Boston History

Former Arlington House Hotel // 1870

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The Bulfinch Triangle area just south of the TD Garden in Boston is a cohesive and historically preserved district of similar commercial and industrial buildings of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Somehow, the area has been preserved largely intact besides some sites serving as surface parking lots and some incompatible infill developments. Historically, the area was a tidal flat, before the land here was filled beginning in 1807, with Causeway Street as the northern boundary. The area’s namesake, architect Charles Bulfinch, designed the street layout for the landowners, and the area was filled with material taken by lowering Beacon Hill and Copp’s Hill. Development was fairly slow until railroad companies built depots in the area around present-day North Station, many of which connected the area to cities north of Boston. These new train lines boosted the value of the surrounding land, with manufacturers and developers building factories and hotels in the area. This handsome structure on Causeway Street was built in 1870 by William G. Means, a manufacturer who also invested in real estate in Boston. He commissioned architect Samuel J. F. Thayer to furnish plans for the apartment hotel in the Second Empire style with a mansard roof and window lintels of diminishing detail as the floors increase. In later years, the Arlington House Hotel changed hands and names, later known as the Eastern Hotel and Hotel Haymarket. Stay tuned for more Boston history in this series highlighting the North Station and Bulfinch Triangle district!

George’s Island – Fort Warren // 1847

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Located seven miles by boat from downtown Boston, Georges Island is a must-visit location for history-buffs and those looking to see the city from a new vantage point! The island in its early days was used for agriculture for 200 years until 1825, when the U.S. government acquired it for coastal defense. Fort Warren was first-dedicated in 1847 and is named for Revolutionary War hero Dr. Joseph Warren, who sent Paul Revere on his famous ride, and was later killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Fort Warren is a pentagonal bastion fort, made of granite, and was constructed from 1833 to 1861, overseen by Col. Sylvanus Thayer, and completed shortly after the beginning of the American Civil War. Fort Warren defended the harbor in Boston, Massachusetts, off-and-on from 1861 through the end of World War II. It’s highest use was during the Civil War, where it served as a training facility and as a prison for Confederate officers and government officials. Unused after WWII, Fort Warren was acquired by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts by the Federal government and is today maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation as the centerpiece of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area.

Have you been to Georges Island?

Point Allerton Artillery Fire Control Tower // 1942

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Those who have visited the tip of the coastal Boston suburb of Hull, Massachusetts, will recognize this tall tower, but may not have known its intended purpose. This is the Point Allerton Artillery Fire Control Tower, built atop the highest point in the town, to serve as part of the Coastal Defenses built around the World Wars. Several fire-control stations were built at Point Allerton going back to 1907, but this seven-story concrete tower is the last to remain here. This tower was built around 1942, as the US Government grew increasingly serious about the potential for war, with new batteries and surveillance bases built all along the coast, many of which remain to this day. Fort Revere, a remnant of the coastal defenses, remains in Hull, nearby. This 7-story fire control tower is the center of Point Allerton, and by virtue of its base elevation (124 feet), had its top observation level at 179 feet above sea level, making this the tallest observation point in the Boston harbor defenses. The tower was later deaccessioned by the government and is owned and maintained lovingly by a private homeowner on their land. The tower is luckily preserved for future generations to learn about this lesser-known part of Boston-area history.

Longwood Towers // 1925

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No trip to Longwood in Brookline would be complete without checking in on one of the finest multi-family housing developments of New England… This is Longwood Towers. The development was originally built in 1925 from plans by architectural/engineering firm Kenneth DeVos and Co. who built three near-identical developments in the early 1920s: Detroit (1922), Brookline (1925), and finally Philadelphia (1928). The complexes were all originally called Alden Park Manor. Kenneth DeVos worked with local architects for each project to oversee construction details and furnish interior detailing as needed. For Brookline, he hired Harold Field Kellogg, who earlier served as the first director of the Boston Housing Authority. The design is Tudor Revival in style with towers connected by social spaces and a lobby linking the towers with a dining room for residents, a ballroom, lounge, day care facilities, barber and beauty shops, and a garage. The idea of a parking garage incorporated into an apartment complex was a very new idea when these were built, so much so it was written about as a new amenity for future developments to emulate. Another interesting tidbit about the complex is that it was featured in architectural journals in 1926 as it solved the “garbage problem” with trash chutes on each floor which terminated down in a brick incinerator (no longer in use). The Longwood Towers in Brookline were eyed as innovative and set trends for later developments, here’s to hoping future developers take cues to what makes good design and finishes rather than just profit with so many new boxy, uninspiring 5-over-1 apartment buildings going up all over the region.

A. M. Donna end House // 1928

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Abraham Malcolm Sonnabend was born in Boston on December 8, 1896, the son of Esther and Joseph Sonnabend. Sonnabend graduated from Harvard College in 1917 in order to enlist at the outbreak of the Great War. At the end of World War I, Sonnabend joined his father’s real estate organization. He married Esther Lewitt in 1920, and by 1927, he had increased his real estate holdings to a net worth of $350,000. Just before the 1929 stock market crash, Sonnabend hired Boston architect Sumner Schein to design this Tudor Revival style home, on a site formerly occupied by a larger Queen Anne style residence. Built in 1928, the Tudor Revival house features clinker brick walls with cast stone trim and a two-story castellated bay all capped by a slate roof. The enterprising A. M. Sonnabend would eventually outgrow this modest Tudor home after he got into hotels as investments. In 1944, Sonnabend (with seven partners) acquired a package of Palm Beach, Florida hotels for $2.4 million including the Biltmore, Whitehall and the Palm Beach Country Club. He would sell the Biltmore to Conrad Hilton for a massive profit. In 1956, Sonnabend created the Hotel Corporation of America (HCA) and grew the business to new heights. The 1928 Sonnabend House is significant architecturally and as the first purpose-built property by the late-developer.

Hutchings-Pfaff Gatehouse // c.1884

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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!

David A. Ellis School // 1932

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In the early decades of the 20th century, Boston’s population grew to a point that existing infrastructure was becoming an issue. The Boston School Committee as a result, acquired sites via eminent domain, and built ten new school buildings citywide in 1932 alone! The City of Boston acquired this site a decade earlier, but finally broke ground on the David A. Ellis Elementary School in 1931 from plans by architect Ralph Templeton Cushman Jackson. The building is a rare example of a Art Moderne style school building in Boston, and it was named for David Ellis (1873–1929), former chairman of the School Committee. The brick building stands out for its brickwork and sections of terracotta tiles in geometric designs. They don’t make them like they used to.

H. H. Fitch House // c.1870

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Henry Hubbard Fitch (1833-1888) was born in Cornish, New Hampshire, but made Roxbury, Massachusetts his home. He moved to Boston at an early age and later entered into business with Francis V. B. Kern under the firm Kern & Fitch, working as a conveyancer. By 1873, he was also a justice of the peace, notary public, and was Boston manager of the Equitable Mortgage Company. In about 1870, he and his wife, Eliza Anne, had this charming Second Empire style cottage built in the Washington Park neighborhood of Roxbury, a fashionable part of the “suburbs” at the time. They would later relocate, before Henry died in 1888 at the age of 55. The house is one of the best preserved in the neighborhood and a survivor from the wrecking ball that destroyed much of Washington Park.

Pope-Barron Townhouse // 1871

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Merry Christmas to those who celebrate! As there is no snow on the ground in Boston, I wanted to share a house with a prominent pine tree, which resembles an oversized urban Christmas tree on Beacon Street. This house at the corner of Beacon and Fairfield streets was built in 1871 by architect and builder Frederick B. Pope on speculation. It did not sell as quickly as he would have hoped, and it took two years for it to finally sell at public auction in 1873. The relatively modest brick Second Empire style house was bought and sold numerous times until March 1905, when the residence was purchased by Clarence Walker Barron, a prominent publisher and journalist. In 1903, he purchased Dow Jones & Company and from 1912 until his death in 1928, he was its president. During this period, he was also de facto manager of The Wall Street Journal, he expanded its daily circulation, modernized its printing press operations, and deepened its reporting capabilities. In 1921, he founded Barron’s National Financial Weekly, later renamed Barron’s Magazine. Barron pushed for the intense scrutiny of corporate financial records, and for this reason is considered by many to be the founder of modern financial journalism. In 1920, he investigated Charles Ponzi, inventor of the “Ponzi scheme”. His aggressive questioning and common-sense analysis helped lead to Ponzi’s arrest and conviction. For his Boston townhouse, Barron hired the firm of Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson to completely renovate the dwelling with an extra floor, limestone facades, and more bold roof design.

Cushing-Gay Townhouse // 1862

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The Cushing-Gay Townhouse at 170 Beacon Street in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston stands out as one of the most unique and pleasing early remodeled homes to look at. 170 Beacon was built by 1862 as one of two contiguous houses (168-170 Beacon) built for John Gardiner Cushing and his younger brother, Robert Maynard Cushing. John Gardiner Cushing built this house, which was originally a Second Empire style home similar to the dark gray residence nextdoor. The Cushing Family owned the property until 1894 and the property was sold to Helen (Ellis) Brooke, the the wife of Rev. Stopford Wentworth Brooke a British politician and later a minister of the First Church (Unitarian) of Boston. The Brooke’s moved back to England in 1900 and this home was sold to Eben Howard Gay, a banker and note broker. Eben’s wife of less than two years died just before he purchased this house on Beacon Street, she was just 26 years old. As a bachelor, Eben Gay hired architect and interior designer Ogden Codman, Jr., to remodel the 1860s house, giving it the present Adamesque front façade and new interiors to provide a setting for his collection of Chippendale furniture. The after being bought and sold numerous times following Gay’s financial struggles and selling of his prized home, the Cushing-Gay Townhome was purchased by the German Government in 1966 and is today the Goethe Institute, Boston, a cultural center and language school for the German language.

Dorchester Pottery Works // 1896

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Founded in 1895 by George Henderson, the Dorchester Pottery Works successfully produced commercial and industrial stoneware for many years and its building is a significant piece of Dorchester’s industrial heritage. Located in the Harrison Square/Clam Point area of Dorchester, the building began as a two-story wood-frame industrial structure for the young company. It saw immediate success and Henderson oversaw the construction of a large, brick addition which housed an enormous beehive kiln 28-feet in diameter of his own design made of bricks. Here he could fire pottery and other clay goods from his modern facility. Besides clay pots, tableware, and jugs, the company became known for the production of foot warmers, which became known as the ‘Porcelain Pig’ or ‘Piggy’. Foot warmers were widely used in the days before central heating. These clay vessels would be filled with hot water and placed under bedding for overnight warmth. The company made foot warmers until 1939. The company saw dwindling sales after WWII, and eventually closed in 1979. The structures began to decay and the towering smokestack and brick structure was open to the elements. The local neighborhood advocated for its preservation, listing it on the National Register of Historic Places and protecting it as a City of Boston Landmark. After decades of neglect, Bay Cove Human Services acquired the property in 2001 and renovated the building for its own use, keeping the kiln room and the kiln itself intact for community exhibitions. Today, it provides an important historic survivor of Dorchester’s industrial past.

Wales House // 1883

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Built in 1883 for a member of the Thomas Wales family, this house in Clam Point, Dorchester, possesses a compact essentially rectangular clapboard and wood shingle-clad form. The architect, John A. Fox, designed the main façade elegantly with an open Stick style porch projecting from the center of the first floor which is enclosed by a steeply-pitched roof. The pitch of the porch roof is echoed in the small and shallow gable-like lintels which are really unique to the area. The treatment makes the facade read somewhat like a face.

Hersey-Noyes Double House // 1879

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Nothing beats a good Victorian-era house! This example in the Clam Point neighborhood of Dorchester does not disappoint. The Stick-style double-house was built for miss Mary E. Noyes and Ms. Hersey replacing an older house on the lot. The women hired architect John A. Fox to design the house which possesses one of the most complex forms and roof configurations in the neighborhood. Clad with clapboards at the first and second stories, its six intersecting gables are sheathed with scalloped shingles. At the main entrance on the façade is an open porch with square posts and railings with turned balusters. The side façade is even more complex with two side gables and a two-tier porch enlivened by Chinese Chippendale and spool work railings. The Herseys, along with Mary E. Noyes, co-owned the house until 1884; thereafter it was owned by Mary E. Noyes until around World War I. The stick style home really pops with that blue color, what do you think?

Dorchester Mutual Fire Insurance Building // 1860

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This is your sign to take a different route! When exploring a new town or neighborhood, I love to explore the obscure streets just as much as the iconic Main Streets as hidden treasures can always be found! This building in Dorchester’s Port Norfolk neighborhood was constructed in 1860 as the new home of the Dorchester Mutual Fire Insurance Company, which was incorporated in 1855. The company seemingly hired Dorchester-based architect Luther Briggs, who also laid out the streets for Port Norfolk and the Clam Point neighborhoods and designed many buildings in the area at the time. The high-style Italianate building features bold proportions, quoins, and cornice. While the former round-arched windows have since been enclosed and are traditional double-hung windows, they building still stands out! At the rear, Second Empire style rowhouses were built for private ownership. The building is now all condominiums following a renovation.

Freeport Street Power Station // 1896

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The West End Street Railway was established in 1887 originally as an offshoot of a land development venture, but it rose to prominence when it merged several independent streetcar companies into a single organization. Over the next decade, it became the primary operator of public street transit within the Boston area! During this time, the company maintained one of the largest street railway systems in the world, the first unified streetcar system in the United States, and first electrified system in a major US city. Now, it’s the infamous MBTA. How far they fall… Power plants were needed all over the city to provide electrical power for the company’s street cars, this was the fourth (and final) power station built, and it powered the Dorchester, Neponset, Ashmont and Milton lines. The station was constructed in 1896 on the shores of Dorchester Bay, which allowed for coal to be delivered in barges to the plant. Old stone walls formerly lining the shore can be seen to this day. Landfilling in the second half of the 20th century and the construction of I-93 have since cut off the building from the shore. Eventually the building was sold off and today is home to Yale Appliance, good thing none of their products are coal powered!