Italianate Architecture

Captain Hadley House // c.1850

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Built around 1850 for Captain Hadley this stately home in Marion, Massachusetts, is significant as a two-story transitional Greek Revival/Italianate landmark that has ties to one of the most prominent local families and has spent nearly two centuries as the visual entrance to the historic village. The home was built for sea captain, Stephen Delano Hadley (1814-1892) and his wife, Mary Soule. The home was at the northern end of the Old Landing, near the working harbor, and saw other owners in the 19th and 20th centuries until it became an office building. In the 2010s, the prominent site along a busy thoroughfare was eyed by CVS to redevelop the site with a suburban style store and parking lot. The community rallied with petitions signed by thousands and local groups mobilized to save the building and character of the community. The Sippican Historical Society and Sky Development Ltd. partnered to purchase the building and acquire a deed restriction on the site, preserving it in perpetuity. Today, the Captain Hadley House, as it’s still known locally, continues under new ownership as a small medical office, its Italianate details preserved under the historical society’s watch as one of Marion’s most recognizable surviving nineteenth-century landmarks.

Tabor Hall // c.1880

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This beautiful Italianate building was constructed around 1880 for the newly established Tabor Academy, which was founded in Marion, Massachusetts by Ms. Elizabeth Taber in 1876. After Ms. Taber funded the constructed of a town library and museum and Academy Building (now the Marion Town Hall) for her hometown, she endowed money for Tabor Hall, which was to house the school’s Principal, some boarding students, and most importantly, herself. The structure was originally located on Spring Street, just north of the library, 1936, when the “Tabor Swap” occurred. The swap was a deal between the academy and the Town of Marion, who exchanged properties. The town received the library building, the academic building (soon after converted to Town Hall) and land where this building once sat and erected the Sippican Elementary school on the land, and had Tabor Hall moved a block away to this site on Cottage Street. Tabor Hall has since been a private home, and recently (before this image) has been renovated with new siding.

Elizabeth Taber Library // 1872

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Built in 1872, the Elizabeth Taber Library and Natural History Museum was the first of a number of philanthropic gifts to the town of Marion by Elizabeth Sprague Pitcher Taber (1791-1888), a wealthy widow and resident. This stunning Italianate style library and museum was funded following over $20,000 in donations to Marion for the design, construction and furnishing of a new library in town, that would also house a natural history museum for the advancement of education. By the late 1870s, the Taber Library and Natural History Museum had become a key component of the Tabor Academy campus, founded just years later. The structure, like the Tabor Academy building and Tabor Hall, was designed in the Italianate style and features a dentiled pediment on the facade, an octagonal cupola with balustrade at the roof which is adorned by oculus windows, and an ornate portico supported by fluted Corinthian columns. The building remains as Marion’s Public Library with its Natural History Museum on the second floor

Tabor Academy Building – Marion Town Hall // 1876

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This building, one of the most architecturally significant in the town of Marion, Massachusetts, was constructed in 1876 as a new academy building in the community. When built, Marion was not yet a summer resort community and suffered the decline of the shipbuilding and sea-faring trades that saw the region prosper throughout much of the first half of the 19th century. The new academy building was largely funded by Marion resident, Elizabeth Sprague Pitcher Tabor (1791- 1888). Following the death of her wealthy husband, New Bedford clockmaker and whaling vessel shareholder Stephen Taber, Mrs. Taber focused her attention on improving the circumstances of her hometown of Marion by financing and overseeing construction of new buildings in town. In her later years, Elizabeth founded Tabor Academy in Marion, naming it after Mount Tabor in Palestine rather than after herself (but the close spelling was likely intentional). Tabor Academy served as a private school for boys and girls over 12 years of age, and was to remain free for local students. With the rise of public schools in the state, many academies began to struggle with admitting students, especially those that had parents willing to pay additional money for enrollment. The school struggled around the Great Depression and thus, traded buildings with the Town of Marion in the 1930s and this building became the Marion Town Hall, a use it retains to this day. The building itself is a stunning Italianate design, likely constructed from plans by Boston architect and summer resident in Marion, William Gibbons Preston. The Town of Marion has done an exceptional job maintaining and preserving this significant and iconic piece of architecture and local history into the 21st century.

First Free Will Baptist Church of Ashland // 1834 & 1872

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A Baptist congregation was established in present-day Ashland, New Hampshire, in 1818, when it was still a part of Holderness. Within a few decades, the village grew alongside increased manufacturing to a point that by 1830, a dedicated sanctuary was needed for area Baptists. Built in 1834, the First Free Will Baptist Church stood on a rise in the center of the village. Constructed of brick and vernacular in style, the edifice oversaw the growth of the community until the 1870s when increased wealth of the congregation led to a major alteration of the building in the Italianate style we see today. The current Victorian character, including the arched stained glass windows and shingled tower are reflective of that period. The old vestry on Main Street, which dates to 1835, retains its traditional Federal style and has since been connected to the church by a wood-frame connecting addition from 1899. The buildings were listed on the NAtional Register of Historic Places in 1983.

Israel L. Spencer House // c.1855

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The Spencer family emigrated from Braintree, England to America in 1638, with Thomas Spencer settling in Hartford, Connecticut in 1640. Thomas Spencer Jr., the second generation in Connecticut moved to modern-day Suffield in the 1670s. Generations later, Israel L. Spencer (1833-1887) became a businessman and politician, later being employed at the First National Bank in Suffield, continuing the family’s successful legacy in town. Mr. Spencer had this Italianate house on South Main Street built for him and his family. Israel’s son Charles L. Spencer grew up in the home, later following in his father’s footsteps becoming the president of the local bank. The house has been restored since this photo was taken in 2020.

Bryon Loomis House // c.1855

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This Italianate mansion on Main Street in Suffield, Connecticut, was built around 1855 for Byron Loomis (1831-1896), near the time of his marriage to Elizabeth Cowles in 1854. The house was possibly as a gift from his father Neland, one of the many successful tobacco barons that harvested tobacco, and packaged and shipped the product to markets all over the east coast. The Byron Loomis House is a large Italianate mansion with a boxy form with walls covered in flushboard siding. The low sloped roof with broad overhanging eaves is supported by large brackets and is topped with a large square belvedere.

Charles Loomis House // 1862

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Located on Suffield’s iconic Main Street, this enchanting 19th century residence stands as a testament to the impact and role the tobacco industry had on the community historically. The residence seen here was built for Charles Loomis of the Loomis Family, who made their fortune in the tobacco farming and rolling industry in Suffield, Connecticut. Charles F. Loomis used his tobacco money to have this asymmetrical Italianate Villa constructed in 1862. The home features a prominent three-story tower capped with iron cresting, broad overhanging eaves with brackets and some stickwork, and a gorgeous door with arched transom and sidelights.

George Loomis House // 1860

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This large Italianate style residence on Main Street in Suffield, Connecticut, was built in 1860 by John Wells Loomis for his son, George. George ran a cigar shop in a separate building on the lot, selling rolled cigars from tobacco that his business harvested and rolled. The mansion features a belvedere atop the low sloped hip roof with broad overhanging eaves. George was set to run the family business after his father, George. In 1881, two years after his father’s death, George Loomis sold the tobacco business founded by his father and moved to New Haven. In 1912, Polish residents bought the house, and it became the rectory for St. Joseph Church.

Benjamin D. Godfrey House and Stable // 1854

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Benjamin Davenport Godfrey (1813-1888) was a wealthy boot and shoe manufacturer and inventor who built this stately mansion and detached stable in Milford, Massachusetts. The residence was built in 1854 in the Italianate style and was once one of the largest properties in the community, a true show of his success and wealth. Benjamin Godfrey would eventually retire and move to Newton, selling the property to Frank Harvey, a medical doctor, who resided here and operated a private hospital next door. The property would sell again in 1944 and has operated as a funeral home ever-since. The stately residence and stable echo similar architectural similarities, including the boxy forms, hipped roof, flushboard siding, and bracketed cornice and windows.

Luther P. Jones House // c.1868

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While the town of Milford, Massachusetts is arguably best known for its commercial and institutional architecture, there are some excellent examples of preserved homes of nearly every style and vintage. The Luther P. Jones House on Pearl Street is an interesting example of the Italianate style with unique low-sloped gable roof and typical bracketed cornice, side piazza, and bay window on its facade. While the former arched window has been enclosed and the porch columns have been replaced, the house still maintains its architectural significance as an excellent example of its style. The property was owned by Lydia and Luther P. Jones, a provisions dealer, until their deaths in the early 20th century. 

Sears Stable – The Vincent Clubhouse // c.1856

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Located behind the David Sears Mansion (now Greek Consulate) on Beacon Street, this handsome utilitarian structure fronts Brimmer Street in Beacon Hill and predates the building it adjoins. The two stables and attached caretaker’s residence was built around 1856 for David Sears, who lived farther down Beacon Street, but also owned other buildings on the street which fronted the Public Garden. He built this stable in the Flat of Beacon Hill, an area west of Charles Street in what Samuel Eliot Morrison coined, “the horsey end of town” for its prevalence of stables and carriage houses. The architect is not known, but the handsome structure features bays of shallow, recessed brick arches and brick dentil courses, showing the importance of good design even for uses such as a stable. The building later became space for furniture storage and an ancillary apartment to the adjacent mansion, until 1957, when the it was acquired by the Vincent Club, a women’s organization with the mission of raising money for the Vincent Memorial Hospital whose mission was to treat the “diseases of women.” Even though the Vincent Hospital merged with Mass. General Hospital in 1988, the Vincent Club remains in this former stable as its home-base and continues to carry out its mission to advance the field of women’s healthcare.

Birch-Stevens Mansion // 1855

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Built in 1855, the Birch-Stevens Mansion of Swansea, Massachusetts, is a grand Italianate style residence distinguished by its low hipped roof with belvedere, broad overhanging eaves with brackets, paired arched windows, and expansive wrap-around porch, all of a scale not commonly found in such a small community. The residence was built for James Birch and overseen by his new bride, Julia Chace. Before construction on the home, James Birch (1828-1857), not a wealthy man, worked as a stagecoach driver in Providence. His bride-to-be desired a large mansion in her native Swansea, equipped with servants and all the finer things of life. Since this dream was not attainable in his present circumstances, Birch, an enterprising 21 year old, decided to join the Gold Rush in California to make his fortune. In California, James became a stagecoach line entrepreneur and founder of the California Stage Company, the largest stage line in California in the 1850s. James made a fortune and returned to his wife in Swansea bringing money for her to begin constructing their grand mansion. James left again, this time establishing the San Antonio -San Diego Mail Line, the first transcontinental mail route in the United States. In 1857, while heading home, James sailed from San Francisco to Panama, took a train across the Isthmus, and sailed for New York on the steamer SS Central America. During the voyage, his ship was struck by a hurricane and later sunk. Many survivors clung to pieces of the ship’s wreckage for days with many dying to exposure or were swept away to their deaths, like James. He was just 28 years old. Back in Swansea, Julia was heartbroken but remarried her late-husband’s business partner, Frank Shaw Stevens, an equally successful businessman. Julia died in 1871, and Frank married a younger Elizabeth Case. The couple resided in this mansion for decades and donated substantially to their community, including funding the Town Hall, Public Library, Episcopal Church, and local public schools. In her will, Elizabeth Case Stevens bequeathed the large mansion in 1837 to the Frank S. Stevens Home for Boys which began as a boy’s orphanage. The organization remains to this day with an expanded mission, and maintain the sprawling estate and its various outbuildings, including the historic stable and farm structures.

James H. F. Standish House // 1874

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In 1873, James H. F. Standish (1811-1887) purchased a house lot on the corner of Francis and Toxteth streets in Brookline and set out building his forever home for his wife, Sarah. James and Sarah originally lived in Bath, Maine, where he worked as a builder and mason, constructing many large homes there before relocating to Brookline where he likely remained busy as Boston and its surrounding communities experienced a period of rapid development and suburbanization. James surely built this house and rear stable himself in the interpretation of the Stick and Italianate styles for his family, who moved in by 1874. Sadly, Sarah died unexpectedly in 1876 of heart disease, and James would sell their Brookline home. The Standish Home has been preserved by subsequent owners, including the central cupola, bracketed and dentilled cornice, stickwork and iron cresting. The Standish House was individually listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1985 as a well-preserved, evocative example of Victorian period styles in a residence.

Willis Bristol House // 1845

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The Willis Bristol House on Chapel Street in the Wooster Square neighborhood of New Haven, Connecticut, is one of the finest and most architecturally distinctive residences in New England. Built in 1845 for Willis Bristol (1804-1875), a partner in the shoe manufacturer of Bristol & Hall, the home was designed by Connecticut architect, Henry Austin, who designed many of the other great mansions in Wooster Square around this period. The Bristol House is Italianate in style with Exotic Revival detailing which has often been described as Moorish Revival, but it is actually more Indian Revival, an extreme rarity in 19th century New England. It is believed that Henry Austin was influenced by an illustration of columns and capitals at the Ellora Caves in India published by Henry Repton in Designs for the Pavilion at Brighton (1808) and through this worked picked up a fascination with Indian architecture that was to influence his designs in the mid-19th century. Many of Austin’s designs in Wooster Square feature these Indianesque columns on their porches. The Willis Bristol House remained in the family until 1876 and was subsequently used as a congregation house, school, beauty parlor, and presently as apartments. The owners should be commended for preserving and protecting this ornate and unique residence for all to enjoy.