Architecture Blog

Charles P. Ware House // 1894

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The Charles P. Ware House at 52 Allerton Street in Brookline, shows us that a house doesn’t have to be a mansion to make a statement! Built in 1894 from plans by architect, Henry Forbes Bigelow, this charming Colonial Revival cottage is notable for its brick construction with gambrel roof and brick endwalls rising as parapets. The home was built for Charles Pickard Ware (1840-1921) and wife, Elizabeth Lawrence (Appleton) Ware, who lived here until their deaths. Charles P. Ware was an educator, music transcriber, and abolitionist, who served as a civilian administrator in the Union Army, where he was a labor superintendent of freedmen on plantations at Port Royal, South Carolina during the Civil War. At one of the freedmen plantations, Seaside Plantation, Ware transcribed many slave songs with music and lyrics, publishing many in Slave Songs of the United States, which was the first published collection of American folk music. After Charles and Elizabeth Ware died in 1921 and 1926, respectively, the property was inherited by their son, Henry Ware, who was an attorney.

Codman-Gillet House // 1928

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Built in 1928 as an accurate reproduction of an 18th-century residence the Codman-Gillet House at 60 High Street in Brookline is significant architecturally in the Colonial Revival style but also as a preserved house by the architectural firm of Howe, Manny and Almy. Lois Lilley Howe and Eleanor Manning were among the first women graduates of the M.I.T. School of Architecture, and the firm was joined in 1926 by Mary Almy. Their firm was the first all-woman architecture practice in Boston and the second in the U.S. Howe was the first woman elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. The house was built for William Coombs Codman, a trustee of various real estate trusts, and was likely rented or sold for investment. The first long-time owner/occupants of the residence were Mr. and Mrs. Fernand Gillet and who both taught at the New England Conservatory of Music. Fernand was the principal oboist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1925 to 1946. The Codman-Gillet House features many traditional Colonial Revival elements including: the corner quoining, window trim, a pedimented projecting entrance, and hipped roof with large central chimney.

Dana House // 1896

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The Dana House at 41 Allerton Street in Brookline, Massachusetts, is one of many stately suburban residences designed in the Colonial Revival style here. Built in 1896 for Ms. Julia Hurd Dana (1825-1914), a widow of James Dana, who was a Mayor of Charlestown between 1858-1860, before it was annexed to Boston. The Dana House was designed by the important architectural firm of Chapman & Frazer, who specialized in higher-end suburban housing at the turn of the 20th century. Julia Hurd Dana was the daughter of William Hurd of Charlestown, and after her husband’s death, moved to Brookline in this new home with her daughter, Mary. The residence is notable for its ample setback from the street, providing a front yard garden, hipped roof of slate with pedimented dormers, and palladian window over the portico which is now covered in crawling ivy.

Russell-Hayes House // 1899

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The Russell-Hayes House at 58 Allerton Street in Brookline, Massachusetts, was built in 1899 in the highly popular Colonial Revival style for Mr. and Mrs. Russell. Francis Henry Russell (1832-1919) was born in Plymouth and married Elizabeth Stevens (1835-1922) of Lawrence, and had one daughter together. Francis attended Harvard College and eventually worked as the Treasurer of the Bates Manufacturing Company, doing well enough to purchase a house lot in the fashionable “Pill Hill” neighborhood of Brookline to build his home here. Mr. Russell hired Plymouth-born architect, Joseph Everett Chandler, to design his suburban residence for himself, his wife, and daughter. After the death’s of Francis (1919), Elizabeth (1922) and their unmarried daughter, Mary (1926), the property was purchased in 1927 by African American musician, Roland Hayes. Just years prior to purchasing this stately home in Brookline, Roland Hayes performed abroad in Europe, even a private performance for King George V and Queen Mary at Buckingham Palace. He returned to the United States of America in 1923 and made his official debut on November 16, 1923, in Boston’s Symphony Hall, which received critical acclaim. He was the first African-American soloist to appear with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, who would later hire him, with a reported salary of $100,000 a year. Roland and his family lived in this house for 50 years until his death in 1977. His legacy lives on here with a plaque in front of the home, and a public school named after him.

Daniel Smith House // c.1750

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The Daniel Smith House at 362 Benefit Street in Providence, Rhode Island, stands out in the neighborhood as an uncommon gambrel-roofed Georgian-era residence, but it was not built here! The home was built by about 1750 for Daniel Smith, and may possibly date to around 1725 a year after he was deeded land from his father and the same year he married his wife, Dorcas Harris. If the home does indeed date to around 1725, it would likely be the oldest extant house in Providence! The home was originally located across town on Chalkstone Avenue, and moved to the present site on Benefit Street in 1982 to save it from institutional expansion by Roger Williams Hospital. The hospital set a date to demolish the farmhouse, then covered in asbestos siding, and offered the building for free to someone who could move it off the site. After tense weeks and a nearing deadline, Angela Brown Fischer, a real estate executive, agreed to pay the costs to move the building across town to a site on Benefit Street, where it remains today. The home was put back together and restored by Newport-based architect, Richard Long, who worked as principal architect for the Restoration Foundation of Newport before opening a private architectural practice. What a great preservation success story!

John Larchar House // c.1820

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The John Larchar House at 282 Benefit Street in Providence is one of the many stately Federal period homes in the city designed by great architect, John Holden Greene. John Larchar (also spelled Larcher), was born in Providence in 1787 and worked in local businesses, eventually becoming a bank director that was involved in many mercantile pursuits. The residence remained in John’s family long after his death in 1863, and has been maintained so well by subsequent owners. The 2½-story, brick Federal house features stone trim, four chimneys, a central elliptical fanlight doorway, modillion cornice and amazing 12-over-12 windows. The cupola at the roof appears to be a is a mid-19th-century addition, possibly after John’s death. The garage and two-story side addition dates to the 1960s but does not detract from the architectural integrity of the home. 

Ives Rowhouses // 1814

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The Ives Rowhouses stand at 270-276 Benefit Street in Providence and are an important and intact example of a Federal period row from the early 19th century. These four, three-story brick rowhouses were built between 1814-19 as investment property for Thomas Poynton Ives, a successful local merchant and partner in the firm of Brown & Ives, who lived nearby on Power Street. Each of the houses has a three-bay facade with pedimented fanlight doorways. The one residence was significantly altered in 1948 by the massive archway for vehicular access at the rear. The houses stand out in Providence, as fairly uncommon rowhouses, which never took off quite like they did in Boston and other New England cities. The row is today neighbors with the National Historic Landmark Hopkins House.

Stephen Hopkins House // 1743

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The Stephen Hopkins House is a Colonial-era house in the East Side neighborhood of Providence, and has survived waves of commercialization and redevelopment for nearly 300 years. The home is associated with Founding Father of the United States, Stephen Hopkins (1707–1785), who served as Governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, and was a signer of both the Continental Association and Declaration of Independence. In 1742, Stephen Hopkins purchased a one-story cottage built in 1707 on Main Street, and enlarged the original house to its present size by 1743, incorporating the original cottage as the rear ell. The eight-room residence was occupied by Gov. Hopkins, his family, as well as enslaved Africans who lived under the same roof until his death in 1785. During his ownership, George Washington slept here, twice. After 150 years of successive ownership, in 1928, the house was moved to its current location at the corner of Hopkins and Benefit Streets to facilitate the construction of the new Providence County Courthouse complex. The Hopkins House was restored by architectural historian and architect, Norman M. Isham, and is owned by The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, operating it as a historic house museum. The Gov. Stephen Hopkins House is a National Historic Landmark.

Ambrose Burnside House // 1866

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What do this unique Victorian house and sideburns have in common? Well, you are about to find out!

The Ambrose Burnside House is sited on an oddly shaped, and sloping corner lot on Benefit Street in Providence’s East Side neighborhood, and is one of the most unique Second Empire style residences in New England. The house was built in 1866 for General Ambrose Burnside (1824-1881), a Union general in the American Civil War, who returned to Providence and was about to begin a term as governor, followed by two terms in the United States Senate. Ambrose Burnside hired local architect, Alfred Stone, to design his new city mansion, which upon completion, was deemed one of the most “modern residences” in Providence. Built of brick with Nova Scotia stone with a concave slate mansard roof and one-of-a-kind rounded corner bay, the Ambrose Burnside House does not disappoint! Ambrose Burnside died in 1881 and the property was occupied by his sister-in-law until the property was sold in 1884 and housed the Providence Children’s Friend Society House for Aged Women and the Providence Association for the Benefit of Colored Children, providing shelter and food for elderly women and children of color without parents or guardians. After WWII, the Burnside House was converted to apartments.

Now, to the sideburns… Ambrose Burnside was noted for his unusual beard, joining strips of hair in front of his ears to his mustache but with the chin clean-shaven; the word burnsides was coined to describe this style. The syllables were later reversed to give sideburns.

Tully Bowen House // 1853

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Designed by great architect, Thomas Tefft, this three-bay, three-story brownstone house located at 389 Benefit Street in Providence, was built for Tully D. Bowen, a cotton manufacturer. The house, one of the finest Italianate style mansions in the state, is constructed of brownstone and features a recessed arched entrance surrounded by a flat-headed Doric-pilastered frame, pedimented first-floor windows resting on brackets with the alternation of flat and pedimented heads at the second story, and quoining at the corners. The property also retains its original Tefft-designed brick and brownstone carriage house. Thomas Tefft, who was just 27 at the time of designing this house and corresponding brownstone and iron gate, would become one of America’s finest architects before he died in Florence with a fever in 1859 at just 33 years old. The residence was converted to 12 apartments in 1941 and the carriage house was converted to residential use as well. Even with the subdividing the interior spaces of the residence and carriage house, the Bowen property remains in a great state of preservation and is one of the finest homes in Providence.