Massachusetts

Jeremiah Page House // 1754

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In 1754, a 32-year-old brickmaker Jeremiah Page built this large, gambrel-roofed Georgian house in Danvers, Massachusetts, for his young family. Jeremiah and his first wife, Sarah, raised nine children here and dreamed of liberty from England. Following the Tea Act, passed by British Parliament in 1773 that granted the British East India Company Tea a monopoly on tea sales in the American colonies, Page was said to have demanded that “none shall drink tea in my house.” One evening when her husband was out, Sarah Page is said to have invited several women from the neighborhood up to the porch atop the Page House’s gambrel roof to enjoy tea. Larcom quotes Page as telling her friends, “Upon a house is not within it,” thereby finding a loophole around her husband’s directive. This legend was enshrined in the poem “The Gambrel Roof” (1874) by Lucy Larcom, who knew Sarah Page’s granddaughter. Jeremiah Page would fight in the Revolution, serving as a Captain. The Page House remained in the family for two more generations, Sarah Page’s daughter in-law, Mary Page died in 1876 and her will put the property into a trust with the stipulation that once there were no longer any Page descendants to live there, the historic house was to be torn down. After Mary Page’s daughter Anne Lemist Page died in 1913, the trustee planned to demolish it according to her wishes. The Danvers Historical Society sprung into action and sued to oppose the will, fighting to preserve this significant home. They won, and relocated the home a block from Elm Street to its present site on Page Street, where it stands today. The Danvers Historical Society maintain the structure to this day, including the “porch” at the roof where the tea party once took place.

Overlook Mansion // 1842

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In about 1842, a Salem merchant, Joseph Adams, built this stately Greek Revival style mansion on Pine Street in Danvers, Massachusetts. Named “Overlook”, the house is a simplified adaptation of the temple-front form with three columns supporting an entablature and closed pediment above. Joseph Adams was an instrumental force who brought an Episcopal church to Danvers, bankrolling the new building there himself. By 1862, the house was owned by Milton P. Braman (1799-1882), who had just retired as pastor for the First Church of Danvers. Of particular note, when news reached Danvers of the assassination of President Lincoln, a gang of men there captured two men who had said unkind words of the late president, and tar and feathered them. A number of the mob were said to have planned to also go to Rev. Braman’s house here to do the same to him, as he was said to have been a “copperhead” a democrat who opposed the American Civil War and wanted an immediate peace settlement with the Confederates. Reverend Braman got wind of the plans of the local mob and had men stationed in the windows with shotguns, with the order to shoot anyone who entered the property. Luckily for all involved, the mob never showed. He would later move to Brookline and Newton. Overlook remains a significant country estate and very well-preserved by the owners.

Danvers Town Hall // 1854

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The land that is now Danvers, Massachusetts, was once owned by the Naumkeag branch of the Massachusett tribe. Permanent European settlement began in 1636, when present-day Danvers was known as Salem Village, a village of Salem. The historical event for which Danvers is best-known is the Salem witch trials of 1692, which began in the home of Rev. Samuel Parris, in Salem Village. Danvers officially separated from Salem in 1752 and is likely named after Sir Danvers Osborn, a Colonial Governor of New York. In 1757, Massachusetts incorporated Danvers as a town and, according to legend, King George II later vetoed this act of incorporation and returned his decree with the message, “The King Unwilling.” They simply ignored this royal veto, which was later included on the town’s seal! Danvers would eventually build a central town hall building , this structure, in 1854 which partially functioned as a high school as well. Plans were drawn by the Salem architectural firm of Emmerton & Foster in a pleasing blending of Greek Revival and Italianate styles. As the town grew, the building was expanded in 1883, and in the 1890s. When a new, purpose-built high-school was constructed elsewhere in town in the early 1930s, it was decided to renovate the town hall building. Due to financial constraints during the Great Depression, the town got a lifeline by the Federal government, who in 1934, appropriated $6,500 to the town for a renovated town hall as part of the New Deal. Additional funds from the WPA went to murals (many of which still adorn the walls inside). Architect Lester S. Couch of Danvers, a partner in the firm Little & Browne, oversaw the renovations in the Colonial Revival style.

Wilson Chapel – Andover Newton Theological School // 2007

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The last building constructed on the former Andover Newton Theological School in Newton, Massachusetts, was Wilson Chapel, located at the edge of the campus. The building is a modern interpretation of the traditional New England meetinghouse, and was completed in 2007 from plans by Context Architecture. The limestone building is punctuated by a grid of square punched windows and raised panels with the primary facade dominated by a glass tower, resembling the more traditional steeple. To me, the building does an excellent job at respecting the basic forms of a New England chapel, while utilizing contemporary materials and design elements to distinguish it as a 21st century structure.

Hills Library – Andover Newton Theological School // 1895

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The Hills Library is a formal building standing at the summit of Institution Hill, so-named as the home of the Newton Theological Institution (and most recently as the Andover Newton Theological School). The library was constructed in 1895 from plans by architects Henry H. Kendall and Edward F. Stevens of the firm, Kendall & Stevens. Designed in 1894 in the Neo-Classical style, the library has a stately portico in the Ionic order with a pediment above. The building is constructed of yellow brick with stone and terracotta trimmings with banks of vertical windows. The library would be added onto at the rear, with the main entrance later closed for an accessible entrance in a rear addition. The building is now known as the Hanns Sachs Memorial Library for the current owners and stewards, the Boston Psychoanalytic Society & Institute (BPSI).

Colby Hall – Andover Newton Theological School // 1866

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Colby Hall sits perched atop a hill overlooking Newton Centre, Newton, and is located in the Andover Newton Theological School campus. The building was constructed in 1886 for the Newton Theological Institution, which was founded on this site in 1825, and used for the a Baptist seminary, educating young students in theology. By the 1860s, the school had outgrown its space and following a donation from benefactor,  Gardner Colby (1810–1879), who was treasurer of the school (and was also the benefactor and namesake of Colby College in Maine) plans were drawn up for the new lecture spaces and chapel building. The unique building was designed by Alexander Rice Esty, a prominent architect at the time, and it blends Second Empire and Romanesque Revival styles under one roof. The three-story structure is of a light buff, rough cut stone with sandstone trim and features an imposing four-story tower at the eastern end. In November 2015, the school announced that it would sell its campus and become part of Yale Divinity School in New Haven, Connecticut. The Newton campus was purchased by the Windsor Park School with Colby Hall now occupied by the Boston Psychoanalytic Society & Institute.

Farwell Hall – Andover Newton Theological School // 1829

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The Newton Theological Institution, a school originally founded for the Baptist ministry, opened on Institution Hill in Newton Center in 1825. The 40-acre campus started with six buildings, including this one, Farwell Hall, built in 1829. Farwell Hall is the oldest extant building on the campus today and is named after benefactor and early founder of the school, Levi Farwell. The brick building began as a late-Federal-designed building with a classic Federal Style window fenestration and Adamesque brick arches on the first story side elevations, but the formerly Federal style building was modernized in 1871 with the addition of a fourth floor via a mansard roof, and a more recent, unfortunate altered entry with projecting roof. After the Andover Newton Theological School sold their campus, the building has since been home to an assisted care facility.

Jackson-Richards Farmhouse // c.1768

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This historic home at the edge of Newton Centre is believed to have been built by 1768 by Abraham Jackson, a descendant of one of the earliest settlers in what would become Newton. Abraham took out a mortgage on three acres of land and woodlands, a dwelling house and barn. In 1782, the property was acquired by Aaron Richards (1750-1823), a Revolutionary War veteran and carpenter, who likely modified the residence into the Federal style form and design we see today. Aaron Richards would farm the land here until his death. The farmhouse would be bought and sold and the property subdivided in the 19th and 20th centuries, diminishing the farm and woodland which once surrounded the residence. For a period after the Civil War, the property was owned by the Boston Children’s Aid Society as a Girl’s Home, used as a boarding house to raise orphaned girls from the Boston area, teaching them skills to increase their hopes of adoption or moving out on their own. The property was reverted to a residence by the 20th century and is significant as one of Newton’s few extant 18th-century farmhouses.

Former Newton Centre Women’s Clubhouse // 1922

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The Newton Centre Women’s Club began in 1887 when a group of women in the village came together to work for the relief of disabled veterans from the Civil War. Their objectives included giving aid to charitable causes, mutual improvement through literary, along with artistic and educational pursuits. Expanding membership over the next two decades strengthened the club, enabling them to build their clubhouse in 1922 on land given to them. The Georgian Revival style clubhouse was designed by architect Oscar A. Thayer and the building featured a large art gallery for artists to showcase their work as well as members to bring in art of their own collections to study and discuss. Due to shifting social structures and an aging population of members, the clubhouse was sold in 1973 and converted to commercial use. The building was renovated with more modern windows and other features and was renamed Picadilly II. In the spirit of the club and its push for community, the building houses many local companies frequented by residents today.

Former Weeks Junior High School – Weeks House // 1931

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Adaptive reuse projects will ALWAYS get love on here!

Originally constructed in 1931 as the Weeks Junior High School in Newton Centre, Newton, this architecturally significant school building is the finest local example of the Tudor Revival style in that use. The Weeks School was designed by Ralph Coolidge Henry and Henry Parsons Richmond, architects who were draftsmen for Guy Lowell, one of the greats, and the successors to his practice upon his death in 1927. The design for the Weeks School is of traditional brick and cast stone, with its main entrance through a large Gothic arch at the center of the building. Two wings extend parallel to the tower and then bend back at 45-degree angles, creating the distinctive U-shaped form, which provided ample natural light in all classrooms. After a consolidation of local schools in the mid-20th century, the Weeks School closed, but was beautifully rehabbed in 1984 into housing as the Weeks House. Today, the building is comprised of mixed income housing of about 75, one-, two- and three-bedroom units.