In 1895, when the Queen Anne style was no longer in vogue among architects and builders in the Boston area, the Allston Real Estate Company took a gamble and built this house in a scarcely developed section of Waban Village in Newton on spec, hoping to find a buyer. They found one in Oscar Raymond Rice and his wife Maud Lois Sargent Rice. Oscar worked as a salesman, and Maud volunteered locally with various causes. The family home is a great example of Queen Anne Victorian architecture with varied siding styles, asymmetry, a tower, rounded bay window, porch with turned posts, and applied decoration in the gables. The house underwent a large renovation about five years ago and it still looks great! The listing from 2017 gives me serious house envy.
In 1907, William F. Lamont and his family moved into this beautiful turn-of-the-century home in the rapidly developing Waban Village in Newton, Massachusetts. The extension of the circuit railroad connected this part of Newton (which had previously been farmland) to Downtown Boston, opening up the area to development for middle-income families who sought land and fresh air in the suburbs. The first house on Alban Road in Waban was built for the Lamont Family, and it perfectly blends multiple architectural styles under a gambrel roof.
Okay, there is just something about this house that is so intriguing and unique and stands out among all the other (thousands) of Colonial Revival style houses I have seen. I just can’t quite put my finger on it! This late 19th century beauty was built in 1898 for Eva Bailey and Francis Southwick eight years after their marriage and after the birth of their children. It is unclear who the young family hired as an architect to design the home, but they definitely went with a loose adaptation of the Colonial Revival style in an American Foursquare form. The house has a large Palladian window and a minimal front portico supported by Doric columns.
Another eclectic house in Waban is this beauty, a blending of Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles under an impressive gambrel roof. The home was occupied by Ernest L. Zeiss, a salesman. Waban, which was once a neighborhood within the reach of the middle-class, has since become one of the most desirable neighborhoods in one of the most exclusive towns in the Boston metro. It is safe to say an ordinary 9-5 salesman would not be able to afford a house like this today!
Eclectic homes that can not be pigeonholed to a single architectural style are among my favorite as they blend features elegantly into a single, unique composition. This house on Windsor Road in the Waban village of Newton, Massachusetts is an example of an “eclectic” late 19th century home. This old house exhibits elements of the Queen Anne and Tudor Revival styles. The house was built in 1897 for Daniel and Ida Baker. After their death, the home was purchased by a James H. Mason, who got it for an estimated $25,000 in 1909. A listing at the time mentions the property included a 14-room house and large stable, the latter still stands at the rear of the lot (since converted to a car garage).
At the very end of Windsor Road in Waban Village, Newton, you will find this large, stuccoed Tudor home. The property was one of the last developed on the street and was designed by Newton-based architect William J. Freethy. The first owner of the house was James R. Bancroft, a nationally known economist who taught at Boston University and for years served as President of the American Institute of Finance. The Bancroft House is a refined example of the Tudor Revival style with stucco siding without half-timbering or other masonry detailing which is seen in so many other examples nearby.
My favorite part about the Boston suburbs is the sheer number of well-preserved early 20th century residences. The collection of Colonial Revival, Tudor, and Arts and Crafts style houses found in Waban Village, Newton, are among my favorites. This two-story stucco-clad house enclosed by a slate gable roof with exposed rafter ends was built in 1923 from designs by architect Harry Morton Ramsay. Ramsay was hired to design dozens of middle-upper class houses in Newton during its period of rapid development in the early 20th century. The original owner was James H. Gardner, who lived here with his family and a maid for a couple decades.
This past weekend, I took a little “stay-cation” in Cambridge, and I am so glad I did! I stayed at the Prentiss House, a highly significant Greek Revival house near Porter Square. The Inn is operated by Thatch, a company that offers short-term hotel stays, long-term apartments, and co-living arrangements in the Boston area. They recently acquired and renovated this amazing old house and its a great place to stay!
The home was built in 1843 by William Saunders a well-known housewright for his son, William Augustus Saunders about the same time as his first child, Mary was born. Sadly, Mary died at just six years old and was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery with her grave guarded by a tiny stone dog. The Saunders Family resided at the home for over 50 years until William and his wife’s death at the end of the 19th century. The original location of the mansion on Massachusetts Avenue necessitated its move to the newly laid out Prentiss Street to save it from commercial development pressure and the wrecking ball. The home was moved to its present site in 1925 for the erection of a one-story block of stores on Mass. Ave. In 1992, the home was purchased by local artist, Charlotte Forsythe and she began the journey of transforming the home into the Mary Prentiss Inn. An addition by Bell/Fandetti added rooms and subterranean parking to the building at that time. The Inn was purchased by Thatch in 2021, who modernized the rooms.
The house reads like a Greek Temple, not with a full portico, but by using colossal applied pilasters and an entablature carried across the gable, suggesting a classical pediment. Ornamental wreaths adorn the full-length porch and interior mouldings.
One of the most iconic buildings in Everett, Massachusetts is the “Teddie Peanut Butter” building, in the brewery/distillery district of the city (home to Night Shift Brewery, Bone Up Brewing Company, and Short Path Distillery). The building is best-defined for its massive Mid-Century rooftop sign with the cute teddy bear. The building was constructed by the Leavitt Peanut Butter Company in 1958, but the company had its beginnings nearly a half-century earlier. The Leavitt Corporation had its beginnings in 1897 when Sarkis Shaghalian, a European immigrant, started manufacturing candy and roasted nuts in Boston. In 1916, Michael Hintlian took over the company and in 1925, established a separate corporate entity specializing in peanut and nut products, the John W. Leavitt Company. The company did extremely well in its Boston location, eventually outgrowing their State Street buildings. In 1959, the company hired an industrial realtor, who found the Everett facility – a recently constructed building with Modern finishes and design. In 1959, Leavitt Corp. signed a lease and moved in by 1960, adding the rooftop sign at that time. The sign used to have neon strips, but was eventually removed.
In the 1920s Italian-speaking residents in Everett, Massachusetts appealed to Archbishop of Boston, William O’Connell for an Italian parish. Everett had seen a large influx of Italian immigrants who settled in town and the surrounding communities for work. The Archdiocese saw the demand, and rented the former Broadway Theater to be used as a church for the short term. In 1951, land was acquired a few blocks away for a new church, school and rectory. The church was designed to resemble historic Romanesque-style churches seen in Italy, with the school and renovated rectory following the Modern tradition. The brick and limestone church appears to have been built more in the historical tradition, with hand-carved stone trim and a beautiful rose window. It’s amazing that this church was built in the 1950s!
Woodlawn Cemetery in Everett, MA was established in 1850 as a rural, private cemetery in the tradition of Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge. The story of Woodlawn Cemetery began in 1850 when a group of ten prominent Bostonians petitioned the Massachusetts General Court to organize a corporation “for the purpose of procuring, establishing and preparing a cemetery or burial place for the dead in Malden” (present-day Everett was established in 1870 from Malden). Adjacent to the Cemetery Gate and Tower (last post), the Woodlawn Cemetery Lodge replaced an 1850s lodge and office constructed of wood, in the Gothic-style, that was deemed unsatisfactory for later boards managing the cemetery. The group hired Boston architect William Hart Taylor to design the gate and lodge, the latter in the Classical Revival style. The buff brick building features terra-cotta trim and a red tile roof with dentil cornices and copper cresting along the ridges and eaves. The square entry tower has a columned belfry and incorporates additional Classically-inspired features including Ionic columns, moldings, swags, and wreaths, which looks like a Greek Temple plopped onto the top. Gorgeous!
Woodlawn Cemetery in Everett, MA was established in 1850 as a rural, private cemetery in the tradition of Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge. The story of Woodlawn Cemetery began in 1850 when a group of ten prominent Bostonians petitioned the Massachusetts General Court to organize a corporation “for the purpose of procuring, establishing and preparing a cemetery or burial place for the dead in Malden” (present-day Everett was established in 1870 from Malden). When you approach the main entrance of the cemetery, you are greeted by the entrance gate and tower. Completed in 1897 to replace an earlier wooden gate, the Entrance Gate consists of a central stone tower and two side entrances. The gate, tower, and adjacent lodge (next post) were designed by Boston architect William Hart Taylor, who was buried at the cemetery upon his death in 1928. The tower has decorative sculpted terra cotta which includes winged angels at the corners with outstretched arms that once hold trumpets. Below the medallion which is centered on each side, there is the bust of a winged child, supposedly a carved likeness of the architect’s young son who died at the age of six and is buried at Woodlawn.
Located next door to the First Congregational Church of Everett, you can find one of the finest eclectic commercial buildings in the region, and it is one that is often overlooked. The Everett Savings Bank was built in 1930 from plans by architect Thomas Marriott James for the Everett Savings Bank, which was established in 1889. This building was constructed just at the beginning of the Great Depression, at a time when banks and American citizens were penny pinching. The budget was likely set before the Stock Market Crash of 1929 as the relatively high-style bank building would have been a big expense at the time. The bank blends Art Deco and Spanish Renaissance Revival styles elegantly. The structure is constructed with sandstone walls that are decorated with figured panels and semi-circular multi-pane windows are outlined by rope molding. Crowning the building is a bold arcaded frieze with Moorish inspired cornice. Swoon!
Albert Norton Parlin (1848-1927) was born in Everett, Massachusetts to Ezra Parlin and Nancy Pickering-Parlin. At a young age, Albert lost both his parents – his mother passed in 1853 at the age of 26 and his father passed in 1858 at the age of 37, both succumbing to “consumption” (tuberculosis). At the age of nine, young Albert had become an orphan, and was raised by his grandmother at the Pickering Estate. He found his first job as a floor-sweep and errand boy in a retail cloak store. At seventeen, Albert Parlin began working with Magee Furnace Company, a Boston-based company where Mr. Parlin spent twenty-eight years of his professional career, moving up the ranks to become treasurer of the company. After he became successful, he gave back to his hometown, when in 1892, he donated his familial home and money to the City of Everett for the erection of the Parlin Memorial Library, to honor his late son. Parlin was not done giving to his hometown. He also left funds and a large piece of land to the City of Everett for a new Junior High School in 1915. The architectural firm of Desmond & Lord was commissioned to design the school which is set deep on the lot to give the building a beautiful front lawn. The 1931 building blends Art Deco and Tudor Revival styles with a large central panel.
The Frederick E. Parlin Memorial Library is arguably the most architecturally significant building in the City of Everett, Massachusetts. Constructed of buff brick, sandstone and terracotta, it displays characteristics of the Richardsonian Romanesque style including the main entrance set within a recessed arch at the base of a square tower with arched openings. In 1892, Albert Norton Parlin, a local businessman, donated to the City of Everett the Pickering Estate, his birthplace and familial home, to be torn down and a library erected on the parcel in memory of his son, Frederick E. Parlin, who died in 1890 at the age of eighteen. Albert Parlin gave to the City an additional $5,000 to aid in the building of the Frederick E. Parlin Memorial Library. The original 1894 library as well as a 1911-1912 addition were designed by local architect John Calvin Spofford who positioned the building to face a small triangular park. By the 1940’s, the building was outgrown, but it wasn’t until 1982 that a plan was set in motion to renovate the original building and to construct an addition. Childs, Bertman, Tseckares was chosen to draw up the architectural plans, and ground was finally broken in the spring of 1990. With construction of the new addition, the building is almost three times its original size and handicapped accessible, all with an appropriate, Post-Modern design.
Buildings of New England 