Norwood Town Hall represents the achievement of landscape architect Arthur A. Shurtleff and local financier, George Willet, to transform the village center of Norwood, Massachusetts from a sleepy rural village to a thriving commercial and cultural center of town. Plans for the municipal building began as early as 1919, with this building serving as both a town hall and memorial to the Norwood men who died in all previous wars. The building would not be completed until 1928. Designed by Norwood architect, William Upham, the building is a landmark example of the Neo-Gothic Revival style and its main feature, the 110-foot bell-tower which houses a 50-bell carillon, towers over the town common.
Before the turn of the 20th century, William L. and Elizabeth G. Phinney purchased a narrow house lot at the corner of Hawes and Chatham streets in the desirable Longwood neighborhood of Brookline. They then retained the young architectThomas Marriott James, to design this massive Federal Revival style mansion. After William died in 1911, Elizabeth remained in the house until 1920, when it sold to C. Willard Bigelow a wool dealer and his wife, Ruth. The Phinney-Bigelow House is an exemplary Federal Revival style house on a narrow lot which takes full advantage of its boxy form. The slightly asymmetrical facade with Palladian window, limestone trimmings, and bold entrance are all great additions to the design.
One of the most unique houses in Connecticut is this massive Federal style residence located in the small town of Eastford. Built next to the Congregational Church of Eastford (1829-2023), which burned down in 2023 by arson, the massive house has been known as both the Benjamin Bosworth House and Squire Bosworth’s Castle due to its first owner, Benjamin Bosworth (1762-1850). According to the Bosworth Family, the house was built in 1800 by Bosworth was a wealthy merchant, who hired Vini Goodell, a local carpenter to design and build the large Federal home. The house was completed by 1801 when the local Masonic group met in the building. As Bosworth was also a merchant, he used the basement as a storeroom. The house is also unusual for its monitor roof, a rarity in Federal period construction, which reads like a second structure on the house, due to the building’s size. After Bosworth’s death, the house was occupied by his niece, and was later purchased by Elisha Grant Trowbridge in 1897. Trowbridge was a grand-nephew of General Nathaniel Lyon (1818-1861), a local hero who was the first Union general killed during the Civil War. Trowbridge, an engineer, lived here until he died in 1963 at the age of 96. Later owners have had the monumental task of restoring and maintaining this behemoth of a house, to great success.
Located in Pigeon Cove, the northern section of Rockport, Massachusetts, the “Old Castle” is an iconic landmark in the charming coastal town. The exact year it was built is not known, but it is believed to have been built in 1712 by Jethro Wheeler (1692-1755), a shoemaker who settled here from nearby Rowley. In 1724, Jethro deeded the property to his son Benjamin, and he moved out of town. Benjamin, is turn sold the property to his son Benjamin in 1769. Benjamin Jr.’s son, John D. Wheeler in 1792 inherited the property and added the lean-to/kitchen room to the rear to create the present saltbox roof form. Various Wheelers continued to own the Old Castle for another hundred years. The property was gifted in 1929 to the Pigeon Cove Village Improvement Society, and is presently under ownership of the Sandy Bay Historical Society, who manage the property as a house museum. The house with its overhanging second story reads like a garrison, a common element in First Period houses in Essex County.
Once located at the entrance to the Hutchings-Pfaff Mansion, this small stone gatehouse is all that remains of a great Roxbury estate. Built of locally quarried Roxbury Puddingstone decades after the main house was completed, the Victorian Gothic style cottage surprisingly survived the subdividing of the large property and was sold as a private home in the early 20th century. It is uncommon to see these types of outbuildings survive into the 21st century, so I hope to see this charming cottage survive another 150 years!
The Fisher-Richardson House in Mansfield, Massachusetts is considered to be one of the oldest buildings in the suburban town. The home dates to sometime between 1743 and 1751 and was built for its original owner Ebenezer Wellman (1720-1776). The property was eventually owned by Lemuel Fisher, who in about 1800, doubled the size of the house adding its western half. When Lemuel died in 1820, the property was inherited by his youngest son, Daniel, a farmer and blacksmith who also built a gristmill nearby. The home was later inherited by Daniel’s daughter, Evelina and her husband, Captain Ira Richardson. By 1930, the gambrel-roofed Georgian house was in disrepair, and the owner at the time contacted SPNEA (now Historic New England) who drafted an agreement to acquire and restore the house. However, as local interest in the property increased, the owner deeded the property to the town, and the town took on the costs of restoration. The property is now managed by the Mansfield Historical Society.
New Haven, Connecticut is known for its Gothic and Modernist architecture, but as it is located in New England, some good Colonial Revival architecture is not hard to find! The New Haven Museum building on Whitney Avenue was built for the New Haven Colony Historical Society, which was established in 1862 to collect, preserve, and publish historical matter related to the history of the greater New Haven community. The Society was housed in various locations around the city throughout the 19th century until 1929 when it relocated to its present building designed by J. Frederick Kelly, a noted colonial revival architect. The symmetrical building with its eleven-bay facade is notable for its arched recessed portico and rooftop cupola. The building remains occupied by the New Haven Museum to this day.
One of the two largest summer “cottages” on Grindstone Neck, Winter Harbor, Maine is this massive Shingled mansion overlooking Frenchman’s Bay. Due to its scale and design, the house possibly replaced a more modest cottage in the early 20th century. The “cottage” was owned by Samuel Price Wetherill, a Philadelphia-based manufacturer and businessman. Wetherill spent most of his time at a Rittenhouse Square Beaux Arts mansion in Philadelphia, which after his death, was purchased by the Philadelphia Art Alliance. The Wetherills hosted lavish events in the mansion and clearly wanted to make a statement with their summer home, which rivals almost any “cottage” in the more prestigious Bar Harbor over the bay.
Built for Revolutionary War veteran and local lawyer Benjamin Stiles, this stunning Georgian mansion is unique for its use of brick in construction, a material not too common for some of Southbury’s earliest homes. Local tradition holds that a French engineer in General Rochambeau’s army provided assistance in designing the building, using the metric system, likely on the march from Newport to Yorktown. Benjamin’s father was one of the original settlers who migrated from present-day Stratford to the un-developed Southbury. The hip-on-hip roof with pedimented dormers is really a stunner, and unique for the town!
The Bullet Hill School, formerly known as the Brick School, is the oldest public building in Southbury, Connecticut and one of the oldest schoolhouses in America. Originally built in 1762 of locally made bricks, the two-story structure is a well-preserved example of a Colonial-era school building. Some sources date the building to 1790. The building remained in operation as a school for 179 years until December 1941 when the new Southbury Consolidated School, now Gainfield Elementary School, opened in January 1942. The Bullet Hill school is distinguished by its near-square proportions, locally made bricks laid up in Flemish bond, generous window sizes, and a hipped roof. The original cupola, now replaced, served as the model for Southbury’s 1977 Town Hall and other public buildings in town. Today, the former schoolhouse is maintained by the town and operated by the Historical Society as a living museum that is open for class visits and tours.
This house in West Acton is the last in this batch of Queen Anne style Victorian houses I’ll feature in the village. The dwelling was built in 1891 for a 31-year-old John Sherman Hoar, Jr. (1860-1954) and his new wife Minnie R. Hart. John was a master carpenter and built many of the Queen Anne style homes on Windsor Street and later Colonial Revival and Craftsman homes in the 1890s and 1900s himself. This was his own property which once included a workshop where he cut and manufactured many homes on the street. Today, the Hoar House has a cheery pink color scheme (which while not historically appropriate) brought a smile to my face when strolling by!
To me, Vermont is synonymous with Vernacular architecture. The state obviously has high-style and architect-designed buildings all over, but the character of the state (to me) is based around local builders, local materials, and local traditions. The patchwork of towns and villages in Vermont all have one thing in common, at least one general store. These buildings serve as an informal meeting place or community center where residents and visitors alike can hear the local gossip and events taking place. The general store in Whitingham, Vermont is located in the middle of the village, perfect for stopping in. The building was constructed in the first decade of the 20th century, replacing a former hotel/tavern on the site. The late-folk Victorian style store exhibits some decorative columns and storefronts, likely produced at one of the working lumber mills in town at the time. The store was originally built by Arthur and Carl Wheeler as the “Wheeler Brothers Store” but after 15 years changed hands and became the “F.W. Jillson & Son Store”. Since then, the Jillson’s opened up an antique store in the building which serves as a multi-use facility (collectively as a country store). Keep it local Vermont!
Here is a building type many of you may not know of… the Ten-Footer! This 10 x 10-foot square building is a well preserved example of a kind of shop historically used by many shoemakers in the late-18th to mid-19th centuries. In Stoneham during the 19th century there were many such shops scattered throughout the town as the area became a sort of hub for shoemaking. In the age before and just after the Industrial Revolution, many Massachusetts residents had home shops in the yards where family and neighbors could earn extra part-time money by doing piece work on shoes. These cottage industry shoe workers were paid for each pair of shoes delivered to the local distributor. Usually, the owner-shoemaker worked alone or with family members in the cramped space with materials like leathers, rubber, and straps stored in the attic space in a loft in the gable. This ten-footer was built in the mid 19th century and later owned by Peter Doucette, who ran a shoe shop here. The small building was eventually acquired by the Stoneham Historical Society and was moved behind their building, restored and it can better tell the story of the town’s rich shoemaking history.
Wrapping up this series on a tour of buildings in Blue Hill, Maine, we have two stunning old homes left!
This landmark Federal style house was built sometime between 1812 and 1816 by Robert Parker, whose wife was a daughter of Joseph Wood, one of the first two white settlers of Blue Hill. The home is significant not only architecturally, but for its connections to a number of old settlers to Blue Hill and their families.
By the turn of the 20th century the farming, mining and granite producing town of Blue Hill had been discovered. Writers, artists, musicians, and wealthy urban families from all over the East Coast found inspiration or retreat in many coastal Maine communities including Blue Hill, building “cottages” to summer at. Not all those who arrived to Maine were ‘from away’, as many built new or renovated their old ancestral homes to be occupied when seeking the peace and tranquility of coastal Maine. The Parker House was no different. In 1900, it was renovated in the Colonial Revival style as a summer home for Frederick A. Merrill and his wife, Elizabeth, residents of Boston. The couple hired George A. Clough, who worked as the first City Architect of Boston, but grew up locally in Blue Hill. Mrs. Merrill was descended from Mrs. Robert Parker’s sister. The current owner, the Merrill’s great-grandson, has undertaken a restoration of the house which pays homage to its Colonial Revival past. The stunning house can even be rented!
The former Vermont State Hospital campus in Waterbury, Vermont, is a 36.3-acre campus of institutional buildings that have been converted for use as state government offices. A sprawling array of more than 17 structures, the hospital, which historically treated mental disorders, was first funded by the Vermont State Legislature in 1888. Construction began on the plans by the Boston architectural firm of Rand & Taylor in 1890. The architects designed the landmark main administration and auditorium building at the core, which is built of brick on a rusticated stone foundation and under a steep hipped slate roof. The building is connected by single-story links to two-and-a-half-story wings, which are attached to clustered two-story cylindrical wards. In planning the hospital, Rand & Taylor stressed the isolation of patients and stressed the importance of light and air in each room and restricted height of the building to facilitate egress from upper floors in the event of fire or emergency. The asylum has a dark history in that Dr. Eugene A. Stanley, the Superintendent from 1918–1936, was an advocate of eugenics and espoused forced sterilization and advised the Eugenics Society based on his patients records. From this, the word, “Waterbury,” became used in a derogatory sense, and did harm to the town for years. The hospital was closed in 2011 due to flooding in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene, and after a thorough renovation by architects Freeman French Freeman and Goody Clancy, the complex re-opened in 2015 as State Offices with renovated historic assets and modern, contextual new buildings.
Buildings of New England 
