovereign Bank, and later Santander Bank, which remains in the building to this day.

First Congregational Church of Abington – Abington Masonic Hall // 1819

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The First Congregational Church of Abington, Massachusetts, was established in 1711. Besides the First Church, there were three additional churches founded in the town’s other villages: The Second Church in South Abington (now Whitman) Third Church of East Abington (now Rockland), and the Fourth Church at North Abington. This edifice was the third building of the congregation, and was built in 1819. The structure was only used as a church for 30 years until 1849, when the congregation built a new church nearby. This structure was sold and converted to a Masonic Hall and District Court for some years. Major changes to the building include the destruction of the steeple from the Gale of 1869, and in 1885, the present entryway was added, extending about 20 feet from the facade to provide a more adequate stairway to the second floor. Today, the building is used as a church for a local Brazilian congregation.

Charles H. Owens House // 1906

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This stately house on Powell Street in Brookline, Massachusetts, was built in 1906 for Charles H. Owens, Jr., and his wife, Nellie. Charles was a “house decorator”, who built the house next door just two years earlier before moving into this larger home in 1906. Both houses were designed by the architectural firm of Loring & Phipps, who Owens likely collaborated on commissions with in his career. The house is 2 1/2-stories with a shallow hip roof and is an excellent example of an academic interpretation of the Colonial Revival style. The principal facade has flush board siding with round-arched windows on the first floor along with a squat fanlight transom over the center entrance.

John R. Perry House // 1904

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This lovely Colonial Revival style house on Powell Street in Brookline was built in 1904 for Charles H. Owens, Jr., an interior designer who just two years later, built another home next door that he would reside in with his own family. This house was rented to John R. Perry, who was also listed as a “decorator” in city directories and president of Perry, Lewis & Whitney, a design firm. The house (like its neighbor built two years later), was designed by the architectural firm of Loring and Phipps and was oriented southward to face the side yard. The Perry House features small projecting oriel windows, a broad gambrel roof, and an entrance portico supported by Tuscan columns.