Vernacular/No Style

Dorchester Pottery Works // 1896

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Founded in 1895 by George Henderson, the Dorchester Pottery Works successfully produced commercial and industrial stoneware for many years and its building is a significant piece of Dorchester’s industrial heritage. Located in the Harrison Square/Clam Point area of Dorchester, the building began as a two-story wood-frame industrial structure for the young company. It saw immediate success and Henderson oversaw the construction of a large, brick addition which housed an enormous beehive kiln 28-feet in diameter of his own design made of bricks. Here he could fire pottery and other clay goods from his modern facility. Besides clay pots, tableware, and jugs, the company became known for the production of foot warmers, which became known as the ‘Porcelain Pig’ or ‘Piggy’. Foot warmers were widely used in the days before central heating. These clay vessels would be filled with hot water and placed under bedding for overnight warmth. The company made foot warmers until 1939. The company saw dwindling sales after WWII, and eventually closed in 1979. The structures began to decay and the towering smokestack and brick structure was open to the elements. The local neighborhood advocated for its preservation, listing it on the National Register of Historic Places and protecting it as a City of Boston Landmark. After decades of neglect, Bay Cove Human Services acquired the property in 2001 and renovated the building for its own use, keeping the kiln room and the kiln itself intact for community exhibitions. Today, it provides an important historic survivor of Dorchester’s industrial past.

Putnam Nail Company Factory // 1860+

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The Putnam Nail Company was founded in 1860 and located at the northern tip of the Port Norfolk neighborhood of Dorchester, Boston, Massachusetts. The company was founded by Silas Safford Putnam (1822-1895), who was the seventh of nine children by Israel Smith Putnam and Charlotte Safford of Hartford, NY. He moved to Boston and found work as Boston’s industrial growth took-off. He owned a curtain factory before patenting a process to manufacture wrought nails in the 1850s. After some time in Abington and Roxbury, he moved to Dorchester, purchasing large pieces of land and began building a manufacturing complex for his new Putnam Nail Company. The company made world-class horseshoe nails until it closed in the early 1900s. The property here was acquired by the George Lawley & Son Shipyard, who moved from their cramped City Point, South Boston shipyard to this newer yard. Already an established and respected New England manufacturer, the Lawley company had been building wooden ships in Massachusetts since 1866. The site was later the home to Seymour’s Ice Cream and was abandoned in the late 20th century. The large 1890s brick factory is now occupied by RISE, a development/construction management firm, with other buildings occupied by the Boston Winery and Boston Harbor Distillery.

Newburgh Center Union Church // 1878

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Image courtesy of Amy Higgins

The Newburgh Center Union Church was built in 1878 as a non-denominational religious building for the small, rural town of Newburgh, Maine. At this time, the small town had just over 1,000 residents and it was not economically feasible for each congregation to build its own meeting house. The vernacular Greek Revival/Italianate style church building was eventually the house of worship of a local Pentecostal congregation, but that too appears to have disbanded. The building has been falling into disrepair, so hopefully it will be preserved.

Jackson Congregational Church // c.1812

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Image courtesy of Amy Higgins.

In the year 1812, Jackson, Maine, was organized as a plantation, and the Congregational Church of Jackson was organized the same year with Rev. Silas Warren, as its Pastor. Mr. Warren was born in Weston, Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard University in 1795. He was ordained as Pastor of the Jackson and Brooks Church in 1812 when it opened. The town of Jackson has not grown much since then (610 according to 2020 census) and has maintained its very rural character. The Congregational Church here was likely more vernacular when built and given the belfry after the Civil War. Gotta love these old churches on back roads!

Dixmont Town House // c.1836

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Dixmont, a small rural town in central Maine was originally originally a land grant by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (of which Maine was then a part) to Bowdoin College, which sold the first settlers their land for profit to build on their campus. As a result, the town was originally called “Collegetown”, which was obviously short-lived. Dr. Elijah Dix (1747-1809) of Boston, who never lived there but took an interest in its settlement, encouraged others to settle there, and when the town was officially incorporated in 1807, it named itself after Dix, as Dixmont. A “malignant fever” broke out among the settlers in the early years, also killing Elijah Dix while in Dixmont on a trip there in 1809, he was buried in the Dixmont Corner Cemetery. Elijah was the grandfather of reformer and nurse Dorothea Dix. The early settlers had this Town House built in the center of the township around 1836 as a vernacular structure. The building (like many early town houses) was used for both secular and religious purposes. This small structure is one of the oldest surviving town houses in the state and served as the town government center until 1952 when it hosted its last town meeting. It was restored in the early 2000s and looks great!

Gouldsboro Townhouse // 1884

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Welcome to Gouldsboro, Maine! The town is a charming community made up of many small fishing villages and neighborhoods dotting the rugged Maine coastline. Land in what was then part of Massachusetts, was given to Colonel Nathan Jones, Francis Shaw and Robert Gould in 1764 by the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Francis Shaw and Robert Gould were both merchants from Boston. Francis Shaw had worked hard to develop Gouldsboro, and reportedly died broke because of it, and his son Robert Gould Shaw returned to his parents’ native Boston. Development in the area was slow and never really took-off due to the distance from Boston, but fishing, mills, and villages were built and remain to this day. Now, much of the area is home to summer residents flocking to the area from urban areas. This building was Gouldsboro’s second townhouse. It was constructed in 1884, soon after the first townhouse burned a year prior. The structure was used for town meetings and elections until 1983. It is now owned by the Gouldsboro Historical Society. It is a late, vernacular example of a Greek Revival townhouse.

Hawkins Company Factory // 1866

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The Hawkins Company was originally organized by Ira L. Hawkins for the manufacture of tacks, buttons, and other metal specialties. The firm appears to have begun operations in Waterbury, Connecticut around 1890 acquired control of the former Blake, Lamb and Company, an animal trap manufacturer established in Waterbury during the mid-19th century. In 1899, Hawkins purchased this four-story woolen mill located in the South Britain section of Southbury that had formerly been operated by the Bradley and Hoyt Company. All of the Hawkins Company’s operations were moved to this plant c. 1900. Production of animal traps quickly became the primary focus of the Hawkins Company and the former Bradley and Hoyt Company mill was enlarged in several phases in order to accommodate demand. The Hawkins Company eventually closed its doors during the late 1960s. The building has been recently painted and maintained well, but it is unclear to me what it is used for, anyone know more?

St. Sergius Chapel // 1932

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Formerly known as “Churaevka,” the community known today as Russian Village in Southbury, Connecticut, was established in 1925 as an artistic community for Russians who fled to America after the Russian Revolution of 1917. The village was created by two Russian writers, Count Ilya Tolstoy, the son of Leo Tolstoy (the author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina), and the famous Siberian novelist George Grebenstchikoff. Although Tolstoy was first to discover the area while visiting his translator in Southbury, it was Grebenstchikoff who dreamed of establishing a cultural center and planned to create a rural community of cottages where Russian writers, artists, musicians and scientists could live and flourish statestide. The village was named after a mythical Siberian village mentioned in the works of Grebenstchikoff and the centerpiece is this chapel, St. Sergius Chapel, which was built in 1932-33 from plans by Nicholas Roerich. The small square-plan chapel was likely built of stone gathered from the neighborhood.

Benjamin Osborn House // c.1808

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This charming cottage shows that you do not need a stately or elaborate house to have some serious curb appeal and house envy. This is the Benjamin Osborn House, located in Southbury Connecticut. The house was built in the early 20th century for newlyweds Benjamin B. Osborn and Sarah Stiles, who married in 1808. As a gift to the couple, Sarah’s father Ephraim Stiles, who lived in a house across the street, seemingly deeded a portion of his property for his daughter and son-in-law to build their family. Tragically, Sarah died one year later, possibly during childbirth. Benjamin would marry another of Ephraim’s daughters soon after… messy. The home is a four-bay Cape, with its off-center entrance sheltered by a Colonial Revival hip-roofed portico supported by Tuscan columns.

Frederic Bronson Barn // c.1895

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Not many buildings in Greenfield Hill, Fairfield, Connecticut showcase the neighborhood’s transition from farming community to affluent suburb quite as well as this stone barn turned house on Hillside Road. The stone barn was constructed around c.1895 for Frederic Bronson Jr. (1851-1900) a prominent New York attorney and treasurer of the New York Life and Trust Company which was founded by his grandfather, Isaac Bronson. In about 1892, Frederic demolished his ancestral home and hired architect Richard Morris Hunt to design a new country estate for his family. The house was called Verna and is also located in Fairfield. Today Verna is known best as the Fairfield County Day School. As with many wealthy men of the Gilded Age, Frederic wanted his rural retreat to also work as a gentleman’s farm, where he could have staff farm and tend to livestock on the expansive rolling hills bounded by historic stone walls. He appears to have had this barn built for his livestock shortly after the main house, Verna was completed nearby. Bronson died in 1900 and some of the property was later sold off. This property was acquired by a Charles Stillman in 1941 and it is likely him that converted the barn into a charming residence.