Shingle Style Architecture

Tonandowa Cottage // c.1892

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One of the two largest summer “cottages” on Grindstone Neck, Winter Harbor, Maine is this massive Shingled mansion overlooking Frenchman’s Bay. Due to its scale and design, the house possibly replaced a more modest cottage in the early 20th century. The “cottage” was owned by Samuel Price Wetherill, a Philadelphia-based manufacturer and businessman. Wetherill spent most of his time at a Rittenhouse Square Beaux Arts mansion in Philadelphia, which after his death, was purchased by the Philadelphia Art Alliance. The Wetherills hosted lavish events in the mansion and clearly wanted to make a statement with their summer home, which rivals almost any “cottage” in the more prestigious Bar Harbor over the bay.

Ridgway Cottage // c.1891

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One of my (many) favorite cottages in the Grindstone Neck summer colony of Winter Harbor, Maine, is this pleasing shingled home, built in 1891 for John Jacob Ridgway. Ridgway lived in Philadelphia and worked as an attorney and president of a real estate investment company after sometime as serving as Philadelphia’s Sheriff. For his summer retirement home, he hired the colony’s staff architect, Lindley Johnson (a name I have been repeating on here a lot lately). The Shingle style cottage has a recessed porch, square corner tower with pyramidal roof, and dormers that project over the eaves. I love to see these old rustic cottages with weathered wood siding and deep green trim!

Landreth Cottage // c.1892

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Lucius S. Landreth, a Philadelphia attorney had this cottage built on Grindstone Neck in Maine around 1892 for his family. The cottage, like so many in the colony, was designed by architect Lindley Johnson in the Shingle style. The house is so perfect with its gambrel roof which is covered with cedar shingles all the way down to the stone foundation.

St. Margaret Catholic Summer Chapel // c.1895

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When the Grindstone Neck Summer Colony of Maine was in full-swing, wealthy summer residents would frequent the colony’s Episcopal chapel (featured previously). What the summer residents did not really plan for was the influx of other residents as summer staff, largely Irish servants who in large part were Catholic. As a result, the St. Margaret Catholic Chapel was built to provide a house of worship, largely for those summer workers on Grindstone Neck. Keeping with the rustic architectural character of the colony, the chapel was designed in the Shingle style. I could not find any information on the architect, so any additional insight would be greatly appreciated!

C. B. Taylor Cottage // c.1892

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Men from Philadelphia and New York gathered to establish the Gouldsboro Land Improvement Company in the late 1880s with the goal to develop an alternative, more quiet summer colony to rival Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Isle. Two of the early investors (and summer residents) were J. Bonsall Taylor and Carter Berkeley Taylor, brothers from Philadelphia. John Bonsall Taylor’s cottage (last post) and this cottage, built for C. B. Taylor, were constructed around 1891-2 and are typical examples of upper-middle-class summer cottages in Winter Harbor. Philadelphia architect Lindley Johnson designed John’s cottage, so it could be hypothesized that he was also architect for C.B. Taylor’s here. The house as originally built was enlarged in the early 20th century, but maintains the rustic quality and charm that so many of these Shingle style cottages possess. And that red trim really pops!

St. Christopher’s-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church // 1892

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In 1891, a proposal was made to build a summer Episcopal chapel, to be known as St. Christopher’s by the Sea, on Grindstone Neck in Winter Harbor, Maine. This project was supported by local area residents and by the summer community on Grindstone Neck. The construction of the church started in 1892, but it was not until August 6, 1893 that the first service was held in the chapel. The Rev. Julius Atwood, rector of St. James’ Church in Providence, Rhode Island, officiated and preached the first sermon. The church was designed by Lindley Johnson, a Philadelphia-based architect who also summered in a cottage on Grindstone Neck and designed other cottages in the colony. The Shingle style chapel is architecturally unique and rustic, a quality which is also visible at the interior, which is rustic in appearance with exposed beams and shingled walls.

Charles and Elizabeth Doremus Cottage // c.1892

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In 1889, the Gouldsboro Land Improvement Company, bought 300 acres of farmland to build a residential summer colony as an alternative to the busy Bar Harbor across the bay. They hired landscape architect Nathan Franklin Barrett to design the subdivision of 198 cottage lots of at least one acre and arranged them on roughly parallel roads, with a primary road (Grindstone Avenue) running the length of the peninsula’s spine through woodlands to dramatic ocean views at the tip. The summer colony has many great cottages and chapels tucked away on rocky outcroppings with towering spruce trees all around. This charming cottage was built for Charles Avery Doremus and his wife Elizabeth Ward Doremus around 1892. Charles was a scientist, the son of chemist and physician Robert Ogden Doremus. He graduated from the College of the City of New York in 1870. He became a professor in chemistry and became a leading specialist on toxicology, often called into court cases to help solve crimes. Elizabeth was a playwright from Kentucky and her father and his brother owned plantations in Mississippi before the American Civil War. The couple summered at this cottage on Grindstone Neck until Charles’ death in 1925. It is a great example of a rustic Shingle style summer cottage.

Channing Chapel – Winter Harbor Public Library // 1888

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At a time before women could vote or be admitted to the American Medical Association, Almena Guptill (1842-1914) left her small home on Harbor Road to graduate from Boston University of Medicine in 1876 and become a respected Boston physician. She married David Flint (1816-1903), a successful lumber dealer and philanthropist. Almena met David when treating his late wife in Boston. The two, both widowers, married in 1891. Being a staunch follower of William Ellery Channing and believing that there was sufficient interest in Unitarianism here, Flint felt that there was need for a meeting place in his summer town of Winter Harbor. He had this chapel built adjacent to his summer house in the winter of 1887-1888, having field stones brought to the site of the future chapel by people of the village sliding them over ice in the winter. I could not locate the name of the architect of the building. The chapel was deeded to the American Unitarian Association and was later gifted by the association to the Town of Winter Harbor in 1958, the town would sell the property that year. In 1993, a preservation group purchased the chapel and sold it in 1999 back to the town. It now houses the Winter Harbor Public Library. Talk about full-circle!

St. Francis de Sales Church, Elka Park // 1912

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Down the street from the Old Platte Clove Post Office in Elka Park, New York, I stumbled across this large, shingled church with few houses nearby. I had to investigate! In 1888 parish lines for the Catholic church were redrawn in the area necessitating a new church near the summer colony of Elka Park. By 1891, a small, shed-like church was built here. By 1911, the small house of worship had outgrown its usefulness and it was considered a blight compared to the high-style homes nearby. A local summer resident, Francis H. Lewis funded $5,000 of the $6,500 cost of the building, and local carpenter Arthur Showers, was commissioned to erect the building. Father Keefe had conveyed to the builder some remembrances he had of a small church in France, and wished for it to be designed that way. Using local building traditions, the church was constructed of local lumber with shingled siding. The building and adjacent cemetery remain active to this day.

Spouting Rock Cottage // 1887

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Another of the earlier summer cottages built in Kennebunkport’s Cape Arundel summer colony is this charming dwelling perched on a stone outcropping overlooking the rocky coast of Maine. Spouting Rock Cottage was built in 1887 as a transitional Shingle style and Queen Anne summer home for author John Townsend Trowbridge of Arlington, Massachusetts. Trowbridge spent many summers in Kennebunkport and was engaged in local cultural affairs, he even named Spouting Rock and Blowing Cave, natural features in the town. For his summer cottage, Trowbridge hired Arlington-based architect J. Merrill Brown, who provided a rustic, timeless design without all the unnecessary frills and details for the rugged coastline. That is to say that the cottage is anything but boring, with its sweeping porches, complex form with rounded stair-tower, and dormer with curved shingle returns. Perfection.

Gable and Tower Cottages // 1889

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These two similar houses in the Cape Arundel Summer Colony in Kennebunkport, Maine, were built in 1889 for Prosper Louis Senat (1852–1925) and his wife Clementine. Prosper was a well-known artist from Philadelphia, who would summer in Kennebunkport and traveled the world with Clementine, painting landscapes and seascapes. Senat and his wife lived in one cottage and likely rented the other to family and friends when visiting town. His studio was built on a nearby street and is extant. Tower cottage (greenish-grey) was renamed Shady Oak Cottage in the 20th century. Both cottages were built by George Gooch, a local contractor from plans by an unknown architect and feature bay windows, short towers, smaller windows, and continuous shingle siding.

Peleg Eddy House // c.1895

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Roxbury is not well-known for its Shingle style architecture, but this example might change that! This dwelling was built around 1895 by the heirs of Horatio Harris on family land that was subdivided for house lots at the end of the 19th century. The expansive Harris estate was developed, largely on speculation and included some amazing single family homes, rowhouses and multi-family dwellings. This Shingle style home appears to have also been built on speculation and was owned by the Harris heirs for some time. The property was occupied for some time by Peleg E. Eddy and his wife Caroline in the earliest years of the house’s existence. I could not locate the architect, but it could be estimated as a design by J. Williams Beal, a local architect who was commissioned to design the nearby Harriswood Crescent development for the Harris family. The design features a Roxbury puddingstone first floor and chimney which contrast elegantly with the shingle siding.

Samuel P. Tilton Cottage // 1880

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One of the most well-designed and least-pretentious summer cottages in Newport is this charming dwelling on a dead end street. The Samuel P. Tilton Cottage was designed in 1880 by the prestigious firm of McKim, Mead & White as an idiosyncratic blending of Queen Anne and Shingle architectural styles. Mr. Tilton was a milliner (maker and seller of women’s hats) with stores in Boston and Paris, France. He had this cottage built to summer close to the nation’s wealthiest, likely marketing some hats at elaborate Gilded Age events. The facade is assertively Queen Anne with its massing and decorative panels, with shingled side elevation seemingly sprouting from the earth. The architectural terminology for these unique decorative panels is “sgraffito” where here, cement or plaster siding is set and adorned with shells, pebbles, colored glass, and pieces of coal into a cartouche design. The house is one of the finest in Newport, and shows that bigger isn’t always better!

Musser House // 1906

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The former Dorset Methodist Church sat on this property from about 1840 to 1900 until they merged with the United Church of Dorset. A Philadelphia physician, Dr. John Herr Musser (1856-1912), built this vacation home in 1906, and passed away just six years later. His widow Agnes Harper Musser (1856-1941) and their children continued to vacation here until after WWII. The home is a rare example of the Shingle style in Dorset and was painted the bright white to fit in with the more traditional New England village vibe, but it would be better-suited with a period- and style-appropriate paint scheme. The home is now offered for short-term/vacation rentals.

Harlow House // c.1909

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Located on a dead end street in Waban, you’ll find this stunning Shingle style property, which rambles on forever! The house was built in the first decade of the 20th century and blends the Shingle style with the ever-popular Colonial Revival style. I could surprisingly not locate the architect for the house, but I’d guess that it was designed by the architectural firm of Longfellow, Alden, & Harlow, the last of which, Alfred Branch Harlow, shared a last name with the original owner of the home, Arthur Brooks Harlow. (And the same last name as Louis K. Harlow, an artist who lived one street away in a similar style home). I am not sure if these two were related, but thats my hunch. If anyone wants to do more digging on this and share the story with me, I’d be so grateful!