Boston

Harrison H. Atwood House // 1888

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When an architect designs their own home, you know it will be something special. This house on Alban Street in Ashmont Hill, Dorchester, was built in 1888 and designed by owner-architect, Harrison H. Atwood (1863-1954). The unique Shingle style residence features a plain, boxy form and is capped by a pyramidal hipped roof with a center dormer. The recessed side entry porch is enclosed by large windows with multi pane sash which is surmounted by flared shingles. Besides being a residential architect, Harrison Henry Atwood also was appointed as the 5th City Architect of Boston, designing schools and firehouses, and served as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. While the Atwood House may appear modest from the street, the house stretches back toward the rear of the lot and is larger than meets the eye, also the interior was lavishly decorated with much of the original millwork and mantels intact. 

Dillaway House // 1889

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One of the finest and refined examples of the Shingle style in Boston can be found on Alban Street in the Ashmont Hill section of Dorchester, a lovely, walkable neighborhood where you can find timeless examples of just about any Victorian-era architectural style. Built for Charles F. Dillaway, a banker in Boston, this home was designed by local architect, Edwin J. Lewis, architect for many houses in the Ashmont area.  Lewis’s designs are distinguished by their crisp geometry, often with horizontal lines emphasized and small-paned windows. The house has been slightly modernized by later owners who added new siding within the inset porch and a more moody color scheme. 

Mumford House // 1877

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Set back behind a manicured lawn on the charming Alban Street in the Ashmont Hill neighborhood of Dorchester, this Victorian era residence was both a family home as well as a finishing school for young ladies. The house at 35 Alban Street was completed in 1877 for the Reverend Thomas James Mumford, pastor of the Third Church of Dorchester and anti-slavery advocate, who died the year his home was completed. His widow, Elizabeth Goodrich Warren Mumford (1834-1897) would inherit the home from her husband and for supplemental income to maintain the home, she opened the Mrs. Mumford’s Finishing School for Young Ladies, a school to educate and teach young girls manners and religion. Elizabeth Mumford would also publish books on how to conduct classes for Sunday School, Kindergarten, and the home. The Mumford House is a great example of a Stick style residence with less exuberance than some other examples. The picket frieze, applied stickwork on the siding, and more ornate porch are all typical of the style. 

Mary S. Hartford House // 1890

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This charming Shingle style bungalow at the corner of Harley and Walton streets in Dorchester’s Ashmont Hill neighborhood, was built around 1890 for Ms. Mary S. Hartford. Mary Hartford (1840-1910) was the mother of famed American painter, Edmund Charles Tarbell, and the wife of Edmund Whitney Tarbell, who died in 1863 after contracting typhoid fever while serving in the Civil War. After the death of her husband, Mary sent her son to live in Groton, Massachusetts with his grandparents to raise them as she remarried to David Francis Hartford, a shoe manufacturer. David and Mary lived nearby on Alban Street, and rented this and other houses to tenants for supplemental income. Local architect Edwin J. Lewis furnished plans for the house as a prototypical example of the Shingle style. Mary died in 1910 and in 1917, David Hartford, as his wife’s executor, deeded this property at 17 Harley Street to Emma C. Rich, the wife of George M. Rich, a Boston banker. The house is excellently preserved, even down to the appropriate brown stained shingles.

Thomas T. Hartford House and Stable // 1884

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Situated at the corner of Harley and Roslin streets in the Ashmont Hill neighborhood of Dorchester, this property showcases the flair and ornate features of the eclectic Victorian styles, along with an original stable. The property was developed in 1884 by Thomas T. Hartford. Thomas Thurston Hartford (1845-1916), was a shoe machinery manufacturer with offices in the Leather District near downtown Boston, continuing in his father’s company, Hartford Brothers Co. The house and stable are said to have been designed by architect Edwin J. Lewis, Jr., or John A. Fox, who blended Stick and Queen Anne styles. Interestingly, the house features Palladian windows in the gables and was restored by owners, who even went the extra mile to repaint the house in its historic colors.

Woodrow Wilson School // 1932

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The Woodrow Wilson School, now Dr. William W. Henderson K-12 Inclusion School, is located at 18 Croftland Avenue in the Ashmont neighborhood of Dorchester. The school was built in 1932 to accommodate increased development and population growth in the immediate area in the interwar period and was designed in a blending of Classical Revival and Art Deco styles, both popular at the time for such academic buildings. The building was named for Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924), the 28th President of the United States and was designed to comfortably accommodate 1,600 students. Architect, John Matthew Gray designed the building to conform to a plan drafted by the City of Boston in 1923 to standardize all new school construction down to the precise dimensions of windows and hallways. The permitted flexibility for hired architects was strictly on the exterior, where architects were free to create individual character in the designs of entryways, auditoriums, and exterior architectural styles and decoration. The entry of the Woodrow Wilson School depicts Art Deco motifs including lettering and inlaid carved panels over the door of a child reading and a child holding a globe. The school was renamed the Dr. William W. Henderson K-12 Inclusion School after the innovative educator of the same name.


King-Murdock House // c.1894

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Located on Ashmont Street in the Ashmont Hill neighborhood of Dorchester in Boston, this handsome Colonial Revival style residence was one of many large homes constructed here at the end of the 19th century. This house was built by 1894 for owner Franklin King and rented to tenants for supplemental income. Franklin King was part owner of the E & F King Company, a major paint and stain manufacturer in Boston. Franklin died in 1898 and the property was inherited by his son, Samuel Gelston King, who continued to rent the home. A notable renter of the house was Harold Murdock, a cashier and amateur historian and author who wrote various books of everything from the American Revolution to the Reconstruction of Europe. The architect is said to be Clarence Blackall of Cambridge, which makes sense as this house is clearly the work of a trained architect. Symmetrical in plan, the center-hall residence features a preserved entry portico, hipped roof, and detailed dormers.

Chansonetta Stanley Emmons House // 1893

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Chansonetta Stanley Emmons (1858-1937) was born in Kingfield, Maine, and was one of the great women photographers in the 19th and early 20th century, often depicting domestic life and New England scenes. The young Chansonetta Stanley grew interested in photography after her brothers’ (Francis E. and Freelan O. Stanley) dry-plate printing invention, they also invented the steam-powered automobile known as the Stanley Steamer. She married James Nathaniel Whitman Emmons in 1887 and in 1894, James hired architect Henry McLean, to design a residence for him and Chansonetta, this lovely home on Harley Street on Ashmont Hill. The couple occupied the house until 1898, when James died of blood poisoning at the age of 41. Chansonetta sold the home and moved to Newton, where her two brothers lived and operated their business. The house blends Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles and originally had a conical roof over the corner rounded bay. The roof was replaced with a flat roof at about the time of the large balcony and extended dormer.

Reed-Loring House // c.1872

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Another of the early houses built in the Ashmont Hill neighborhood by George D. Welles, a young man who inherited and subdivided his family estate in Dorchester, is this mini-Mansard on Harley Street. Like a few others in the neighborhood, this house was built for Welles, likely as a rental property. The house was rented by Charles and Nellie Reed, who had painter, Frank Henry Shapleigh over as a guest. Shapleigh would paint the house in the 1870s, shortly after a stint in Paris. The property would be purchased by Stephen L. Emery, a coal and wood merchant in Boston, and later by Clara Reed, the daughter of Charles and Nellie Reed, who took up permanent residence in this house with her husband Royden Loring, the vice president of the Arnold Roberts Company on Congress Street. Clara Reed Loring lived here until the early 1970s. The Second Empire style house and large, preserved barn at the rear of the lot, provides a glimpse into the early development of Ashmont Hill.

George Derby Welles Rental House // c.1872

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From the 1780s until 1870, almost all of Ashmont Hill (west of the present train station) was a farm, with the large farmhouse dating to about 1720, located at the corner of Washington and Welles streets, now the home to the Codman Square Branch of the Boston Public Library system. The farm was owned for a time by General Henry Knox. Sometime before 1850, the estate and mansion came into the possession of the Honorable John Welles, who died in 1855. The property would eventually be deeded to John Welles’ grandson, George Derby Welles, who was then just 26 years old and living in Paris with his wife, Armandine V. Derby. Welles wasted no time in developing the property through his agent, Boston Attorney Edward Ingersoll Browne. Streets were laid out and house lots were platted and sold, with some early properties built with much of the neighborhood developing by the turn of the century. The old Knox-Welles farmhouse would be razed by 1889, but the remainder of the neighborhood has since become a landmark neighborhood of Victorian-era homes. This mansard double-house at 67-69 Ocean Street dates to around 1872 and is one of the earliest properties in the area. Blending the Second Empire and Stick architectural styles, the handsome double house is said to have been designed by architect Luther Briggs for George D. Welles and rented to tenants.