Mansard House

Isaac Rich House // 1846

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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 house on Linden Street was built in 1846 in the Greek Revival style and was purchased upon completion by Isaac Rich. Isaac Rich (1801-1872) was a prominent merchant and philanthropist and founder of Boston University. The house was modernized in the 1860s with the addition of a mansard roof and paired windows.

Toussaint House // 1879

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In 1879, furniture-maker and amateur architect, Winand Toussaint (1826-1904), built this unique mansard roofed house at 203 Aspinwall Avenue in Brookline Village. Toussaint was born in Belgium, and immigrated to the United States about 1841, where he originally settled in Roxbury and operated a cabinetmaking business. Toussaint moved from Roxbury to Brookline about 1873, but lost his fortune in the Panic of 1874. After a few years, he found work and eventually purchased a house lot here, and designed and built this home in 1879. Winand was born into a family of architects and engineers in Europe with his grandfather being Jean Lambert Toussaint of Liege, an architect who reportedly built the first railway introduced in Belgium. He is said to have studied in France and Italy before working in furniture-making in the United States. He maintained a professional office from his Brookline house until his death in 1904. After his death, the family home was inherited by daughter, Emma Toussaint, who was unmarried and worked as a linguist and writer under the name “Portia”. The charming Toussaint House blends Second Empire and Stick styles with unique beveled corners, one of which contains the main entrance, and a belvedere at the crest of the mansard roof. Due to its unique architecture, the Toussaint House was individually listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

Damon-Griffin House // 1869

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The Damon-Griffin House at 92 Commonwealth Road in Wayland, Massachusetts, is one of the exemplary buildings constructed in the Cochituate village in town, which prospered in the 19th century and centered around industry. This stately Second Empire style mansion is sited on a rise in the land overlooking Lake Cochituate and was completed in 1869 for George A. Damon (1826-1885), a wealthy businessman. George Damon died in 1885, and the house was sold to Wallace Griffin, one of the Griffin brothers who worked for the Bent Company, a prominent local shoe manufacturer. In 1890, Noble Griffin bought the house from his brother and, as his business prospered, proceeded to fix up the house as the showplace of a successful shoe manufacturer. In the mid-20th century, the Damon-Griffin House became a funeral home, and later was purchased by a developer who subdivided the land to build a suburban-style development of detached homes behind the house, and constructed an addition to the rear with more condominium units.

Ambrose Burnside House // 1866

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What do this unique Victorian house and sideburns have in common? Well, you are about to find out!

The Ambrose Burnside House is sited on an oddly shaped, and sloping corner lot on Benefit Street in Providence’s East Side neighborhood, and is one of the most unique Second Empire style residences in New England. The house was built in 1866 for General Ambrose Burnside (1824-1881), a Union general in the American Civil War, who returned to Providence and was about to begin a term as governor, followed by two terms in the United States Senate. Ambrose Burnside hired local architect, Alfred Stone, to design his new city mansion, which upon completion, was deemed one of the most “modern residences” in Providence. Built of brick with Nova Scotia stone with a concave slate mansard roof and one-of-a-kind rounded corner bay, the Ambrose Burnside House does not disappoint! Ambrose Burnside died in 1881 and the property was occupied by his sister-in-law until the property was sold in 1884 and housed the Providence Children’s Friend Society House for Aged Women and the Providence Association for the Benefit of Colored Children, providing shelter and food for elderly women and children of color without parents or guardians. After WWII, the Burnside House was converted to apartments.

Now, to the sideburns… Ambrose Burnside was noted for his unusual beard, joining strips of hair in front of his ears to his mustache but with the chin clean-shaven; the word burnsides was coined to describe this style. The syllables were later reversed to give sideburns.

Jones-Sinclair House // 1865

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One of the finest Victorian-era residences in Portsmouth, the Jones-Sinclair House at 241 Middle Street, is a stately and oversized Second Empire style mansion built in the location of an even more significant home. Originally on this site, at the convergence of two busy streets, Thomas Haven, a wealthy merchant and half-brother to William Haven who lived across the street, built an impressive brick, Federal style mansion here in around 1818. Admiral George Washington Storer, Commander in Chief of the Brazil squadron of the U.S. Navy, later purchased the Federal style octagonal house. Mary Washington Storer, inherited the house after her father’s death in 1864, and she with her husband, Albert L. Jones, demolished the old octagonal-shaped house around 1865-1867, replacing it with this mansard-villa style mansion. By about 1890, Charles A. Sinclair and his wife, Emma, is said to have received the house as a gift from her uncle, the famous Portsmouth industrialist and politician, Frank Jones. 

William Fraser House // c.1873

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In a town full of clapboards and shingles, brick houses really do stand out! This is the William Fraser House, located at 303 Pleasant Street in the ever-charming town of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, a stately example of the Second Empire style as a single-family residence. The house was built by 1873 for William James Fraser (1836-1930), a Canadian-born mason who immigrated to Portsmouth in 1850 and began a successful career as a mason, building many of the town’s great masonry buildings. The Fraser House has a slate mansard roof with overhanging eaves, bracketed cornice, and paired gable dormers and a double wood-paneled entrance door with transom under a flat roof portico.

John E. Colcord House // c.1870

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While Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is arguably best-known for Georgian and Federal style houses of the 18th and early 19th centuries, there are some great examples of Victorian style residences built after the Civil War to be discovered. This brick Second Empire style residence on Pleasant Street was built around 1870 and originally owned by Ebenezer Lord (1788-1877), who lived elsewhere in Portsmouth, likely gifting this home to his daughter, Susan (Lord) Colcord, and her husband, Charles Colcord. Both Charles and Susan died one year apart in 1872 and 1873 respectively, and the property was inherited by their son, John. John Edward Colcord worked as the Clerk at the Portsmouth Navy Yard. The building has a Mansard roof with overhanging eaves, denticulated cornice, and three shed-roof dormers at the facade. Walls are brick and rest on a granite foundation, with a later, wood-frame side addition that employs similar design details of the main house. 

Tatro-Tyng House // 1873

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The neighborhood now known as Ashmont Hill had its origins in 1870, when George Derby Welles, who was 26 years old and living in Paris, inherited extensive landholdings in this area from his grandfather’s estate in Dorchester. Welles engaged representatives to subdivide the land. Some parcels were developed with high-style rental properties, managed by his representatives while living abroad, and others were sold and developed by builders, designing homes in the prominent styles at the time. In the early 1870s, the Second Empire style was most popular, though began waning in popularity for Stick and Queen Anne styles. Lots on Welles Street were purchased by Mr. George Tatro, a builder and developer who seemingly designed and built two near identical houses at 48 and 52 Welles street. The houses were completed by 1873 at the time of The Panic, an economic downturn triggered by industrial and railroad over-expansion and consequent bank and business failures. The property was sold, but remained vacant until it was taken over by a bank and then purchased by Catherine Stevens Tyng, the widow of Reverend Dudley Atkins Tyng, who died at just 33-years-old from a freak accident at home. Catherine moved to the area, first settling in Cambridge, to follow her two sons who attended Harvard College, before selling the house and moving to New York. The Tatro-Tyng House is a stunning, and well-preserved example of the Second Empire style, with a shingled bay window and bay dormer in the mansard with applied ornament.

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.