Shepley Rutan and Coolidge

George Wightman Mansion // 1902

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Tucked within the historic Longwood neighborhood of Brookline, the George Wightman Mansion stands as a striking reminder of turn-of-the-century wealth and architectural ambition. The mansion was built in 1902 for industrialist George Henry Wightman (1855-1937), a steel magnate associated with Andrew Carnegie and was known as one of the “Carnegie Boys“, a close-knit and influential group of partners and executives who managed Carnegie Steel. Wightman retired around the time of building his Brookline house, which coincided with the formation of U.S. Steel, a merger which benefitted the Carnegie Corporation and its partners handsomely. With his expansive wealth and eyes set on retirement, George Wightman hired the prominent firm Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, to design his new mansion to live out the remainder of his life in solitude. The brick and stone Renaissance Revival/Beaux Arts style mansion sits atop large, elegantly landscaped grounds and is of a scale unlike anything else in the neighborhood. George H. Wightman was also known as the “Father of American Lawn Tennis” and his only son, George W. Wightman also played tennis at a high level. It was George W. Wightman’s wife however, who became a champion. She was Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman, who won 45 U.S. titles during her life and founded the Wightman Cup, an annual team competition for British and American women from 1923 to 1989. Over time, the mansion’s role evolved alongside the community. After Wightman’s death in 1937, it transitioned from private home to institutional use, notably housing the Boston Hebrew College beginning in 1952, adding onto the building to the rear, and later becoming part of Boston University, serving as event space for the University. 

Charles H. Rutan House // 1889

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In 1889, prestigious architect Charles H. Rutan, purchased a house lot from the heirs of Elijah Emerson on the family estate and oversaw construction of his own residence in Brookline Village. Charles Hercules Rutan (1851-1914) was born in New Jersey and moved to Brookline in 1874, where he worked in the office of famed American architect, Henry Hobson Richardson. After Richardson’s death in April 1886, at the height of his career, Rutan and two other senior employees, George Foster Shepley and Charles Allerton Coolidge, took charge of the studio and its uncompleted work. Soon after, the three formed a formal partnership, Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, to succeed to Richardson’s practice, and in 1887 moved the office to Boston. From his new position as head of a prominent firm, Rutan designed this handsome Queen Anne/Shingle style mansion for his family, where he lived until he suffered from two debilitating strokes in 1912, when he and his wife moved to an apartment on a nearby street. Besides the blue color, the house retains so much of its original architectural integrity and is one of the most significant residences in the Brookline Village neighborhood.

Seamans Block // 1888

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One of the more impressive commercial blocks in Brookline is located at the corner of Washington Street and Davis Avenue in Brookline Village. The Seamans Block was developed by its namesake, James Manning Seamans (1834-1908), a wealthy grocer who operated a store from the building. The handsome masonry block was built from designs by the firm of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, a successor firm to H.H. Richardson. As partner of the firm, Charles H. Rutan lived just down Davis Avenue, it is likely that he was in charge of this design. The structure follows the Richardsonian Romanesque style, popularized by Richardson through the rounded corner and heavy arches, but is done entirely in brick rather than adding brownstone or terracotta detailing. The building has long been an excellent example of a historic “mixed-use” block with ground floor retain and apartments above, something that many new developments try and emulate today. 

Happy Hollow Siphon House, Weston Aqueduct // 1903

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The Weston Aqueduct was designed to deliver water from the Sudbury Reservoir in Framingham to the Weston Reservoir in Weston, Massachusetts. Built between 1901 and 1903, the aqueduct was designed to provide water to the suburbs north of Boston. All of the buildings that shelter the aqueducts above-ground elements, including this structure in Wayland, were designed by the architectural firm of  Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, with landscaping along the route and at the reservoir designed by the Olmsted Brothers, landscape architects. This siphon house, known as the Happy Hollow Siphon House was built in 1903 and was an important part of the aqueduct system, as it transferred water through varied elevations using gravity and pressure to move the liquid without a pump. The aqueduct route is now a long, linear path and remains owned by the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority.

South Station // 1899

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When the railroads serving Boston were first laid out and built, each line stopped at its own terminal which created a dysfunctional and cumbersome travel experience for those entering or leaving the city. The Boston Terminal Company, established in 1897, was charged with the task of consolidating service from the four terminals at a single terminal, a union station (similar to North Station), for routes south of the city. South Station was designed by architects were Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge of Boston and quickly became New England’s busiest transportation center. The five-story Classical Revival style station built of stone is an architectural landmark with three-story Ionic colonnade crowned by a clock surmounted by an eagle, stands above the triple-arched brick masonry lower level corner entrance. While the station handled 125,000 passengers each day during World War II, post-war passenger rail traffic declined in the US. South Station was sold to the Boston Redevelopment Authority in 1965 and (surprise!) they demolished portions of the building and later developed plans to demolish the rest of the station and replace it with a multi-use development including a new train and bus station with large parking garage. Luckily for everyone, the BRA failed in this endeavor and the building remained to the point where public transportation is again invested in and beloved and the building has since been restored. Recently, a glass “crown”, known as South Station Tower, a 51-story designed by Pelli, Clarke & Partners, with new office space, luxury residences, and a redesigned, arched interior concourse (which in my opinion, is the best part). The redevelopment is a push towards transit-oriented development and blends new and old in an innovative way.

What do you think of it?

Former First Congregational Church, Newton // 1904

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The former First Congregational Church (now the Greek Evangelical Church of Boston) of Newton Center, Newton, is a landmark example of the Neo-Gothic architectural style for a church building. Built in 1904, the structure resembles an English village church in the form of a Roman Cross with short trancepts. The structure is constructed of Quincy granite and was designed by the architectural firm of Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge. The First Congregational Church of Newton was originally established in 1664 as a parish church when Newton was still a part of Cambridge (then known as Newtowne). The parish has had six meeting houses built by the Congregation, with the last four on this site. Seeing dwindling membership in the mid-20th century, First Church in Newton dissolved in 1972, after more than 300 years of service to the Newton community. Luckily, the newly formed Greek Evangelical Church of Boston would buy the church that same year and has maintained the significant edifice ever-since!

Newton Centre Railroad Station // 1890

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All aboard! Next Stop… Newton Centre! The Newton Centre station was originally commissioned by the Boston and Albany Railroad in 1884 as one of a series of new, highly designed stations in the Boston suburbs. Architect, H. H. Richardson designed five passenger stations for the Boston & Albany Railroad in Newton, and of which, only one survives. After his death in 1886, Richardson’s successor firm, Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, followed the design vocabulary of Richardson for the remainder of the stations outstanding. The new station, built by the Norcross Brothers firm of Worcester, opened in 1891. The station was heavily modified in 1905–07 when the line was lowered below grade to eliminate street crossings. The Highland branch was closed in 1958 and quickly converted for streetcar use; streetcar service began in July 1959, with this station being located on the MBTA Green Line D. The station has long been leased to commercial stores and coffee shops but has been unused since 2022. Here’s to hoping the building can be used again in the future!

Old Boston North Union Station // 1893-1927

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Photo courtesy of Library of Congress.

By the 1890s, many of the regional train lines in New England consolidated and as a result, union stations were built. All north-bound train lines including the Boston & Lowell and Boston & Maine railroads would consolidate into North Union Station with southbound trains consolidated into South Station. North Union Station, actually three adjoined buildings, was completed in 1893 and included the former Boston & Lowell Station, a Second Empire masterpiece which dated from 1873. The other sections of Union Station were designed by the firm, Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, and comprised of an office tower at the rightmost section and a central building serving as the main entrance and concourse with waiting rooms and baggage holding. The central entrance exhibited an elaborate columned block of brick with stone trimmings. The station lasted until 1927 when the entire complex was razed for the new North Station (The Boston Garden), which itself was replaced. The demolition of the Old North Union Station was one of the biggest architectural losses in Boston’s history, a stain on its historical legacy only compounded by the sterile development we see there today.

Wightman-Pope House // 1910

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In 1910, Ralph Linder Pope (1887-1966) graduated from MIT and later became Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Northwestern Leather Co., Boston. He married Elizabeth S. Wightman two years earlier and her father, George Wightman, purchased a house lot near his own 1902 mansion in the Longwood section of Brookline, Massachusetts and had this brick residence built in 1910 for the new couple. Mr. Wightman commissioned the famed architectural firm of Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge to design his daughter’s home in the Colonial Revival style.

Second Church of Christ, Scientist, Roxbury // 1915

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Breaking ground in 1915, this early Modern church building must have turned heads when it was being built in Roxbury! In October, 1907, a fine lot of land with a house on it, at the corner of Elm Hill Avenue and Howland Street, was purchased for eighteen thousand dollars by a group of Christian Science followers. In October, 1911, a building committee of five was elected by the church, and by the summer of 1914 the building fund had made such satisfactory growth that ground was broken and work for the new structure begun in September. The congregation hired the illustrious architectural firm of Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge to design the edifice of classic and imposing design. Constructed of gray tapestry brick with limestone trimmings, the auditorium seated upwards of one thousand members, under the dome roof. Today, the building is occupied by Grace Church of All Nations.

Spot Pond Gatehouse // 1900

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The Middlesex Reservoir and Spot Pond are located just north of Boston and have long been a little piece of the outdoors near the heart of New England’s largest metropolitan area. In 1894, the Massachusetts Legislature established the Metropolitan Parks Commission, which was endowed with the authority to acquire, maintain, and make recreational spaces available to the public. By 1900 the new commission had acquired 1,881 acres for the reservation. Part of this reservation, Spot Pond, is a natural water feature that for a number of years was integrated into the Boston area public drinking water supply, servicing the towns of Stoneham, Melrose, and Malden with drinking water. As part of this, gatehouses were built with hardware to open and close the pipes delivering the water to the adjacent towns. This gatehouse is in Stoneham was built in 1900 by the architectural firm of Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, to not only protect the machinery inside, but to beautify the parkland, then maintained by the Metropolitan Parks Commission. The Renaissance Revival style building is today surrounded by a tall chain link fence, which really diminishes its presence in the landscape (but it does help prevent graffiti).

Sippican Tennis Club // 1908

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The Sippican Tennis Club in Marion, Massachusetts, was established in 1908 for the purpose of athletic exercise and a place for social gatherings in town. Historically, the town’s population surged in the summer months when wealthy city residents would flock here and stay in their waterfront mansions for a few months a year. The large hipped roof rectangular building was constructed just before the club opened in 1908, and it is flanked by eight tennis courts. Charles Allerton Coolidge, a principal in the well known firm, Shepley Rutan and Coolidge, was one of the original shareholders as well as the architect for the building. He also was a summer resident himself (his home was previously featured). The building is constructed of concrete and features paired, tapered columns which run the perimeter of the structure, supporting a deep porch. The broad elliptical arch and exposed rafters add to the Craftsman style flair of the building.

Charles Allerton Coolidge Cottage // 1891

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Charles Allerton Coolidge (1858-1936) was born in Boston and grew up in the iconic Beacon Hill neighborhood, known for its stunning architecture. Inspired by his surroundings, he attended Harvard and MIT and studied architecture, graduating in 1883. He entered into Henry Hobson Richardson’s architectural practice as a draftsman until Richardson’s death in 1886. Upon his death, Coolidge continued Richardson’s commissions as a partner, as Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge. Shepley married Richardson’s daughter; and Coolidge later married Shepley’s sister. It is likely that Coolidge became aware of Marion from Richardson’s earlier design of the Percy Browne Cottage in town. He must have liked the town so much, since he built this summer cottage in 1891 in a sparsely developed area across Sippican Harbor from the village. The Shingle style home was later rented to Isaac Henry Lionberger, a lawyer who served as assistant Attorney General of the United States by appointment of President Cleveland (who also summered in Marion). Lionberger, who spent most of his time at his home in St. Louis, married Coolidge’s wife’s sister, so the families often hung out at this home together. The summer cottage in Marion is still owned by Coolidge’s heirs to this day.

Turner Art Publishing Company Building // 1908

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In 1907, the 86-acre Bigelow Estate (featured yesterday), was purchased by Horace K. Turner, owner of an art publishing company founded in Boston about 1904. Turner moved his workshops to the estate so the artists could work in healthy country surroundings. The firm required the long wings contoured into the hillside to provide ample natural light and views to the distance for the workers. In 1920, the entire property, including the Bigelow House and the bungalow workshops, were acquired by the New England Peabody Home, which had been located in Hyde Park for 25 years. It was set up as a school and hospital for “crippled children” and this brick building was added to the center section. Architects for this addition were Coolidge and Shattuck, successors to the firm of Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge. The Peabody Home was among the first to use sun treatment as a cure for physical ills and the extensive porches were well suited to this purpose. The Peabody Home became obsolete and the property was sold off in the mid-20th century. In 1979, the Peabody Home was sold to Edward Leventhal, who converted the buildings into 22 condominiums. Architects for the project were Jung/Brannen.

North Easton Savings Bank and Post Office // 1904

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Located across the street from the Oakes Ames Memorial Hall and the Ames Free Library, the North Easton Savings Bank and Post Office building perfectly compliments the Romanesque Revival motif seen in the village. The building was constructed in 1904 in a Richardsonian Romanesque design with rough-faced granite ashlar walls with brownstone trim. The three-bay front façade contains centered entrances recessed behind a wide brownstone arch in the signature Richardsonian manner. The building was designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, a Boston-based architectural firm which grew out of Henry Hobson Richardson’s office, where they completed many of Richardson’s unfinished works after his death.