House History Blog

Samuel J. Nutter House // c.1750

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The Samuel J. Nutter House on Indian Pond Road in Kingston, Massachusetts, is a fairly rare example of a half-cape Georgian-era home in New England. Local history states that the house dates to before the American Revolution and was constructed as an early half-cape, with an off-center door flanked by two bays of windows. The small house form would allow the owner to add on additional bays to make it a 3/4- (has a door with two windows on one side and a single window on the other) or full-cape (with a central door and two windows on each side) as the family and prosperity grew. This house was built as a half-cape and has not changed in its over 275-year existence, besides the addition of a barn and one-story connecting addition to it. The house was originally located elsewhere in town, but was relocated to the site in about 1830 by Samuel Nutter (born Nutt and changed his name in 1825), who married Mercy Washburn that year. The Nutter Family farmed here until the early 1900s.

Mary E. C. Bates House // c.1894

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One of the many spectacular Queen Anne style houses in the Ashmont Hill neighborhood of Dorchester (Boston) is this c.1894 residence at 53 Ocean Street. The house was built for Mary Elizabeth (Cushing) Bates and her husband, Henry L. Bates. Henry worked as a bookkeeper and the couple was able to afford a house lot in the fashionable Ashmont area of Dorchester, and had this home built. In the early 20th century, the couple purchased a then-vacant lot next-door at 57 Ocean Street, and had the current house there built, renting it out for years for supplemental income. Hallmarks of the Queen Anne style seen in the Bates house include: varied siding types, large porch supported by turned posts, asymmetry, projecting bay window, and applied ornament seen here in the gable.

Mary S. Hartford House // 1890

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This charming Shingle style bungalow at the corner of Harley and Walton streets in Dorchester’s Ashmont Hill neighborhood, was built around 1890 for Ms. Mary S. Hartford. Mary Hartford (1840-1910) was the mother of famed American painter, Edmund Charles Tarbell, and the wife of Edmund Whitney Tarbell, who died in 1863 after contracting typhoid fever while serving in the Civil War. After the death of her husband, Mary sent her son to live in Groton, Massachusetts with his grandparents to raise them as she remarried to David Francis Hartford, a shoe manufacturer. David and Mary lived nearby on Alban Street, and rented this and other houses to tenants for supplemental income. Local architect Edwin J. Lewis furnished plans for the house as a prototypical example of the Shingle style. Mary died in 1910 and in 1917, David Hartford, as his wife’s executor, deeded this property at 17 Harley Street to Emma C. Rich, the wife of George M. Rich, a Boston banker. The house is excellently preserved, even down to the appropriate brown stained shingles.

Elbridge Gerry House // c.1734

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The Elbridge Gerry House is a historic house on Washington Street in Marblehead, Massachusetts that was built by local merchant, Thomas Gerry around the time of his marriage to Elizabeth Greenleaf. Architectural evidence suggests that the house was a two-story L-shaped Georgian frame structure, that in about 1820, was raised to its present three-story form in the Federal style. It was in this house that Founding Father, Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814) was born, and spent many formative years in. Gerry was a wealthy merchant, politician, and diplomat who served as the fifth vice president of the United States  under President James Madison from 1813 until his death in 1814, and is arguably best-known for Gerrymandering. The term, originally written as “Gerry-mander,” first was used on March 26, 1812, in the Boston Gazette — a reaction to the redrawing of Massachusetts state senate election districts under then-Gov. Elbridge Gerry. One of the remapped, contorted districts in Essex County (where Marblehead is located) was said to resemble the shape of a mythological salamander, hence the name “Gerry-mander”. The newly drawn state senate district in Essex County was lampooned in cartoons as a strange winged dragon, clutching at the region. Elbridge Gerry would live mostly in Cambridge and the family home was sold by around 1820 and modernized about that time.

Warren Homestead // 1727

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The old Jonah Warren Homestead of Westborough, Massachusetts, was built in 1727 on the Old Connecticut Path, a former Native American trail, and is among the earliest and best-preserved examples of 18th-century domestic architecture in Westborough. The Colonial-era house was built for Jonah Warren (1700-1780) and his wife Elizabeth Seaverns (1700-1775), who moved from Watertown to Westborough in 1720, the couple would have 13 children. The home remained in the family for generations. Jonah was a tanner by trade, but also sold wooden shingles, cut from nearby cedar swamps. In 1778, the couple’s son, Aaron, owned the house, as he returned home to take care of his aging father. The property was later owned by Aaron’s son, David Warren, and later passed to his only child, a daughter, Mary Waterman Warren (1799-1858), who married Josiah Fay (1797-1869) in 1838. The home was inherited by Hercules Warren Fay, a Harvard-educated reverend and author. The homestead remained in the family until the last of Hercules’ children died in 1957. The Warren Homestead remains as one of the finest and best-preserved Colonial-era residences in Central Massachusetts.

Gilmore-Mason House // c.1850

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As the town of Westborough emerged from rural agricultural community to commercial center, connections to Worcester and Boston via rail service opened the town to prosperity. As businessmen accumulated wealth, these merchants built stately homes to showcase their position in the community. Before the Civil War, the Greek Revival style was ever-popular in Westborough, even though the style was already waning in popularity in larger cities. The Gilmore-Mason House on Church Street, is an excellent example of the Greek Revival style in a temple form. The form is seen in this house at the facade, with a portico of four two-story Corinthian columns supporting the pediment above. The house was built for George A. Gilmore and later sold to Alonzo W. Porter, an inventor, who would later move to New York. By the early 20th century, the residence was the home to Joseph S. Mason, a manufacturer who operated a weaving mill in Westborough.

Sibley House – Westborough Historical Society Building // 1844

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The Sibley House is a historic house museum as well as the headquarters of the Westborough Historical Society. Located on Parkman Street in the center of Westborough, Massachusetts, the transitional Greek Revival/Italianate style house was built in 1844, by William Sibley, who was a blacksmith and wheelwright. Soon after the house was built, William married Jane Caroline Gibson, and the couple raised five children here. William joined Westborough’s Company K, 13th Massachusetts Regiment during the Civil War and was wounded at Antietam. After the war, William returned home and he and his brother Frank began to manufacture sleighs.  At one point, they produced as many as 300 a year! The Sibley House was purchased by the Westborough Historical Society in 1990, nearly 100 years after the society was established in 1889. The house is open to visitors and provides a glimpse into daily life for Westborough citizens at the time. 

Dr. Edwin B. Harvey House // c.1830

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Edwin Bayard Harvey (1834-1913) was born in Deerfield, New Hampshire, and attended Wesleyan University in Connecticut, pursuing his career as a teacher. He would teach for a few years until he shifted gears and enrolled at Harvard Medical School, graduating in 1866. With the intention of settling in the West, he went to Waukegan, Illinois, but was not satisfied, so he returned to New England, and made his home in Westborough, Massachusetts. Edwin operated a medical office from this house on West Main Street and resided here with his family until his death in 1913. He often made house calls around town travelling by horseback. During his time in Westborough, Dr. Harvey served as President of the Massachusetts Medical Society from 1898-1900, and served on local school and library boards in Westborough. Never giving up on his push for education, as a State Senator in the legislature in 1884, Dr. Harvey introduced and was instrumental to the passage of a bill to provide free textbooks to the children of the state. The Dr. Edwin Harvey House remains in a great state of preservation.

Dr. Thomas M. Durell House // 1897

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Located next to the colorful Wadleigh-Friend House on Highland Avenue in Somerville, the Dr. Thomas M. Durell House stands as a more academic example of the Colonial Revival style, but leaning more towards Arts and Crafts style than Queen Anne like its neighbor. This residence was built in 1897 for Dr. Thomas M. Durell, a Harvard-educated doctor and surgeon who, at the formation of the Tufts Medical School, was appointed Lecturer on Legal Medicine, and in 1895, was made Professor of that subject. Architects (and brothers) Edwin King Blaikie and William Everett Blaikie designed the residence for Dr. Durell along with a stable at the rear. While the house exhibits Colonial Revival detailing from the Palladian window and proportions, there are some Arts and Crafts style influences including the shed dormers, shingled siding, inset porches, and broad overhanging eaves with exposed rafters. 

Wadleigh – Friend House // 1893

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One of the most beloved houses in Somerville, Massachusetts is this beauty on Highland Avenue, known best for the unique assemblage of colorful found objects in the front yard, as a living museum. The residence was built in 1893 for William Y. Wadleigh, a wholesale grocer who operated markets all over the region. The house is an eclectic blending of Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles with an asymmetrical plan and rounded corner tower taken from Victorian styles, along with a classical porch and swan’s neck pedimented dormers at the roof, clearly Colonial Revival in style. Today, the Wadleigh House is best-known for its owner, artist Martha Friend, who has preserved the house, and created an enchanting, ever-evolving installation outside and inside the residence. Sapphire City, an installation in the front yard, draws passersby in to see the assemblage of blue bottles and Dance Party, an assortment of animals at the porch roof, make the house a favorite in the neighborhood. It is houses and owners like this that make Somerville such a vibrant and great place to live and explore.