Dorchester MA

Chansonetta Stanley Emmons House // 1893

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Chansonetta Stanley Emmons (1858-1937) was born in Kingfield, Maine, and was one of the great women photographers in the 19th and early 20th century, often depicting domestic life and New England scenes. The young Chansonetta Stanley grew interested in photography after her brothers’ (Francis E. and Freelan O. Stanley) dry-plate printing invention, they also invented the steam-powered automobile known as the Stanley Steamer. She married James Nathaniel Whitman Emmons in 1887 and in 1894, James hired architect Henry McLean, to design a residence for him and Chansonetta, this lovely home on Harley Street on Ashmont Hill. The couple occupied the house until 1898, when James died of blood poisoning at the age of 41. Chansonetta sold the home and moved to Newton, where her two brothers lived and operated their business. The house blends Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles and originally had a conical roof over the corner rounded bay. The roof was replaced with a flat roof at about the time of the large balcony and extended dormer.

Reed-Loring House // c.1872

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Another of the early houses built in the Ashmont Hill neighborhood by George D. Welles, a young man who inherited and subdivided his family estate in Dorchester, is this mini-Mansard on Harley Street. Like a few others in the neighborhood, this house was built for Welles, likely as a rental property. The house was rented by Charles and Nellie Reed, who had painter, Frank Henry Shapleigh over as a guest. Shapleigh would paint the house in the 1870s, shortly after a stint in Paris. The property would be purchased by Stephen L. Emery, a coal and wood merchant in Boston, and later by Clara Reed, the daughter of Charles and Nellie Reed, who took up permanent residence in this house with her husband Royden Loring, the vice president of the Arnold Roberts Company on Congress Street. Clara Reed Loring lived here until the early 1970s. The Second Empire style house and large, preserved barn at the rear of the lot, provides a glimpse into the early development of Ashmont Hill.

George Derby Welles Rental House // c.1872

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From the 1780s until 1870, almost all of Ashmont Hill (west of the present train station) was a farm, with the large farmhouse dating to about 1720, located at the corner of Washington and Welles streets, now the home to the Codman Square Branch of the Boston Public Library system. The farm was owned for a time by General Henry Knox. Sometime before 1850, the estate and mansion came into the possession of the Honorable John Welles, who died in 1855. The property would eventually be deeded to John Welles’ grandson, George Derby Welles, who was then just 26 years old and living in Paris with his wife, Armandine V. Derby. Welles wasted no time in developing the property through his agent, Boston Attorney Edward Ingersoll Browne. Streets were laid out and house lots were platted and sold, with some early properties built with much of the neighborhood developing by the turn of the century. The old Knox-Welles farmhouse would be razed by 1889, but the remainder of the neighborhood has since become a landmark neighborhood of Victorian-era homes. This mansard double-house at 67-69 Ocean Street dates to around 1872 and is one of the earliest properties in the area. Blending the Second Empire and Stick architectural styles, the handsome double house is said to have been designed by architect Luther Briggs for George D. Welles and rented to tenants.

Dorchester Temple Baptist Church // 1889

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Located at the corner of Washington Street and Welles Avenue, the Dorchester Temple Baptist Church was designed in 1889 by architect Arthur H. Vinal, as one of the best examples of a church designed in the Shingle Style in New England. The church began in 1886 as a mission church of the Tremont Temple Baptist Church in Boston. At this time, Dorchester was a semi-rural area and would surge in development when the streetcars were electrified in the 1880s. With a rapidly developing neighborhood, the congregation here, purchased lots and hired Vinal to furnish plans for a house of worship. The church’s cornerstone was laid October 3, 1889, with the church membership numbering ninety-nine at that time. Membership would decline in the decades following WWII, and shifting racial and ethnic demographics in the neighborhood brought new members to worship here. The building was renamed as the Global Ministries Christian Church by the current congregation, who with the assistance of preservation grants, worked with Mills Whitaker architects to restore the iconic landmark. Specific details of the building stand out, including the stained glass windows, the belfry with bulbous form, and the arched openings with continuous shingled walls.

Krogman-McManus Mansion // c.1890

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Built ca. 1890 for Boston salesman Washington Libby Krogman (1858-1894), one of Boston’s finest Queen Anne style homes can be found in the Clam Point neighborhood of Dorchester. The pronounced sculptural qualities of this residence, together with the juxtaposition of clapboards and patterned shingles, variety of window sizes, and ornamentation place this house squarely within the pantheon of important Queen Anne designs within the city of Boston. Painted in a manner that showcases its sheathing and ornament to great advantage, this well-preserved house is particularly noteworthy for its graceful verandah that encircles a distinctive, round, conically-capped tower at its northeast corner. The home was only occupied by Washington Krogman for less than four years when he died unexpectedly in 1894 at just 35 years of age. The property was deeded to his widow Carrie for a few years before she sold the property to Thomas Francis McManus, a noted naval architect (schooner designer). The home remains one of the finest mansions in Dorchester.

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.

Elisha T. Loring House // c.1840

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Elisha T. Loring (1804-1889) was born on Cape Cod and began his career in the Chilean tin and copper trades, moving to Boston in 1839. His house at 21 Mill Street in Dorchester’s Harrison Square neighborhood was built in the early 1840s, showcasing his wealth and stature in the community. Based out of this house, Loring made a large fortune in the Lake Superior mines, also known as the Calumet and Hecla mines. By 1862 he was the treasurer to the Pewabic and Franklin Mining Companies, and a decade later is listed as “President, National Dock Company.” Loring’s Dorchester mansion is Greek Revival in style and consists of a three bay by three bay main block and a substantial rear ell. The house’s original clapboards were replaced by wood shingles sometime in the 20th century. The main elevation’s pedimented center pavilion exhibits a small front porch whose Ionic columns support a heavy, cornice-headed entablature. The porch’s roof is set off by an ornate cast iron railing. The side elevation is unusually wide and culminates in broad pedimented attics containing elliptical lunette windows.

Preston Double-House // c.1830

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Until recently, the Clam Point neighborhood of Dorchester was called Harrison Square. The name commemorated President William Henry Harrison’s visit to Dorchester during the presidential campaign of 1840 and honored his memory, as he died of pneumonia shortly after taking office. Development in the neighborhood was initiated following the arrival of the Old Colony Railroad depot (1844). When rail service to Harrison Square was discontinued in 1957, the Harrison name began to fade from the memories of area inhabitants. The name “Clam Point” is said to have been coined during the 1970s by realtors intent on touting the area as a desirable coastal community of antique homes, it stuck. Likely the oldest extant house in the neighborhood (built before the railroad depot) is this house on Mill Street, constructed as a double-house around 1830 for brothers Elisha and John Preston. The vernacular, late-Federal style house has later shed dormers and lancet windows in the side gables. The Preston’s land holdings and sale before the Civil War led to much of the later development in the neighborhood.

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?

Shaw-Shepard House // c.1860

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Originally built for Charles E. Jenkins, a partner in Bailey & Jenkins, suppliers of doors and blinds, this house in Dorchester’s Clam Point neighborhood stands out as one of the earliest and high-style mansions in the area. It appears to have been designed by local architect Luther Briggs, Jr. Shortly after its completion, the property was purchased by Theron and Rebecca Shaw. Theron was a partner at Lindsley, Shaw & Co., boot dealers in Downtown Boston. He died in 1870 and the house was sold to Dr. Luther Dimmick Shepard, a dentist. While the house (like many in Boston) is covered in later siding and has a plain white color scheme, the building retains its architectural integrity and would really shine when restored! What color would you love to see this Italianate/Second Empire style mansion be painted?