Dr. Elisha S. Lewis House // 1914

Built in 1914, this stunning Craftsman style residence sits on Mountain Road in the charming village of Princeton, Massachusetts. The rustic house was built for Dr. Elisha Sears Lewis (1874-1954), who lived in the home and built a sanatorium behind, where he would treat patients with respiratory illness. Due to its rural location and elevation with Wachusett Mountain nearby, Princeton became a popular tourist destination for city-dwellers in the 19th and 20th centuries, looking to escape the polluted and hot summer in the urban centers of Boston and Worcester. Dr. Lewis capitalized on this demand by building his home and sanatorium with appliances for hydrotherapeutic and electric treatments along with other treatments similar to a European spa. Elisha had a child with his first wife, Jane, and while he was in Europe during WWI, his daughter and wife treated local residents who contracted the Spanish Flu during the 1918 epidemic. When the flu epidemic was over there had been 69 cases in Princeton and not one death, thanks in part to these two women. The Lewis House remains a well-preserved example of its style and is characterized by its boxy form, pyramidal hip roof with broad eaves and exposed rafters, rubblestone chimney and foundation, and multi-pane windows.

Maud Howe Elliott Bungalow // c.1912

This shingled Craftsman bungalow on Rhode Island Avenue in Newport was built in the 1910s for Maud Howe Elliott (1854-1948), a Pulitzer prize winning author and active member in Newport’s art scene and her artist husband, John Elliott. Maud Howe was born at the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston, founded by her father, Samuel Gridley Howe. Her mother was the author and abolitionist Julia Ward Howe. In 1887, she married English artist John Elliott. John is known for his epic Symbolist murals including working alongside his friend and colleague John Singer Sargent to provide murals for the Boston Public library, and a mural at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. In Newport, Maud became a founding member of the Newport Art Association, and served as its secretary from 1912 to 1942. She also took part in the suffrage movement as she was greatly influenced by her mother’s ideas and convictions about women’s role in society and particularly so in terms of women’s suffrage. She fought passionately for women to be liberated from the societal expectations and roles determined to them by male dominated society. This was her home in Newport until her death in 1948.