House History Blog

Perkins House – Diocesan House // 1832

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Constructed of red brick and trimmed with brownstone, the beautiful townhouse at 1 Joy Street, is one of a few properties in Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood to have a front yard. Built in 1832, the four-story residence has its primary facade characterized by a flat entrance with a rounded bay extending upwards to the roof. Designed by architect, Cornelius Coolidge, who designed many other homes in this section of Beacon Hill, the completed house was purchased by Thomas Handasyd Perkins, Jr. (1796-1850), the eldest son of the enormously wealthy and influential Thomas Handasyd Perkins, Sr., who is considered by many to have been the most successful merchant prince of Boston’s Federal period. In 1892, the Episcopal Association purchased 1 Joy Street for use as headquarters of the diocese, and it became known as the Diocesan House. Today, the building is divided up into condominium units, providing residences just steps from the Boston Common.

Callender-Sedgwick House // 1802

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Built in 1802, this large residence at 14 Walnut Street is among the oldest extant mansions on the South Slope of Beacon Hill and includes a large hidden garden behind a granite block retaining wall. John Callender, Clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court of the Commonwealth, purchased land at the corner of Mount Vemon and Walnut streets for $2,000 and immediately started construction on his requested “small house finished for little money $5,000-$7,000”, but this was anything but modest. The house originally had its primary facade facing Mount Vernon Street, but in 1821, Walnut Street was lowered by city officials, so Callender had the granite retaining wall built for the garden and new entry built on Walnut Street. Mr. Callender lived here until his death in 1833 and the property was purchased by members of the Lyman family and later by Harriot Curtis (1881-1974) an early amateur female skier and golfer who used her fortune as a philanthropist, funding medical facilities in Boston for impoverished immigrants and served as dean of women in Hampton Institute in Virginia, an HBCU from 1927-1931. The most significant owner, Ellery Sedgwick (1872-1960), lived here from 1908 until his death in 1960. Sedgwick worked as editor of the Atlantic Monthly (now known as The Atlantic), and under his ownership, the magazine became one of the most circulated magazines in the world. The Callender-Sedgwick House features unique flushboard siding, providing a seamless surface that resembles a masonry wall when painted earth tones and a 19th century oriel window. The brick end elevation is punctuated with bays of hung windows and the recessed entry with a long, granite garden wall which has been well-preserved by owners.


Lyman-Paine Mansion // 1824

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The Lyman-Paine Mansion at the corner of Joy and Mount Vernon streets in Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood is an architecturally significant Federal style house designed by a skilled architect and was owned by members of prominent local families. This four-story mansion was designed in 1824 by architect Alexander Parris for George Williams Lyman (1786-1880), a shipping merchant who became one of the Boston Associates, a group of wealthy Bostonians who funded the expansion of New England textile mills, which helped grow many industrial communities all over the region in the 19th century. This house served as Lyman’s winter estate, his summer mansion was the the Lyman Estate, “The Vale”, in Waltham, which he had inherited from his father. Upon George Lyman’s death in 1880, Lydia Lyman Paine, George’s youngest daughter, inherited this Beacon Hill mansion. Lydia’s husband, Robert Treat Paine, was a graduate of Harvard and a successful local attorney. Mr. Paine retired from law in 1872 to become the treasurer for the new Trinity Church building committee, where he averted a fiscal crisis during the mid-1870s when Henry Hobson Richardson’s cost overruns in designing the new Copley Square church threatened its completion. In addition to his pro bono work with Trinity’s finances, Paine was deeply interested in improving the quality of life of the working class, founding building and loan associations and institutes to allow immigrants to buy homes in the Boston area. In addition to their Joy Street mansion, the Paines had a country estate called Stonehurst, which is adjacent to the Vale in Waltham; it was renovated by Richardson. The mansion was converted to apartments (now condos) in the mid-20th century, and maintains its unique, vernacular Federal character, with asymmetrical facade and oddly placed and shaped windows.

Mitchell-Pratt House // 1820

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This architecturally unique and stunning Federal­ style house in Chester, Connecticut, was built in 1820 on the Middlesex Turnpike by Abram Mitchell for $10,000, double what he originally hoped to pay for the residence. The principal builder was Samuel Silliman, a locally well-known master carver, who clearly showcased his skill inside and out, much of which has been preserved by two centuries of owners. In 1845, the property was purchased by George Spencer, and presented as a wedding gift for his daughter, Julia, who married Dr. Ambrose Pratt (1814-1891). Dr. Pratt became well-known for his practice of hydropathology and temporarily used his house as a sanitarium known as the Chester Water Cure. The house was acquired by the local Roman Catholic Church and became the parish center until the residence was purchased and moved away from the busy street to its current location in 1966. In the 1980s, the house was purchased by famed artist, Sol Lewitt. The house has a large spider web window, still containing the original glass over the door and full-height pilasters dividing bays and inside, many stunning carved mantles and woodwork.

Charles Daniels House // c.1826

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The Charles Daniels House in Chester, Connecticut, is a sophisticated and excellently proportioned and designed example of a single-family residence in the Greek Revival style. Features like the Doric portico, flushboarding and frieze windows are components of a skillful design that has been credited to architect Ithiel Town, but this is unsubstantiated. The home was built around 1826 for Charles Daniels (1799-1838), a gimlet manufacturer, who had his factory nearby. Charles died in 1838, and the property was inherited by his second wife, Abby Gilbert, who also remarried and lived here with her new husband, Clark N. Smith, and they resided here until the early 1900s. Later, the residence was owned by the adjacent mill company, and used temporarily as a storage facility. The location adjacent to the deteriorating factory threatened the significant Daniels House, so in 1978, architect Thomas A. Norton had the house moved a short distance away onto the present site. The house was listed in the National Register of Historic Places and has been preserved, inside and out, by later owners.

Ezra L’Hommedieu House // c.1835

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Ezra L’Hommedieu (1772-1860) settled in Chester, Connecticut, in 1812 with his brother Joshua, and built a factory on the south branch of the Pattaconk Brook, which cut through the small village. The brothers manufactured gimlets (not the cocktail), a small wood-boring hand tool used to drill precise pilot holes for screws or nails, preventing wood from splitting and making driving fasteners easier. Ezra invented and patented the single-twist ship auger in 1812, which helped propel Chester into a prominent ship-building community. From his success, Ezra had this residence built on North Main Street in about 1835, which, like his brother’s house on Maple Street, blends Federal and Greek Revival styles elegantly.

Buck-L’Hommedieu House // c.1755

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This beautiful Federal style side-hall house is located on Maple Street in Chester, Connecticut, and (at least a part of it) was built by 1755 by Isaac Buck, who deeded half of the property to his son, Justus, during his lifetime. In the early 1800s, the property was purchased by Joshua L’Hommedieu (1787-1880), a manufacturer, who had the property redeveloped or redesigned in the Federal style giving it the appearance we see today. The house has its gable end oriented to the street with an elliptical fan and dentil block detailing.

Richard P. Spencer House – Deep River Public Library // 1881

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The finest extant Queen Anne Victorian-era house in the town of Deep River, Connecticut, is located on Main Street and since the 1930s, has been home to the town’s public library! How’s that for adaptive reuse?! This residence was built in 1881 for Richard Pratt Spencer (1820-1910), a local prominent businessman who lived to be 90 years old. Spencer lived here with his second wife, Juliana Selden, who was 32 years his junior, and three children until his death in 1910. When Spencer’s widow died in 1932, the heirs sold the property to the Saybrook Library Association (before the town renamed Deep River in 1947), which then, in turn, sold the building to the town for a small price in order to convert it into a library. Opened to the public in 1931, the Deep River Public Library has been preserved inside and out with historic fireplaces, woodwork, and features. The only notable change occured in 1995 when a children’s room addition was built to resemble an old porch. The library even retains the original pebbledash finish in the gables, a rare detail not commonly found in typical old houses of the period.



John Gladding House // c.1825

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This vernacular, Federal period house on Union Street in Deep River, Connecticut, was built around 1825 for (and likely by) John Gladding. John worked in town as a joiner, a historic carpenter/woodworker, who either built houses or ships in the nearby Connecticut River. The Gladding House was likely originally built as a half cape, with a side hall entry and the two window bays to its left. As the family grew, the house was probably added onto to the right of the entry with the irregularly spaced bays. Houses like these that modestly grow and adapt to modernizations over time are what makes many New England villages great.

Thomas Aspinwall Davis House // 1844

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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 stately house was built as Thomas Aspinwall Davis’ own residence in the Gothic Revival style. The house originally had a Gothic style full-length porch, but when the house was relocated in 1903 to the present site, to make room for new houses as the neighborhood grew denser. During the move, the porch was removed, but the Davis House still maintains the belvedere at the roof, historic window trim, and decorative bargeboards at the eaves.