Massachusetts

Faunce Schoolhouse // 1844

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This one-story, well-proportioned schoolhouse is located in the town center of Kingston, Massachusetts. The Faunce Schoolhouse showcases all the hallmarks of the Greek Revival style, including the siting of the building with its narrow end facing the street to showcase the gable roof, corner pilasters, and the entablature completing the gable as a pediment. The school was built in 1844, shortly after the nearby Town House was completed, as a center primary school. Up until the early 1900s, one or two teachers taught first through fourth grades at the two-room school. By 1908, overcrowding at the school led to a town meeting that led to the construction of a new school to provide more space conducive to learning. The Center Primary School remained open, and in 1924, the school was renamed in honor of Walter H. Faunce, a former teacher, superintendent of schools, and town selectman. The building was abandoned as a school in 1926 and stood empty until 1934 when it was sold by the town to the Kingston Grange No. 323 for $400. The Grange occupied the building until 1959 when it sold the building back to the town for $4,000. The building was restored in the 1970s and remains a source of pride for the community to this day offering free meeting and event spaces for local non-profits.


St. Mark’s Orthodox Church // 1882

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Built in 1882 as a Catholic mission church, the St. Mark’s Orthodox Church on Main Street in Kingston, Massachusetts, stands as a lovely example of a Victorian Gothic ecclesiastical building in a great state of preservation. In the waning decades of the 19th century, the Irish and Catholic population of Kingston grew, which led members to petition the Diocese to erect a mission church closer to their homes, rather than attend St. Peter’s in Plymouth. Originally called St. Joseph’s Church, the building served the local Catholic population until after the new, brick St. Joseph’s. Church was built further down Main Street in the 1930s. The local St. Mark Of Ephesus Orthodox Church congregation purchased the chapel in 1995 and restored the building, removing faux-brick shingling and reshingled the exterior.

First Parish Church, Kingston // 1851

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The original Congregational Church of Kingston was part of the established, tax-supported church of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and was built in 1718, after present-day Kingston established itself as Plymouth’s North Parish. The church was replaced in 1798 with a more substantial building with two steeples. In 1833, when the separation of church and state was finalized in the Commonwealth, two new religious societies formed in Kingston and established churches. The 1798 church, which had been built as the only church in town, was now too large for its diminished population and suffering from structural difficulties. In the spring of 1851, the 1798 church was taken down, and the present church, the third on the site, was constructed. The church blends Greek Revival and Italianate styles, both popular for ecclesiastical buildings of its time, and the structure looks much like it did when built 175 years ago. The congregation here is Universal Unitarian.

Cobb-Bartlett House // 1754

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The Cobb-Bartlett House at 240 Main Street in Kingston, Massachusetts, was built around 1754 for Gershom Cobb (1717-1799) where he raised his family. The gambrel-roofed Georgian house was built before the revolution, and may have originally been a half-cape and expanded to a full-cape in the late 18th or early 19th century. The property was sold by Cobb in 1768 to Captain Joseph Bartlett, and the property remained in the family for generations after his death in 1788. The house is a well-preserved example of a Cape style house with large, central chimney and clad with cedar shingle siding and roof.

Holmes-Stetson House // 1841

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Built the same year as the Old Kingston Town House in Kingston, Massachusetts, this handsome Greek Revival style house sits on the town’s Main Street and has ties to two of the communities oldest and most significant families. The house was constructed in 1841 with matching side porches for Horace Holmes (1809-1855), a merchant and son of Joseph Holmes, a wealthy ship owner and builder. Horace operated a store near his home until his death in 1855. The property was later purchased by Captain Charles Stetson, a master mariner. The couple’s weath soon allowed them to sell this older residence and they built a “modern” Italianate style house at the rear garden (now 20 Green Street) to reside in. After successive ownership, the Greek Revival style house was converted to a store, but has since been reverted back to a residence, retaining much of its original fabric.

Old Kingston Town House // 1841

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Overlooking the town green in Kingston, Massachusetts, this stately Greek Revival home was once the original town house for the community, containing meeting hall, town offices and even a jail cell! Before we go into that further, it is helpful to learn about history first. Present-day Kingston was within the tribal homeland of the Wampanoag people, who in the decades prior to the arrival of the Mayflower, saw their populations decimated from a rapidly spreading pandemics due to earlier contacts with Europeans. Originally part of Plymouth, Kingston was first settled by Europeans shortly after the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock in 1620. In 1717, residents in the northern part of Plymouth petitioned the General Court to be set off from Plymouth as a separate township or a precinct. They were allowed to become the north precinct of Plymouth on the condition that they maintain a suitable minister. The northern precinct was wealthier and led to present-day Kingston incorporating as its own town in 1726, following a tax dispute. Early town meetings were held in the parish church until the separation of church and state necessitated a new town hall. The town hall here was built in 1841. As the town grew the building was re-oriented southward and enlarged in 1871 from plans by architect Luther Briggs. Further alterations were made to the building in 1935 under the guidance of the architectural firm of J. Williams Beal & Sons. In the early 2000s, space, parking, and accessibility concerns led the Town of Kingston to sell the 1841 Town House, which was purchased by private owners and converted to a residence. Inside, remnants of the old town house include old signs, office doors for city departments, former vaults converted to closets, and even a jail cell in the basement. Talk about a unique adaptive reuse!

Braeside Cottage // 1888

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Tucked away in the town of Hunter in the Catskill Mountains of New York, the summer colony of Twilight Park has stood as an exclusive and private resort community established in the late 19th century. Twilight Park was born out of the Twilight Club, a Manhattan social club in the late-19th century and brought to life by founder, Charles F. Wingate. Mr. Wingate traveled to the mountaintop in 1887, and became enamored by its natural beauty. He arranged for the purchase of a former sheep meadow and led the construction of the first cluster of cottages in what would become a large community of over 100 summer homes. Cottages were laid out on roughly parallel roads at different elevations and on old connecting paths that later became roads with all lots built on ledges overlooking the Catskills. The first cottages were log cabins, and quickly followed by larger, Queen Anne style “cottages” as others invested in the development. This cottage, known as Brae Side Cottage, was built in 1888 during the first phase of development in Twilight Park, and it is notable for its varied siding, diamond-pane windows, complex roof form with dormers, and the laticed entry.

Joseph Royall House // c.1770

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This is one of the oldest buildings in Boston! The Joseph Royall House is located at 770 Washington Street in the Ashmont section of Dorchester, set back from the street and passed by thousands who likely do not know its history and significance. The house dates to around 1770 and was built by Joseph Royall, of the infamous Royall Family of Cambridge, Medford, and Antigua, who made much of their money through sugar plantations in the Caribbean and enslaved Africans. Joseph was a nephew of Isaac Royal Jr., the patriarch of the family who resided at what is now the Royall House and Slave Quarters in Medford. Upon the outbreak of the American Revolution, the Tory Royalls were forced to flee for protection, Joseph would move to England. Isaac’s daughter (and Joseph’s cousin), Penelope Royall Vassall had her Cambridge home confiscated as a Tory property during the Revolution, causing her to flee to Antigua. When she returned to Boston after the war she was a widow and lived in poverty. Her cousin, Joseph, would sell her this Dorchester estate in 1782 nearly for free, allowing her to sell the property for money to survive in Boston. The house would remain here for another two-and-a-quarter centuries, as Ashmont grew around it. One-story stores were built in the front yard, completely obscuring the Georgian residence until later owners, Bob and Vicki Rugo, restored the house and demolished the stores in front, preserving this house for centuries to come. While the house is one of the oldest in Boston, it is not a landmark or listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Lynch House // 1889

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One of the most unique and enchanting houses in the Ashmont Hill neighborhood of Dorchester is the Lynch House (aka the Sunflower House) at 102 Ocean Street, a landmark example of the Queen Anne architectural style. This residence was designed in 1889 by architect Samuel J. Brown, who worked in the firm of Cummings and Sears before opening his own office in Boston, where he specialized in residential designs. The first owners were Edward C. Lynch, a stair builder, and his wife, Petronella P. Lynch, who was born in Sweden and emigrated to the United States. Architecturally, the Lynch House features a prominent gambrel roof that swells out over the second-floor inset windows, clapboard and shingle siding, sawtooth shingled details over the windows, and the sunflower motif in a panel at the third floor.

George A. Eastman House and Stable // 1889

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Built between 1889-1891, the house and stable at 60 Ocean Street in the Ashmont Hill neighborhood of Dorchester was commissioned by George A. Eastman, a Harvard graduate and insurance executive. George Augustine Eastman married Anna C. Winsor in 1870, and the family would remain in this house for nearly 100 years. George Eastman worked as an insurance executive at the Boston office of the Liverpool & London & Globe Insurance Company of England for over 50 years, and built his home next-door to his brother’s at 42 Ocean Street. It is believed that the Eastman House and Stable were designed by local architect Edwin J. Lewis, who designed about a dozen other residences in the surrounding area at the same time. The old stable has been converted to residential use, a great way to adaptively reuse these old, well-built structures.