Hartwell and Richardson

Gahm House // 1907

Buildings of New England1 Comment

Located in the Longwood neighborhood of Brookline, Massachusetts, the Gahm House stands out not only for its size, but stunning details and architectural design. This house was designed in 1907 by the architectural firm of Hartwell, Richardson & Driver, one of the premier firms of the region at the time, who blended Arts and Crafts with Tudor Revival styles with a notable front entry. Joseph and Mary Gahm hired the firm to design their new home the same year the firm designed a bottling plant (no longer extant) in South Boston for Mr. Gahm’s business. Joseph Gahm was a native of Wurtemberg, Germany, who emigrated to Boston in 1854 and initially worked as a tailor. In the early 1860s, Gahm opened a restaurant in Charlestown, by the late 1860s he added a small bottling operation to this business. The bottling business soon expanded to such an extent that he was able to give up the restaurant business and open a large bottling plant in 1888. He eventually moved operations to South Boston where there was more room for transportation and shipping capabilities. Their stuccoed house in Brookline is especially notable for the well preserved carvings at the entrance, which include: faces, floral details, lions, and owls perched atop the newel posts. What do you think of this beauty?

Harrison Gardner House // c.1873

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

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.

Silas Peavy House // 1905

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

Silas Peavy (1858-1939) was born in Waterville, Maine, and with his brothers, Gustavus and Leopold, worked at his father’s clothing and merchandise store. The family moved to the Boston area and established J. Peavy and Brothers, continuing the family business in Boston with locations in New York. In 1904, Silas Peavy purchased a house lot on Kent Street and hired the architectural firm of Hartwell & Richardson to design a house there for his family. Peavy likely moved to this neighborhood as it became a Jewish enclave around the turn of the 20th century. The Silas Peavy House is an excellent example of the Neo-Classical style with symmetrical facade, porte cochere on the side, and monumental elliptical portico supported by two-story Ionic columns.

First Unitarian Church of Somerville // 1895

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

Located on Highland Avenue in the Central Hill section of Somerville, Massachusetts, the First Unitarian Church of Somerville is a landmark example of a church in the Romanesque Revival style. The church was built in 1895 from plans by the esteemed architectural firm of Hartwell & Richardson, and was the fourth and final building of the congregation, which was originally established in 1844. The congregation’s first church was a Gothic Revival style building designed by Richard Bond, but was destroyed by fire in 1852. A year later, the second edifice was designed and built by architect Thomas W. Silloway, which also burned in 1867. The church was replaced again by a Romanesque style structure in 1869. In the 1890s, when the City of Somerville purchased the building as part of the site for the new Somerville High School, a lot down Highland Avenue was secured and planning began for this building. The church is built of granite block with a steeply pitched gable roof, and a square tower at its right front corner. The prominent gable contains two arched entrances with a bank of five rectangular stained-glass windows below three tall round-arch stained glass windows. The congregation was dissolved in 1975 and a year later, the building was purchased by the Mission Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ, an Apostolic Pentacostalist church, who continue to use the building today.

Peter Bent Brigham Building // 1888

Buildings of New England1 Comment

Located at the corner of Causeway and Portland streets in the Bulfinch Triangle Historic District of Boston, you will find the Peter Bent Brigham Building, one of the best examples of the Richardsonian Romanesque architecture style in the city. The building was built by the estate of Peter Bent Brigham (1807-1877), an interesting character in Boston’s history. Peter B. Brigham was born in Vermont and eventually moved to Boston and began his career selling fish and oysters in Boston. A self-made, hardworking man, Peter would eventually own a restaurant in the city and began making connections with the movers and shakers of town. With his success, he began investing in real estate and would become a founding director of the Fitchburg Railroad. Peter died in 1877, he never married nor had children. His estate valued in the millions and was to be spent 25 years after his death, for a hospital “for the care of sick persons in indigent circumstances”. The money appreciated to $2,000,000 by 1902 and was used to establish the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, now Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His family, who also received a substantial amount of money in the will, built this building, hiring the firm of Hartwell & Richardson to design the 1888 corner and the later, larger 1891 addition. The commercial building was rented to stores and professionals and even retains Peter B. Brigham’s name in the facade carved in terra cotta.

Ware Town Hall // 1885

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

After learning a little about some of the buildings in Dorset, Vermont, which were saved and relocated to the town from land flooded for the Quabbin Reservoir, I wanted to visit one of the surviving towns there to see it for myself. I found myself in Ware, Massachusetts, a town with a history that parallels many in central and northern Massachusetts. The town was first settled by white European colonists by 1717, and incorporated in 1775. The town was named after the English town of Ware in Hertfordshire. The Town of Ware began as a sleepy farming town with inns and taverns dotting the landscape until industrial sites were developed on the banks of the Weir River. The post Civil War era (1860s–1900s) brought a new prosperity to the now established textile mill town. “Ware Factory Village” sprang up overnight and formed the basis for new growth and development, to the east of the former town center. From this, a new Town Hall was needed, and where better to locate it, than the economic and population center of town?! The Ware Town Hall was built in 1885-1886 from plans by the prominent Boston firm of Hartwell & Richardson. Sadly, a fire gutted much of the building in 1935, but the shell remains (though needing much repair). The town, like many former industrial centers, has struggled to re-invent itself, but a growing population is a great indicator of good things to come!

Acton Memorial Library // 1889

Buildings of New England1 Comment

In 1888, William Allan Wilde, a Boston publisher who grew up in Acton, purchased land on Main Street to be used as the site for a new memorial library, in “memory of those brave and patriotic men of Acton who so freely gave Time, Strength and Health, and many of them their Lives in the war of the Rebellion, 1861-65.” The former Fletcher Homestead which was located here, was moved to a nearby street. The Richardsonian Romanesque building was designed by the Boston architectural firm of Hartwell and Richardson. The building displays traditional Romanesque materials with its brick wall surfaces, brownstone and terra cotta trim and detailing, and slate roof. The large Syrian arched entry is a hallmark in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, which works extremely well with this design.

Massachusetts Normal Arts School // 1886-1967

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

The Massachusetts Normal Art School was one of the many Richardsonian Romanesque buildings constructed in the Back Bay, but it did not survive like so many others did. The building’s history goes back to the 1860s, when wealthy Bostonians petitioned for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (State Government) to assist with the founding of new institutions to enhance the quality of life in the state. Due to this, the legislature funded three major institutions including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1860) and the Museum of Fine Arts (1870), and founded in 1873, the Massachusetts Normal Art School. The Normal Arts School was tasked with training future teachers for public schools and budding professional artists in the arts, with courses ranging from drawing to architecture. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts rented space in various buildings in Downtown Boston before they appropriated $85,000 and hired the firm of Hartwell & Richardson to design and oversee construction of the new school at the corner of Newbury and Exeter Streets. The Richardsonian Romanesque building was constructed of red brick and brown freestone, featured entrances on both street facades, and held gallery spaces inside for members of the public to view the work created at the school. The school outgrew the original building, which could comfortably fit just 100 students, and in 1929, a new building was constructed at Brookline and Longwood Avenues. Before moving one more time to its current location in 1983, the school was renamed to the Massachusetts College of Art and is best known as MassArt today. The original school in Back Bay was demolished in 1967 and was home to a surface parking lot before the existing building was constructed.