brookline house

Gibson-Dukakis Double-House // 1881

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Built in 1881 as an eclectic example of a Second Empire and Queen Anne style Victorian double-house, this charming residence on quiet Perry Street in Brookline, Massachusetts, shows that gentle density like double-houses and three-deckers provides needed housing without disrupting neighborhood character. The property was built for George Gibson and subsequently rented to two families as an investment. In the mid-20th century, half of the double-house was purchased by Michael Dukakis and his wife, Katharine “Kitty” (Dickson) Dukakis. Michael Dukakis would become a prominent politician, first being elected as a Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1963 later serving two terms as Massachusetts Governor. He was later nominated by the Democratic Party for president in the 1988 election, but ultimately lost to the Republican nominee, George H. W. Bush.

George B. Dexter House // 1885

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An expression of the Shingle style in all her beauty, the George B. Dexter House on Sewall Avenue in Brookline was built in 1885 both as a residence and a billboard advertising the owner’s business, really. The residence was built for George B. Dexter (1854-1935) a partner in the Dexter Brothers Company a paint and stain manufacturer that was a favorite of architects in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For his Brookline residence, George Dexter hired architect S. Edwin Tobey to design this Shingled masterpiece with continuous shingle siding with rounded bays and a shingled piazza to showcase the stain products of his company. According to articles, Dexter also stained and painted the interior a variety of colors to showcase the wide range of options his company had. George Dexter would move to Pill Hill neighborhood in a new home just a decade after having this residence built, likely caused by the development of apartments and commercialization in the Coolidge Corner area by the turn of the century. The Dexter House was converted to a two-family in the 1920s and today has three condominium units, with owners clearly taking great pride in this significant residence.

George P. Davis House // 1893

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This Colonial Revival style single-family house on Emerson Street in Brookline Village, was built in 1893 on the former Emerson Estate, that was subdivided by the heirs of Elijah Emerson as Brookline Village filled in during the late 19th century. This house was seemingly built for Elijah’s daughter, Sarah C. Emerson Davis, and her husband, George Peabody Davis from plans by Boston architect, Olin Wesley Cutter. Of particular note, the Davis House features a symmetrical facade with round entry portico, Palladian stairhall window with leaded glass, and pedimented dormers, with the center dormer in a swan’s neck pediment. The oddly proportioned pilasters with tiny Ionic capital on the corners of the house were great to see as well!

Charles H. Rutan House // 1889

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In 1889, prestigious architect Charles H. Rutan, purchased a house lot from the heirs of Elijah Emerson on the family estate and oversaw construction of his own residence in Brookline Village. Charles Hercules Rutan (1851-1914) was born in New Jersey and moved to Brookline in 1874, where he worked in the office of famed American architect, Henry Hobson Richardson. After Richardson’s death in April 1886, at the height of his career, Rutan and two other senior employees, George Foster Shepley and Charles Allerton Coolidge, took charge of the studio and its uncompleted work. Soon after, the three formed a formal partnership, Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, to succeed to Richardson’s practice, and in 1887 moved the office to Boston. From his new position as head of a prominent firm, Rutan designed this handsome Queen Anne/Shingle style mansion for his family, where he lived until he suffered from two debilitating strokes in 1912, when he and his wife moved to an apartment on a nearby street. Besides the blue color, the house retains so much of its original architectural integrity and is one of the most significant residences in the Brookline Village neighborhood.

Emerson-Arnold Double-House // c.1875

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Elijah Carleton Emerson (1807-1888) was a wealthy Boston merchant, making his fortune as Director of the Second National Bank and President of the Middlesex Horse Railroad. In his late 30s, he purchased land in Brookline Village and established his estate on the land that is now Emerson Park in 1846. The bucolic setting of his estate included a pond, boathouse and adjacent cottage, but as the surrounding area continued to develop with easy access to Downtown Boston, Elijah Emerson began to develop his estate. Emerson began to build residences on his land for supplemental income. This handsome Stick style double-house was built around 1880 and rented by Mr. Emerson and was eventually occupied by his granddaughter, Tirzah and her husband, George Francis Arnold. The residence features a mansard roof, decorative brackets and applied stickwork, and a handsome porch with turned posts.

Elijah Emerson House // 1846

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Elijah Carleton Emerson (1807-1888) was a wealthy Boston merchant, making his fortune as Director of the Second National Bank and President of the Middlesex Horse Railroad. In his late 30s, he purchased land in Brookline Village and established his estate on the land that is now Emerson Park in 1846. The bucolic setting of his estate included a pond, boathouse and adjacent cottage, but as the surrounding area continued to develop with easy access to Downtown Boston, Elijah Emerson began to develop his estate. Emerson began to build residences on his land for supplemental income. After his death in 1888, Emerson’s two daughters, Sarah Davis and Tirzah Snell Arnold, maintained the property but sold it to the Town of Brookline in 1907. Brookline officials originally sought to build a new library on the site, but ultimately built it on Washington Street in 1910. The Emerson house and carriage barn were moved across Davis Street from their original site and Emerson Park was established. Emerson’s granddaughter, Mrs.Katharine Snell and her husband, inventor, Cullen B. Snell moved into the relocated house. The Elijah Emerson House (and carriage house at the rear) is a great, well-preserved example of a suburban Boston residence designed in the Gothic Revival style.

Graham Apartments // 1904

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This handsome, and unique example of a three-decker in the English Revival style is located on a corner lot at 128 Davis Avenue in the Emerson/Brookline Village neighborhood of Brookline, Massachusetts. Built in 1904 from plans by architect and genealogist, J. Gardner Bartlett, whose work focused on colonial New England and the English origins of colonial families. Trained as an architect at MIT, he gave up architecture for genealogy, but still occasionally designed buildings in the Boston area. The building here was developed for Richard Graham, an Irish immigrant, who along with his wife, operated a laundry business in the village. The use of a shingle and stone entrance porch and entrance bay with stucco half-timbering and diamond-pane casement windows stand out architecturally as one of the few examples of a three-decker built in this style in New England.

John D. Sturtevant Double-House // 1892

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John Dean Sturtevant (1816-1889) was born in New Hampshire and became engaged there in local woolen mills, quickly growing into advanced management positions. He operated woolen mills in New Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, and settled in Brookline where he had access to other states via excellent rail service. When he died in 1889, John’s heirs inherited their late-father’s properties, and began to develop them as Brookline filled out in the last decades of the 19th century. This handsome double-house at the corner of Cypress and Waverly streets was built in 1892 by the Sturtevant Estate, who rented the property to two families of wealthy residents. The Sturtevant Double-House is a landmark and exceptionally preserved example of the Queen Anne style, with varied siding, asymmetrical forms, complex roofline with dormers, and applied ornament in the form of carved panels.

The Linden Apartments // 1885

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The Linden Apartments is an early multi-family apartment building in Brookline Village that shows how density can be done tastefully. The building is located at the center of Linden Place, Brookline’s first planned subdivision which was laid out in the 1840s. By the end of the 19th century, development pressure associated with the growth of Brookline Village lead to further subdivision of the original building lots and greater density of settlement in this neighborhood. The Lindens was constructed in 1885 by and for James W. Tobey (1830-1914), a local builder, as an income-generating property. Designed in the Queen Anne style, the Linden Apartments contained six suites, all with exceptional quality materials and finishes. The façade is embellished with two octagonal bays at the ends and two angled bay windows with gables which break up the otherwise rectangular form. The building has been lovingly maintained by residents and contributes to the rich history of Brookline Village from a sleepy village to a vibrant and dense “downtown”.

Isaac Rich House // 1846

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The Lindens neighborhood, located just east of the civic and commercial core of Brookline Village, was long an apple and cherry orchard known as Holden Farm. Beginning in 1843, the area became the earliest planned development in the town and was laid out as a “garden suburb” for those wishing to escape the growing congestion of Boston. As originally conceived in 1843, it reflected the latest ideals of planned residential development for a semi-rural setting on land owned by Thomas Aspinwall Davis. The streets, parks, and house lots here were laid out by civil engineer, Alexander Wadsworth, who two years earlier, laid out plans for Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, the first “Rural Cemetery” in America. Early homes were built on speculation by John F. Edwards, an architect-builder, for Davis, who was strict about high-quality designs in the Greek and Gothic revival styles in his newly laid out neighborhood. This house on Linden Street was built in 1846 in the Greek Revival style and was purchased upon completion by Isaac Rich. Isaac Rich (1801-1872) was a prominent merchant and philanthropist and founder of Boston University. The house was modernized in the 1860s with the addition of a mansard roof and paired windows.