Second Empire

Mount Pleasant House – Edward Whitney House // 1875

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After the Civil War, summer tourism boomed in New England towns, where city residents flocked to the coasts or mountain towns as a respite from the hot and polluted city. Princeton, Massachusetts, became a favorite location for Boston and Worcester families, due to the extensive farmland, forests, and hilly terrain which provided cool summer breezes of fresh air. Due to this, a number of summer hotels were built in Princeton, including the Mount Pleasant House in 1868. Owner, Charles Augustus Whittaker, opened the main block of the house to summer boarders in 1868, which would see immediate success. The three-bay mansard-roofed Second Empire style residence was outgrown in the first couple summers and in 1875, Whittaker would expand the building with two side wings of the same style, to accommodate up to 60 guests. Moses Goodnow (1846-1934), the nephew of Edward A. Goodnow, a wealthy benefactor to the town, would acquire the hotel in 1879 and operated the facility until 1908, when the summer hotels began to see less visitors. In 1912, wealthy Worcester-based manufacturers, Edward C. and Harry S. Whitney, purchased the Mount Pleasant House, subdivided its lot, and divided the house in two, each taking one half as their private summer residence. The original section was occupied by Harry and remained on its site and the wing, this house, was moved down the street for his brother, Edward. The building has remained a single family residence and is a stellar example of its style.

Original Mount Pleasant House before split.

Mount Pleasant House – Harry Whitney House // 1868

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After the Civil War, summer tourism boomed in New England towns, where city residents flocked to the coasts or mountain towns as a respite from the hot and polluted city. Princeton, Massachusetts, became a favorite location for Boston and Worcester families, due to the extensive farmland, forests, and hilly terrain which provided cool summer breezes of fresh air. Due to this, a number of summer hotels were built in Princeton, including the Mount Pleasant House in 1868. Owner, Charles Augustus Whittaker, opened the main block of the house to summer boarders in 1868, which would see immediate success. The three-bay mansard-roofed Second Empire style residence was outgrown in the first couple summers and in 1875, Whittaker would expand the building with two side wings of the same style, to accommodate up to 60 guests. Moses Goodnow (1846-1934), the nephew of Edward A. Goodnow, a wealthy benefactor to the town, would acquire the hotel in 1879 and operated the facility until 1908, when the summer hotels began to see less visitors. In 1912, wealthy Worcester-based manufacturers, Edward C. and Harry S. Whitney, purchased the Mount Pleasant House, subdivided its lot, and divided the house in two, each taking one half as their private summer residence. The original section, this building, was occupied by Harry and remained on its site and the wing was moved down the street for his brother, Edward. The building remained a single family residence until the 1980s when it was converted to five condominium units, retaining its architectural integrity.

Original Mount Pleasant House before split.

Russell Mansion House // 1823 & 1874

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Located in the Russell Corner section of Princeton, Massachusetts, this handsome brick mansion had its start as a smaller commercial building before becoming one of the grandest residences in town. In 1823, Charles Russell (1793-1882) built this square brick building to house his store, a post office, and second floor meeting hall for public gatherings and the local Masonic Lodge and local anti-slavery society. By the mid-nineteenth century, Charles Russell was a well-known figure in Boston. He was elected first as representative to the State Legislature and later as representative of the County of Worcester to the State Senate. He and his wife, Persis, had two sons, Charles Theodore Russell (1815-1896) and Thomas Hastings Russell (1820-1911), who both became prominent lawyers and politicians. In about 1874, Thomas Russell enlarged the family’s commercial block in Princeton, adding a third floor in the form of a mansard roof, a wrap-around porch, and belvedere at the roof. The old store became known as the Mansion House and served as Thomas’ summer residence outside of the city. The Mansion House has been lovingly preserved and is a lasting landmark that tells the story of Princeton from its beginnings as a rural community to an exclusive summer colony in the 19th century.

Wachusett House Annex // 1822 & 1883

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In the 19th century, the small agricultural community of Princeton, Massachusetts, became a desirable summer destination, where city-dwellers with means would travel to the countryside for fresh mountain breezes and sweeping views of nature. What became this large Second Empire style building, was originally built in 1822 as the residence of John Brooks (1789-1863), who opened the Wachusett House next door as a summer hotel. After decades of growth, the Wachusett House was purchased by Phineas A. Beaman (1819-1894) and his son, Algernon Beaman (1847-1919), who oversaw massive improvements to the aged hotel. The main hotel was renovated and expanded, with a bowling alley and laundry building constructed on the site. The old Brooks House was renovated in 1883 and given its mansard roof and Victorian era trim, to serve as the 41-room annex to the Wachusett House. The business grew by the end of the 19th century, with the Beaman family owning the entire Wachusett Mountain, and building the first carriage road up to the summit. In 1910, the historic Wachusett House burned and the property sold. The only Annex is the only remaining part of the original hotel on the site.

Earle Building // c.1898

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A very late example of a Second Empire style commercial block, the Earle Building on Washington Street in Downtown Providence stands as a handsome addition to the urban environment with its human scale and high-quality design. The building is said to have been built by William H. Earle with retail storefronts at the street with offices above. William Earle was a partner in the company, Earle & Prew, an express mailing company (similar to Fedex today). The relatively simple massing is broken up by two-story projecting oriel bays.

Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral Rectory // c.1878

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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.

Tamworth Inn // 1888

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The architecturally distinctive Tamworth Inn, sits in the center of Tamworth Village, New Hampshire, and is now home to one of the most innovative and experimental distilleries in the country. The inn got its start in 1888, when owner Arthur Elliot Wiggin (1842-1913) saw the seasonal demand for lodging every summer to this region of New Hampshire, and completely expanded and renovated his Gothic Revival style home into a Second Empire style inn. Arthur Wiggin grew up in Tamworth and trained as a carpenter and likely oversaw the design and construction of his inn, originally called the Wiggin House but renamed Tamworth Inn by the 1890s. Wiggin eventually went bankrupt and by the 1930s, the inn was owned by hotelkeepers Fred Chesley and Violette Huntress of Boston who managed a hotel there and the Tamworth Inn during summers. Fred Huntress was an avid sports fan and ran an athletic gym, called the Tamworth Garden, which was built from a converted 19th century barn. In 1931, he sold the Tamworth Garden to Francis Cleveland as the first home of the Barnstormers Theatre. The property was more recently purchased by the Tamworth Distilling & Mercantile, who demolished about half of the inn, preserving the end structure as part of their Tamworth property. The old barn, which was once the Tamworth Garden is also restored and today serves as the company’s barrelhouse.

Former Ashland Junior High School // 1877

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The former Ashland Junior High School stands on a rise overlooking Ashland’s village center, on School Street just east of the entrance to the modern Ashland Elementary School. It is a three-story brick building designed in the Second Empire style and is topped by a mansard roof. The exterior is little changed from its original construction, although the interior has been subjected to period modernization after decades of vacancy and conversion to offices. The school was built in 1877 in response to the poor conditions of Ashland District Schools at the time. The school was closed in 1990, and the town voted to demolish it in 2000. The building was listed in the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance’s Seven to Save in 2007. A community effort rescued the building from that fate, thanks to the Ashland Historical Society which advocated for the sale of the building and subsequent restoration by the Tri-County Community Action Program, which occupies the building to this day. Preservation wins!

Scribner Mill // 1880

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The Scribner Mill building in Ashland stands as an architecturally and historically significant industrial building that tells the story of the community as a manufacturing center of the lakes region of New Hampshire. Built in 1880 by owner Ambrose Scribner, the brick structure served as a hosiery factory and is a late example of a mill building in the Second Empire architecture style. Owners today have spruced up the building which had previously been left vacant, to rent as office and light manufacturing space by Minus33, a merino wool apparel brand, and the purchased helps to reclaiming the important textile heritage of New England. The building retains its iconic mansard roof, brick corbeled cornice and entry tower, though many window remain boarded up.

Henry P. Kent House // 1871

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Located on South Main Street in Suffield, Connecticut, this stunning Second Empire mansion showcases the tobacco wealth seen in the town in the mid-to-late 19th century. Local legend states that in the early 1800s, a Cuban man arrived into town and was hired by a local farmer to grow tobacco and roll cigars for sale. Decades later, dozens of farmers in Suffield erected tobacco barns and cultivated tobacco to be rolled in cigars and shipped to communities all over the east coast. One of the first men in Suffield to box the cigars as a pack for shipping and sale was Henry Phelps Kent (1803-1887). With his success, Henry Kent purchased a large lot on the town’s Main Street and hired local architect, John C. Mead, to design a mansion to display his success in business. The large Second Empire mansion features flush-board siding, a full length porch, and a projecting mansarded tower with convex roof. The home was later owned by Samuel R. Spencer, a politician who served as a Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut, the first as a blind man. The home is now operated as a bed & breakfast “Spencer on Main”, named after its second owner.

Henry E. Fales Mansion // 1866

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The Henry E. Fales Mansion sits prominently on Walnut Street in Milford, Massachusetts, as an intact Second Empire style residence with symmetrical facade and form. The house was built in 1866 and owned by Henry E. Fales (1837-1897) an attorney and state legislator who was heavily engaged in town affairs. Before the home was completed, Henry’s wife, Violet, died unexpectedly and he remained here until his second marriage to Clara Hayward. The Fales Mansion has a notable mansard roof with belvedere, front gambrel gable with ocular window, and window hoods. The property is in need of some work, but retains nearly all of its original detailing.

Williams-Black Stable // c.1865

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This charming stable building on Chestnut Street on the Flat of Beacon Hill, Boston, was probably built around 1865 for Elijah Williams (1804-1879), a shipping merchant who also served a term on the Boston Common Council. Elijah and his wife, Mary, lived on Louisburg Square and had this stable built to hold their stable, sleigh and horses. Additionally, the stable housed a small residence inside for the stable-keeper and coachman, who would chauffer the Williams’ around and take care of their horses. In the early 20th century, the stable was owned by George Nixon Black (1842-1928), an heir to a Boston real estate fortune that came to Boston to manage the office of his father’s lumber business. He eventually became one of Boston’s largest individual taxpayers and besides his home in Boston, spent time in other homes including the late Kragsyde in Manchester-by-the-Sea and Woodlawn in Ellsworth, Maine, now a house museum. The stunning Second Empire style stable building is built of brick with granite lintels, sills, and surrounding the carriage doorway, over which is a mounted statuary of a horse head as a nod to the building’s original use.

Burke’s Hack & Livery Stable // c.1865

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This handsome two-story brick stable on Byron Street in Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood was built around 1865 for the Sigourney family, and its front façade retains a distinctive appearance associated with that period. The brick façade sits on a granite base, and the first story contains two entrances characteristic of its stable use: a vehicle door providing access to ground floor and a domestic entrance connecting to stairs leading to upper levels including stableman’s quarters on the top floor. Around the time of WWI, the property was owned by James F. Burke, who added the painted sign over the carriage entry. The stable was converted to a residence in about 1964 for owner, Jay Schrochet by architect, Benjamin S. Fishstein and remains a single-family home today.

Thayer Stable – Toy Theatre – Richard Platt House // c.1865

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This charming building at 16 Lime Street on the Flat of Beacon Hill, Boston, has seen a variety of uses from carpentry shop and stable, to working theater, and finally to a residence. Let’s dive in! 

The early ownership is murky, but by the 1870s, this two-story with mansard roof stable was owned by a “Nathan Thayer”, either Nathaniel Thayer Jr. or Nathaniel Thayer III of Lancaster, who also retained city residences in Boston. The building features two portals on the first-floor that originated as doorways, the wider on the left for horses and a carriage, and the smaller for access to residential space for the stable-keeper and likely a hay loft over the carriage door.  After the turn of the 20th century, the Flat of Beacon Hill gentrified into an exclusive enclave of residences, antiques shops, and artist studios and the former Thayer Stable was purchased by Frederick Oakes Houghton, an agent for transatlantic steamers. Houghton rented the building to an amateur theatrical group who organized as the Toy Theatre, that was founded in 1911 to present plays that had not been presented professionally in Boston. The founding group consisted of the usual, artistic, high society types, and had seating for 129 with no standing room. Houghton hired architect, Harold Symmes Graves, to convert the building into its theater use, enclosing the former carriage door and hay loft with multi-light windows, and creating a larger space inside for productions. The Toy Theatre did very well (due in part to its membership of upper-class Boston residents) and a new, purpose-built Toy Theatre was built in the Back Bay by 1914. In 1917, the former stable and theatre was purchased by Richard B. Platt, a musician and music teacher, and converted to a residence, a use that has remained ever since. 

Carpenter’s Shop – Fishelson House and Store // c.1860

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A rare extant wood-frame building in Beacon Hill, this Second Empire style building at the corner of Chestnut and River streets is one of the neighborhood’s most charming. It is likely that some of the wood-frame structure was originally a rear ell to the 1830s Greek Revival house it adjoins at 34 Charles Street. By the 1860s, the building was renovated for use as a carpenter’s shop, with the mansard roof, quoins, and loft door added at that time. City records indicate that the house on Charles Street housed tradesmen and it was listed as “Temporary Home”, the predecessor to the city Overseers of the Poor Temporary Home, a charitable organization providing lodging and food to those in need. From the late 1920s, the property was owned by Max and Rebecca Fishelson, who resided in and operated their florist shop here. In 1936, the former carpenter’s shop was renovated to contain a retail store on the ground floor with a two-family dwelling above, one for the Fishelson’s and one for their daughter. for a renovation of the wood frame annex on
Chestnut Street, which involved changing the occupancy of that section from a store and carpenter shop to a store and two-family dwelling: one for the Fishelsons and one for their daughter.