arts and crafts architecture

Partridge House // c.1908

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Located on Amory Street in Brookline, this handsome Arts and Crafts style residence dates to about 1908 and while clearly Craftsman in style, does appear to follow the horizontality and form of the Prairie School of architecture, popularized by famed architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. While the architect of this house is unclear, we do know that the first owners were Mr. Frank T. Partridge and his wife, Edith Stevens Partridge. The stucco house features a horizontal belt course, shallow hip roof with broad eaves supported by brackets, and elaborate entry and porches. The colors enhance the architecture of the home perfectly. 

Moseley-Widger House // 1906

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One of the many houses in the Cottage Farm-adjacent neighborhoods of Brookline, Massachusetts, is this great blending of the Tudor Revival and Arts and Crafts styles of architecture, which dominated residential architecture in the Boston suburbs in the early 20th century. This residence was built in 1906 for Mr. Frank Moseley and his wife, Martha Hawes Moseley from plans by architect Robert C. Coit. Covered in stucco siding and half timbering, the charming house evokes the countryside of England, right here in Brookline. After WWI, the house was owned by Ms. Lizzie Widger, a water color artist and member of Copley Society of Boston, and her husband, Samuel Widger, a cotton broker. The Moseley-Widger House looks as it did 120 years ago and is in a great state of preservation, thanks to generations of loving stewards.

Bayville Post Office // c.1920

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Bayville, is a quiet and picturesque coastal village on Linekin Bay, in the eastern part of Boothbay Harbor, Maine. The small village is comprised of roughly 40 cottages and a small post office. This post office was built around 1920 and has operated here seasonally every summer since. The rustic Craftsman style building features a broad roof with exposed rafter tails, extending to create a sheltered porch off the front.

Highland Cemetery Chapel // 1903

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Tucked away in Highland Cemetery, a typical looking cemetery in Norwood, Massachusetts, you will find a masterpiece chapel designed by one of the great architects of the Arts & Crafts movement. The Highland Cemetery was established in 1880 becoming the town’s second and primary burial ground. The town’s first burial ground was the Old Parish Cemetery which is located in the center of town on a 3/4-acre hill and because of its limited size and the difficult terrain; there was no room for growth. The rapidly developing town required a second cemetery and laid out Highland View on the outskirts of the village. In 1903, the Chapel of St. Gabriel the Archangel, also known as the Day Memorial Chapel, was erected at the center of the cemetery. The Chapel, which also acts as a mausoleum, was donated to the town by Lewis and Anna Smith Day in memory of their parents. Their only stipulation was that the chapel be available for use free of charge for any resident who desired to do so, no matter their religion or race. Esteemed architect Ralph Adams Cram designed the chapel in the Neo Gothic Revival style. Fred Holland Day, a renowned photographer and publisher, was the only child born to Lewis and Anna and he was a close friend of Ralph Adams Cram and Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, likely leading to their commission here in Norwood. F. Holland Day lived in a Tudor mansion in town, modified from his childhood home. The Cemetery Chapel remains a seminal building for its genre and time.

Miles Standish Cottage // c.1890

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One of the larger summer cottages on Hull Hill is the Miles Standish Cottage, which dates to around 1890. The cottage was built after the nearby Hull Yacht Club was completed in 1882, which was apparently the second largest yacht club upon its completion. Owner L. Miles Standish was the first owner and the eclectic Craftsman/Shingle style cottage has been lovingly maintained by all subsequent owners. The house appears to now have the name “Last Best Place”, which is very suitable!

Former Allerton Point Post Office // c.1890

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By the end of the 19th century, various coastal developments on the elongated coastal town of Hull, Massachusetts, developed into established neighborhoods of cottages. As a result, new stores, schools, and post offices were built to accommodate the increase in population. William Henry Sylvester (1840-1923) a local resident, built this structure to serve as a store, professional offices, and post office. Like other buildings in the area constructed in the 1890s, the structure blends Queen Anne and Craftsman elements in a great composition. Sadly, the building has not been maintained and the windows are now boarded up, with the entire waterfront parcel selling in 2018. Plans to demolish the buildings on the site, including this charming structure were proposed to erect new townhomes, but they have not materialized. I’d love to see the site redeveloped with much-needed housing, but this structure should be incorporated in the development.

Megunticook Clubhouse // 1901

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As coastal communities in Maine’s mid-coast began to see more wealthy summer residents, these enclaves of cottages needed clubhouses and spaces to spend their summer days. In 1899, Philadelphian (and Rockport summer resident) Charles Wolcott Henry converted a section of his oceanfront summer estate at Rockport’s Beauchamp Point to a newly established golf club which quickly outcompeted all others nearby. Within a few years, Boston architect Charles H. Brigham, was hired to design this Craftsman style clubhouse that sits on an elevated site with an expansive wraparound veranda providing views of the new course and the Penobscot Bay. The rubble-stone foundation and walls clad in brown-stained shingles are well suited to the rugged coastal Maine site. The golf course, also designed in 1901, was planned by groundskeeper Thomas Grant as a 9-hole course. The recreational complex has been meticulously preserved and is a great example of a turn-of-the-century clubhouse in coastal Maine. The 1901 clubhouse is also said to be the oldest golf building in Maine!

Judge Philip Rubenstein House // c.1915

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In the early 20th century, the suburban development of Longwood in Brookline saw another period of rapid development. Larger estates were subdivided and developed with all kinds of housing from single-family mansions to middle-class homes to large apartment buildings. One of the more modest-sized houses built in the first decades of the 20th century was this house, one of a collection of stuccoed homes on Colchester Street. The house was purchased by Judge Philip Rubenstein, the first member of the Jewish faith to serve on the Massachusetts bench and one of the first three judges of Boston’s juvenile court, the first in the country. The unique home is clad with stucco with a terracotta shingle roof and Colonial Revival style entry, showing an effective blending of the Arts and Crafts and Colonial styles.

Mansfield DAR Lodge // c.1830

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Tucked away on a side street in Mansfield, I was pleasantly surprised to stumble upon this charming example of a Craftsman bungalow, a style and form not too common in New England. The style, synonymous with the western United States’ population growth in the early 20th century, never took off the same way here as Yankee homeowners and builders often stayed true to the Colonial Revival style (even today). This building is said to date from the early 1800s and was built as a Federal style cape. It was owned by a Margaret Lane in the late 19th century. By the 1930s, the house was significantly altered with a full-length porch supported by tapered shingled columns atop fieldstone bases and new dormers at the roof with flared eaves. The building has been home to a local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). What a charmer!

“Highfield” // 1914

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The Highfield house is a historic building located in Middlebury, Connecticut. The House, surrounded by over 600 acres of land, was the former summer estate of Columbia University law professor Joseph and his wife, Elizabeth Chamberlain. They commissioned Theodate Pope Riddle, one of the first licensed female architects in America to build this comfortable English Arts and Crafts style cottage on a hill above a lake. It is likely that after the Westover School was completed in town, the Chamberlains were excited to see how Theodate could design them a summer house in the similar Arts and Crafts style. The estate was completed in 1914 and stands two-stories with the second floor concealed within the steeply pitched gable roof. Like Westover, the building was stuccoed. In the 1950s, the estate was purchased by a group of individuals who dedicated the complex as a family and country club with golf, tennis courts, and pool. It is known as the Highfield Club today.