Shingle Style House

Saunders Cottage // c.1900

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Charles Saunders, a carpenter, and his wife Annie Saunders, seemingly built and lived in this Shingle style cottage in the Ocean View summer colony of Rockport. The couple shows up in census records as living here in 1910 while in their 50s. The house likely dates to the 1890s and is a great example of the Shingle style for a middle-class residence. The house features a corner tower and a wrap-around porch with continuous shingle siding and columns. The property was deeded to a Lawrence Regester in 1924 when Annie sold the property after Charles’ death. The shingled cottage has remained in a great state of preservation for its existence!

McCrea Cottage // 1891

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In 1891, Laura Denby McCrea, a wealthy widow based Philadelphia, sought to maintain her social standing all year by building a summer cottage on Grindstone Neck, a summer colony in Winter Harbor, Maine. She was one of the first to build a cottage here, and she hired renowned architect Wilson Eyre to furnish plans for the rustic home. The Shingle style house is dominated by its massive gambrel roof and was historically clad entirely with wood shingles (asphalt shingles have since replaced cedar at the roof).

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.

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!

George Dexter House // 1885

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The George Dexter House on Sewall Avenue in Brookline was built in 1885 and designed by architect S. Edwin Tobey. George B. Dexter was part-owner of Dexter Brothers which was one of the two most prominent manufacturers of paints and oils in New England (the other being Cabot Co.). Dexter hired Tobey to design a wood-frame house for his family which combined shingles and clapboards, as well as a variety of other wood trim, which would display his companies products. According to an article, Dexter also stained and painted the interior a variety of colors to showcase the wide range of options his company had. The home is a great example of the Queen Anne/Shingle style with the veranda and undulating expanses of shingles showcase the ability of shingles to wrap around any shape of feature. The home was converted to a two-family in the 1920s.

Grayling Cottage // c.1900

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John Bach McMaster (1852 –1932) was born in Brooklyn, New York to a rich plantation owning father and mother who ran operations in New Orleans until the outbreak of the Civil War. After this, John graduated from the College of the City of New York in 1872, worked as a civil engineer in 1873–1877. Falling in love with the field of American History, he switched careers and in 1883, became professor of American history in the University of Pennsylvania. McMaster is best known for his History of the People of the United States from the Revolution to the Civil War (1883), a valuable supplement to the more purely political writings of earlier years. The book was a huge success and John was able to purchase house lots in the newly established Cape Arundel Summer Colony in Kennebunkport, Maine, a colony populated by many wealthy Philadelphians for summer homes. He first appears to have built “The Kedge”, a chunky, but beautiful cottage on a cliff. McMaster would also have this larger cottage built by the turn of the 20th century, which in design, appears to be a more eclectic Shingle style dwelling. Just a stone’s throw from the Atlantic, the house features continuous cedar shingle siding, sweeping porches to provide views of the ocean, a prominent chimney, and Colonial-inspired fanlight motifs.

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!