The George Dexter House on Sewall Avenue in Brookline was built in 1885 and designed by architect S. Edwin Tobey. George B. Dexter was part-owner of Dexter Brothers which was one of the two most prominent manufacturers of paints and oils in New England (the other being Cabot Co.). Dexter hired Tobey to design a wood-frame house for his family which combined shingles and clapboards, as well as a variety of other wood trim, which would display his companies products. According to an article, Dexter also stained and painted the interior a variety of colors to showcase the wide range of options his company had. The home is a great example of the Queen Anne/Shingle style with the veranda and undulating expanses of shingles showcase the ability of shingles to wrap around any shape of feature. The home was converted to a two-family in the 1920s.
Located on a narrow residential street in Brookline Village, the Dr. Tappan Eustis Francis House is an unusual work by an architect about to begin his most creative period as a designer. The house was either designed or updated by architect William Ralph Emerson, who is best known for his Shingle Style designs for summer cottages in the Boston area and coastal communities all over New England. This Queen Anne style example illustrates Emerson’s willingness to experiment in adaptations of popular European styles in more suburban contexts. This was the home of Dr. Tappan Eustis Francis (1823-1909), a medical doctor who graduated from Harvard College in 1844 and Harvard Medical School in 1847, settling in Brookline Village to work until his death in the early 1900s.
Brookline is pretty great as you can find unique and well-preserved examples of nearly every type of building in almost every architectural style! Staying in Brookline Village, this apartment building stands out as one of the best panel-brick apartments I have seen. The property was developed in the mid-1880s by Thomas W. Clements, who served in the Army during the American Civil War and later settled in the Boston area working as a dentist. Thomas married Lydia R. Clements, who is much more interesting than her husband! She was a graduate of the Boston University School of Medicine and worked locally for years, but wanted more. In the spring of 1898, she set out with a party of men and women, determined to make their fortune in the gold fields of the Klondike. During the months long trek, all of the other women and some of the men in her party left the expedition before reaching their goal, but Lydia Clements persevered and became one of the first white women — possibly the first from the East — to cross the Chilkoot Pass into the Klondike region. She never made a fortune, but upon returning, she was more spiritual, and got involved in the occult philosophy of Prof. Charles H. Mackay and his West Gate School of Philosophy in Boston. She used her new learnings to go back to Alaska to make her fortune, but there is no indication that Clements ever did make her fortune. She did however, remain in Nome and elsewhere in Alaska for more than a decade, hiring men and mining tin and gold. She retained her Brookline residence here on Davis Avenue and travelled back and forth across the continent many times before returning to Brookline, before dying there in February 1927.
Now THIS is a fancy double house! Located on the corner of Cypress and Waverly streets in Brookline Village, and exudes Victorian charm. The double house is Queen Anne in style with some Shingle style details, notably the use of shingles undulating rounded corners, columns and dormers. The property was built for John Sturtevant, who was born on a farm in New Hampshire. According to his obituary, at the age of 17, he sought “fame and fortune in manufacturing” and climbed the metaphorical ladder, working in and eventually owning mills in most New England states. He developed his larger lot here in Brookline, building rental units in finely designed dwellings for additional income. The houses are now condominiums and the owners have done an incredible job with paint colors and preserving this gorgeous old building.
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!
Brookline Village is full of amazing double houses (or duplexes) built in the late 19th century. Many feature Queen Anne detailing and are architecturally striking with porches, complex rooflines, and trim details. This example was built in 1884 by Elijah Emerson, who had an estate nearby. His house was originally located where the park, Emerson Garden is located, but it was moved across the street. He had this double house built and rented it out to middle-class families who flocked to the neighborhood for the ease of access to Downtown Boston, while maintaining a bucolic feel (why many still today move to Brookline). Even though it is covered in aluminum siding today, the original wood clapboards and trim likely are waiting underneath to be revealed someday. But for today, we can gawk at the original details that are visible, including the semi-circular window, recessed porch with decorative balustrade, and porch with original entry doors.
While many lots in Brookline village in the final decades of the 19th century were being redeveloped as duplexes, three-deckers, and apartment houses, some property owners still wanted single-family living. In 1885, George Carpenter had this home in the village built from plans by well-known architect Obed F. Smith, who designed many Victorian-era homes in Boston’s Back Bay and around the region. George Carpenter worked in Downtown Boston as an agent for the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company. The house features some Stick style elements seen in the porch spindles and carved brackets.
The oldest residential subdivision in Brookline, Massachusetts is Linden Place, an area in Brookline Village encompassed by Linden Street, Linden Place, Linden Park, and Linden Square, with the earliest development dating to the mid-1840s. Many early Greek Revival dwellings were built there in preparation for the new Boston and Worcester Railroad‘s Brookline branch, connecting the village to Boston. After the 1840s, the second wave of development here occured after the American Civil War, when the remaining open lots were developed. This mini Mansard house of brick was constructed in 1871 by Solomon Eaton of Roxbury, seemingly to be leased. After numerous purchases, the first long-term owner was Clement K. Fay, who acquired the property from the Franklin Savings Bank at auction in 1884. Clement Kelsey Fay grew up across the street and was educated at Harvard College, later working as an attorney with a law practice in Boston. The cottage exhibits classic Second Empire features, including a mansard roof, polygonal bay windows, and brownstone window arches. The home was converted to a duplex in the 1920s and has been well-maintained and preserved over the years.
This stunning home in Brookline’s Cottage Farm neighborhood was built in 1908 for Bernard Jenney, the assistant treasurer of the Jenney Oil Company. Stephen Jenney, had founded Jenney Oil Company in Boston in 1812, as a kerosene, coal and whale oil producer. By the 1860s, Bernard Sr. and his brother Francis took over the company which became known as the Jenney Manufacturing Company. The newly established company focused primarily on production and distribution of petroleum products for factories and businesses. The Jenney Manufacturing Company took off in the early 1900s due to the proliferation of personal automobiles in Boston and they expanded a new manufacturing center in City Point, South Boston, which had a capacity of 500 barrels of oil a day. Jenney auto oil and gasoline became a major supplier and after Bernard Sr.’s death in 1918, under Bernard Jr.’s leadership, the company began to develop gas stations in New England. The company continued into the 1960s when it was acquired by Cities Service, later rebranding as Citgo. Jenney resided here until his death in 1939. According to the 1935 Brookline street list, the occupants included his daughter’s family Mary & Francis Brewer, three maids and a laundress. The house was acquired by Boston University in 1963 and has long served as the home of former president John Silber.
The architectural firm of Kilham & Hopkins was hired to design the home, which is French Renaissance Revival in style. The home itself is an architectural landmark. When it was published in ‘The American Architect’ in 1910, the house was described as, “A Study in French design of the Louis XVI period”. Additionally, the home (of course) featured a vehicle garage as the family must have had some cars based on the line of work. The home is now listed for sale for a cool $4,888,000 price tag!
Located on the appropriately named Netherlands Road in Brookline, MA, this house was actually designed as a temporary structure as part of the 1893 World’s Fair, also known as the World’s Columbian Exposition or the White City, depicted in the great book, Devil in the White City. The Dutch House was constructed in 1893 by the Van Houten Cocoa Company of the Netherlands, as a display pavilion and cocoa house. It was located at one end of the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building (the largest building ever constructed at the time). The Dutch House as we know of it today, was greatly inspired in design by the Franeker City Hall (c. 1591) in the Netherlands. While attending the World’s Fair, Captain Charles Brooks Appleton of Brookline be.came so captivated with the structure that after the Fair, he purchased the building and had it dismantled and transported to Brookline. By the early 2000s, much of the amazing carvings on the building had fallen off, until a new homeowner had them all restored from drawings and images of the building, to the iconic landmark we see today.
Buildings of New England 
