Samuel Glaser

Leventhal House // 1949

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An early and distinctive example of an architect-designed Modern/International style residence, the Leventhal House in Newton has been lovingly updated and restored by owners since it was built in 1949. Boston-based Modernist architect, Samuel Glaser, designed the jewel-box Leventhal House for Muriel and Norman B. Leventhal, founder and chairman of The Beacon Companies, a developer and manager of office buildings, housing, and hotels in the Boston area. The Leventhal’s were also collectors of historic maps and in 2004, partnered with the Boston Public Library creating the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library which make many historic maps available for research. The Leventhal House stands on a steep rise at the base of Oak Hill and was built soon after the adjacent 1946 Kaplan House designed by Walter Gropius and the Architects Collaborative. The property has been recently restored by Flavin Architects, who did an exceptional job to modernize this early Modern home for 21st century living, while staying true to the significance and architectural qualities of the 1949 design.

Max Katz House // 1947

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Built in 1947, the Max Katz House on Kent Street in Brookline, Massachusetts, is one of the area’s best examples of Mid-Century Modern residential architecture. The main block of the house has an angle roof line with its facade dominated by a massive stone chimney. The residence was designed by architect Samuel Glaser, one of the earliest practitioners of Modern architecture in the Boston area, for Max Katz (1895-1996). Katz was born in Lithuania and came to Boston with his mother when he was nine years old. He founded the Merchant Tire Company in 1922 and was also one of the original organizers of Brandeis University. He and his wife, Augusta, lived in this Modern home for much of their lives. The Katz residence retains much of its architectural integrity and is an excellent and well-preserved example of 1940s Modernism.


Frederick and Erna Gibbs House // 1936

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Built at a time when Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival styles dominated the suburban landscape of the Boston area and elsewhere, the Frederick and Erna Gibbs House on Chilton Street in the Cottage Farm neighborhood of Brookline, Massachusetts stands out. Built in 1936 for Frederic and Erna Gibbs, the house is said to be the first International style single-family home built in the Boston area, predating the famous Gropius House in Lincoln by a couple years. Erna Leonhardt-Gibbs (1904–1987), a German-born pioneer in the development of electroencephalography (EEG) technology, in 1930, married Frederic A. Gibbs, a neurologist, and would soon-after vacation in Germany, seeing the Modern revolution of architecture there in the interwar period. Upon returning the States, the couple hired architect Samuel Glaser, to design their dream home in the Bauhaus style. Set amongst a street of 1930s Tudor houses, the Gibbs residence stands out for its stark white stucco walls, boxy form, with elongated and block windows. While set behind a tall fence and hedge, the house is a landmark example of the style and appears much as it did when built 90 years ago.

Melnick House // 1935

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Built in 1935 (the same year as the Webber House in the last post), the Melnick House in South Brookline shows how the historically oriented designs of colonial New England converged with the Modern principles brought over from the Bauhaus movement from Germany. The 1930s were an interesting time for residential design around Boston as the two diverging styles were often located in the same neighborhoods. The Melnick House was designed by architect Samuel Glaser for Edward S. T. Melnick and his wife, Ethyle Melnick. Edward worked in Downtown Boston as the assistant division manager at Filene’s department store. Architect Samuel Glaser (1902-1983) was born in Riga, Latvia and at the age of four came to the United States with his family, settling in Brookline. He studied architecture at MIT and started his own practice in Boston a niche as a designer of moderately priced homes, particularly in the expanding suburbs where young Jewish families had begun living. The Melnick home combines the austere stucco walls and lack of applied ornament typical of late 1930s Modern architecture in the Boston area with a hipped-roof main block and flanking wings more commonly associated with traditional style houses of the same period. The home features a vertical glass block window which illuminates the interior stair hall.