Mansion

Peirce Mansion // 1799

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

The Peirce Mansion on Court Street in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is one of the finest, high-style Federal period homes in the United States. Built in 1799 for John Peirce (1746-1814), the residence is said to have been designed by Bradbury Johnson, a local carpenter and builder who was inspired by the designs of Charles Bulfinch. John Peirce began his career in the counting room of Daniel Rindge and worked in business and banking in Portsmouth. Peirce opposed the American rebellion against England but did not serve either side during the war. After the Revolution, in 1789, John Peirce was one of the leading citizens appointed to escort President George Washington around Portsmouth. The Peirce Mansion remained in the family over 150 years until it was sold by his descendants to the Middle Street Baptist Church in 1955, who extensively modified the residence to serve as a vestry and meeting space for church activities. The building was moved back from the road with the four tall chimneys were removed. Architecturally, the Peirce Mansion stands out for its massing, hip-roof with cupola adorned by a balustrade and urns, and the facade with elliptical arches, molded medallions, pilasters, and the Federal style entry treatment with fanlight transom and sidelights.

Skinner-Boardman Mansion // 1832

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

One of the finest houses in New Haven is this stately residence, the Aaron Skinner Mansion on Hillhouse Avenue. The mansion was built in 1832 for Aaron Nichols Skinner (1800-1858) from plans by architect Alexander Jackson Davis. Skinner was a Mayor of New Haven (1850-1854), and for a short time, ran a boy’s boarding school out of this house. Skinner was also a CT State Representative, serving two terms. The house was originally built as a three-bay, two-story house with one-story side wings and a rear ell. After his death, the house was purchased by Judge William W. Boardman, who in 1859, modernized the property hiring architect, Henry Austin, who filled in the side wings and added Italianate window mouldings. The monumental portico supported by fluted, Ionic columns, creates such a stately presence for the early house on the street. In the early 20th century, the mansion was owned by Rutherford Trowbridge, who renovated the house for his own use. The house remained in the Trowbridge family until the death of his last daughter, Miss C. Rachel Trowbridge, when the estate became the property of Yale University.

Roughwood // 1891

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

Roughwood is a historic estate house on Heath Street in Brookline, Massachusetts. The main residence and the various outbuildings on the grounds were designed by the Boston architectural firm of Andrews, Jaques and Rantoul, and built in 1891 as the summer estate of William Cox, a wholesale dealer in the footwear industry. Mr. Cox died in 1902 and the property was sold to Ernest Dane, the year before he married Helen Pratt, the daughter of Charles Pratt, a wealthy New York businessman and philanthropist. Mr. Dane was a banker who served as President of the Brookline Trust Company. The Dane’s owned the property for decades until the property was eventually purchased by Pine Manor Junior College in 1961. The estate house remained a centerpiece of the campus. In the early 21st century, Pine Manor College saw financial distress, and was saved by Boston College, who acquired the campus and its existing students as Messina College, which opened in July 2024 for over 100 first-generation college students. Architecturally, Roughwood is a high-style example of the Queen Anne/Shingle style of architecture. The mansion is built with a puddingstone and brownstone first floor and a second floor of varied patterns of wood shingles, all capped by a slate roof. The facade is dominated by towers and dormers and the great rustic entrance portico with dragon’s head brackets. To its side, a 1909 Tudor Revival addition served as a music room for the Dane’s family and while stylistically unique, is designed with impeccable proportions.

John G. Wright Mansion // 1907-1967

Buildings of New England1 Comment

John Gordon Wright (1843-1912), was a Boston wool merchant who purchased farmland on this site in the 1890s and hired architects Chapman & Frazer, to design this stone mansion as an estate house. He previously moved into an earlier wood-frame home on the site and a decade earlier, had the architects design his carriage house and stable, which survive today as the Soule Recreation Center. The stone Tudor Revival style mansion house was massive and featured in national periodicals when completed. The estate was beautified by landscaping designed and laid-out by the Olmsted firm. In 1942, the property was purchased by the Rivers School (now located in Weston) and converted into classrooms and administrative offices for the private school. When the school moved to Weston, the Town of Brookline in 1961 bought property for recreational purposes. Sadly, in 1967, the mansion house burned down, but the carriage house and gate lodge remain as lasting remnants of a once great Brookline estate.

Emerson Gaylord Mansion // c.1871

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

Emerson Gaylord (1817-1899) was a businessman and politician from Chicopee, Massachusetts, who operated the Gaylord Manufacturing Company and later, the Ames Sword Company, furnishing military swords and other goods for the Union during the Civil War. His business did extremely well and he became one of the wealthiest men in the industrial city. In 1856, Gaylord purchased the property at the corner of Springfield Street and Fairview Avenue and resided in a home here until years following the war, when he demolished the original structures on the site in 1870 to build a new home currently known as the Gaylord Mansion, worthy of his stature and notoriety in Chicopee. In 1962, Elms College purchased the Gaylord Mansion for $50,000. In 1997, an Elms College Cornerstone Campaign raised $100,000 to refurbish the exterior of this historical treasure. In February 2020, the Gaylord mansion underwent another renovation by the college to transform the interior into a classroom-meeting space with dorm residences on the top floors dubbing it “Living-Learning, Community and Cultural Center”.

Hidden Valley Castle // 1921

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment
Photo from listing.

A castle can be found in the small town of Cornwall, Connecticut! Set amongst 275 acres of woodland and streams, with several outbuildings on the property, this whimsical castle looks like it was dropped here from Cornwall, England, but it actually dates to the 1920s. Hidden Valley Castle, had its beginnings when socialite Charlotte Bronson Hunnewell Martin envisioned building a unique country retreat for herself and her husband, Dr. Walton Martin, in the Litchfield Hills of Connecticut as a summer retreat. Just before this, Charlotte had bought a group of 20 brownstones in Manhattan on 48th and 49th Streets, between Second and Third Avenues, and converted them into charming townhouses around a central Italian-inspired garden. Called Turtle Bay Gardens, the houses were highly acclaimed and almost immediately attracted prominent and celebrated residents. The Cornwall Castle was designed by architect, Edward Clarence Dean, who also redesigned the Turtle Bay Gardens for the couple. Dr. Martin imported many of the materials as well as the 100 workmen required to build the castle, a project that lasted five years. Charlotte would also have a cottage built on the estate and hired young Italian artist, Vincenzo Rondinone, to be her resident artist on the estate to create unique vases, bowls, and pots to be used at the house and to be given as gifts to visitors and friends. The property was restored in recent years and put up for sale, with the cottage sold as a separate dwelling.

Birdsey Hall // c.1804

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

Built circa 1804 in the form of an English country estate house, Birdsey Hall stands as the finest property in the town of Goshen, Connecticut. The residence was built for Birdsey Norton (1763-1812), a wealthy cheese merchant who was said to have been inspired to build a country estate after travelling the American south on business. The high-style Federal/Adamesque mansion features expansive grounds bounded by brick walls and Victorian gardens. The property was later owned by Fred Favorite and Robert Devoe, friends of Liberace, who operated an antique store. Birdsey Hall remains one of the finest Federal estates in Connecticut.

Glen Magna Farms // c.1790

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

Glen Magna Farms is a historic estate located in Danvers, Massachusetts, and it is one of the lesser-known historic properties of this stature. During the War of 1812, Joseph Peabody, the wealthiest Salem shipping merchant of his day, bought a 20-acre Danvers farm with a dwelling house. The c.1790 house was likely updated at this time in a higher example of the Federal style, and used as a summer residence the family would escape to during the warmer months. Peabody purchased additional property and Glen Magna grew to over 130-acres. William Crowninshield Endicott, who served as Secretary of War during the Grover Cleveland administration, married Ellen Peabody, granddaughter of Joseph Peabody in 1859. The couple would inherit Glen Magna and later hire the firm of Little, Browne, and Moore in the 1890s to renovate the mansion and update the gardens. Ellen Peabody Endicott would also have the Derby Summer House added to the grounds by 1901. In 1963, the Danvers Historical Society purchased the house and eleven acres of surrounding gardens which they painstakingly restored to their early 20th century condition. Glen Magna can now be rented out for weddings and other events!

Porphyry Hall // 1880

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

The Jacob E. Spring Mansion, also known as Porphyry Hall, is a high-style estate house located in Danvers, Massachusetts, that is one of the finest and most unique in the state! The house was built in 1880 for Jacob Evans Spring (1825-1905), who was born in Brownfield, Maine, and at the age of twenty, he went to Argentina and amassed a fortune in the wool business in Buenos Aires between 1845 and 1865, when he returned to the United States. Jacob and his wife, Sara Duffy, would purchase a large farm in Danvers and began planning for their family country home. Their residence was built on a high hill over two years and constructed of over 40 types of stones of irregular size and color with door and window sills of Nova Scotia freestone with arches of the doors and windows and corners of brick. The mansion was designed by architect George M. Harding of Boston, and built by several skilled masons over many months. Mr. Spring named his estate, “Porphyry Hall” with Porphyry meaning an igneous rock with large crystals in a fine-grained matrix; suitable for the walls of their mansion. The Spring’s lived lavishly at this home and spent nearly all of their fortune, selling the property after just ten years to the Xaverian Brothers, who opened it as Saint John’s Normal College. In 1907, the compound was re-organized as a Catholic boys prep school. In 1915, a chapel was added to the rear of the building, constructed from gray fieldstone to blend with the main house. Have you ever seen a building like this?

Lord Mansion // 1822

Buildings of New England5 Comments

Isaac Lord (1772-1838) was born in Maine, but would spend much of his time transforming the small town of Effingham, New Hampshire. Isaac married the love of his life, Susanna Leavitt in Exeter in 1793 and the couple moved to Effingham, living and working in a tavern he built. Isaac prospered as an innkeeper, merchant, farmer, and entrepreneur, becoming Effingham’s wealthiest citizen, making the village he owned buildings to be called Lord’s Hill in his name. From 1818 to 1822, Isaac and Susanna lived in Portland, but he was ridiculed for “having money but no culture”. Growing tired of the city, he decided to return to Effingham. Mrs. Lord found the village too quiet and longed for the social life to be had in Portland, Maine. To convince his wife to remain with him, Isaac promised her a mansion that rivaled the homes in wealthy seaports like Portland and Portsmouth and began working on his mansion in Effingham in 1822. After years, the massive estate was completed, but Susanna remained in Portland. A heartbroken Isaac moved into the large mansion and continued business until his death in 1838. The Isaac Lord House consists of a three-story main block with a grand cupola on its roof and a three story ell to its rear. Stables and a carriage house are also on the lot today. I would do anything to see the inside of this beauty!