Brookline MA Victorian

Amos Lawrence Rowhouses // 1876

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Amos A. Lawrence (1814-1886), a wealthy Boston merchant, owned land holdings in the present-day Longwood neighborhood of Brookline, just over the Muddy River from Boston, and developed the area into a wealthy and high-quality suburb. Lots were laid and Lawrence hired civil engineer, Ernest Bowditch, to plat for multiple sets of distinctive rowhouses surrounding a small green mall, which was later named Monmouth Court. Once the property was laid out, Amos Lawrence hired the Boston architects, J. Pickering Putnam and George T. Tilden, to design rowhouses for rental income. George Tilden was previously employed at the firm of Ware & Van Brunt, a firm that mastered and popularized the panel brick style in the Boston area in the 1870s and 1880s, and he clearly built upon this expertise for the rows for Amos Lawrence in Brookline. All four rows of houses are distinctive, yet compliment each other stylistically with projecting bays. intricate brickwork, complex rooflines with dormers, and applied ornament. This row at 10-18 Monmouth Court was from the designs of partner, J. Pickering Putnam and was highlighted in an architectural publication soon after completion. The row exhibits a slate mansard roof disrupted by dormers with trusses, lancet arch and trefoil motifs, polychromatic brick and pent roof entrances all stepping out to the private courtyard.

Amos Lawrence Rowhouses // 1876

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Amos A. Lawrence (1814-1886), a wealthy Boston merchant, owned land holdings in the present-day Longwood neighborhood of Brookline, just over the Muddy River from Boston, and developed the area into a wealthy and high-quality suburb. Lots were laid and Lawrence hired civil engineer, Ernest Bowditch, to plat for multiple sets of distinctive rowhouses surrounding a small green mall, which was later named Monmouth Court. Once the property was laid out, Amos Lawrence hired the Boston architects, J. Pickering Putnam and George T. Tilden, to design rowhouses for rental income. George Tilden was previously employed at the firm of Ware & Van Brunt, a firm that mastered and popularized the panel brick style in the Boston area in the 1870s and 1880s, and he clearly built upon this expertise for the rows for Amos Lawrence in Brookline. All four rows of houses are distinctive, yet compliment eachother stylistically with projecting bays. intricate brickwork, complex rooflines with dormers, and applied ornament. This row at 69-77 Monmouth Street exhibits inlaid tile medallions and small balconets on the chamfered corners that are missing their railings.

Church of Our Saviour, Brookline // 1868

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The Church of Our Saviour of Brookline, Massachusetts, is an architecturally and historically significant church complex in the Longwood neighborhood that has ties to those who established this neighborhood into what it is today. The church was built in 1868 by the brothers Amos and William Lawrence, in honour of their father, Amos Lawrence. The church was established by twelve established Boston-area families who wanted to grow the Episcopal diocese in the area. They hired architect, Alexander Rice Esty, who designed the building in the Gothic style, and it was completed in February 1868. The church was expanded numerous times with a transept chapel designed by the firm Sturgis and Cabot (1893) to the memory of Sarah Appleton Lawrence (wife of Amos A. Lawrence); a parish hall designed by the firm of Cabot and Chandler (1880); and a rectory, designed by architect Arthur Rotch (1886). The church remains an active congregation and is lovingly preserved by the congregants.

Rectory

Harrison Gardner House // c.1873

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The Harrison Gardner House on Colchester Street in the Longwood section of Brookline is a stunning late Victorian residence that was “modernized” in 1887 to its current configuration. Harrison Gardner (1841-1899) was a Civil War veteran who arrived back in Boston becoming a wealthy dry goods wholesaler, later investing in Massachusetts mills. On January 20, 1871, Harrison was a founder and treasurer of the Boston Red Stockings of the new National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NABBP). The team’s name  changed multiple times, eventually landing on the Boston Braves, which would later move to Atlanta to become the Atlanta Braves in the MLB. With increased wealth and status, Harrison Gardner in 1887, hired the prestigious architectural firm of Hartwell and Richardson, to update his Brookline residence with additions and renovations in the Queen Anne and Shingle styles. Years after his death in 1899, Harrison’s widow, Laura Perkins Harrison, moved out of the large Longwood home and into a new, Arts and Crafts style stucco residence on Amory Street, designed by William Gibbons Rantoul.

Webber-Bouve Mansion // 1885

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One of the most unique and truly great Victorian-era residences in Brookline, Massachusetts, can be found on Kent Street, an eclectic and fairly hidden mansion built of stucco, stone and terracotta. Built in 1885 by John Prescott Webber, a Maine lumber baron who moved to the Boston area and became a real estate magnate, the handsome residence was designed by architect, S. Edwin Tobey. The most important element of the structure is its surfacing material, with random and quarry-faced ashlar used on the first floor with roughcast stucco on the second level. Additional detailing includes the large brackets, irregular form and fenestration, massive bays, gables, stone porte-cochere, and carved terracotta details. The house was likely sold to George F. Bouve shortly after it was completed, and he remained the owner until his death in 1898. Mr. Bouve was a shoe and leather dealer and shoe manufacturer. The Webber-Bouve Mansion is one of those houses that the more you look at it, the more detail and unique features you notice. The historic stable was demolished in 1995 in exchange for a preservation restriction on the main house by the owners.

George and Alice May House // 1883

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Built in 1883 for George Putnam May and his wife, Alice (Walworth) May, this Queen Anne style residence on Francis Street in Brookline, Massachusetts, contains all of the traits of the architectural style. George P. May was employed at the Walworth Manufacturing Company a plumbing pipes and equipment manufacturer founded by James J. Walworth, who was Alice May’s uncle. The property was subdivided on Alice’s fathers estate which fronts Kent Street nextdoor. I wonder if George wanted to live in the rear yard of his father-in-law! For their Brookline residence, the couple hired architect, S. Edwin Tobey, who paid great attention to detail. The May House features an asymmetrical plan, varied siding types, complex rooflines, and a corner tower with conical roof.

Blenheim Apartments // 1898

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As Brookline, Massachusetts, saw rapid development in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, developers redeveloped lots formerly occupied by single-family residences and built large, multi-family triple-deckers and apartments, specifically in neighborhoods in close proximity to train stations into Boston. This building, constructed in 1898 by local builder, John H. Pineo, for owner, Walter H. Whittemore as an investment property. The building contained six apartments as a double triple-decker with two units on each floors accessed by a central entry and stairwell. The building has been known as the Blenheim Apartments and blends Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles into a single, eclectic composition. The large massing is broken up by both the undulating facades and roof with projecting bays, dormers and corner towers, along with the applied ornament of panels, dentils, corbels and broken pediment motifs. If all multi-family housing looked like this, people would not complain about density as much!

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.

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.