South Shore Boston Architecture

Point Allerton Life Saving Station // 1889

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The United States Life-Saving Service was a United States government agency that grew out of private and local humanitarian efforts to save the lives of shipwrecked mariners and ship passengers. It began in 1848 when the congress appropriated $10,000 to establish unmanned lifesaving stations along the New Jersey coast south of New York Harbor. That same year the Massachusetts Humane Society also received funds from Congress for lifesaving stations on the Massachusetts coastline. It was decided to establish a life saving service station at Point Allerton after 61-year-old Joshua James and his crew rescued 29 people from four vessels wrecked in the Boston Harbor during the great storm of November, 1888. The United States Corps of Engineers had this Queen Anne style life saving station built at the northern shores of town, overlooking the Boston harbor. Joshua James became the Keeper of the station at 62, seventeen years past the mandatory retirement age of 45 for a federal appointment with the new U.S. Life–Saving Service. The station is the best-preserved of 32 stations that once lined the Massachusetts coast (most have since been demolished or adapted to other uses). It is now operated as the Hull Lifesaving Museum.

Conant-Cushing House // c.1890

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Atop the Great Hill on Point Allerton in Hull, Massachusetts, this large summer “cottage” stands out for its unique architecture and siting overlooking the bluffs and Atlantic Ocean. The Shingle style house was built around 1890 by Edward D. Conant, a real estate agent and developer of Newton as his family summer home. The architect is not clear, but the house exhibits a unique four-story crenellated tower, giving the appearance of a castle from a distance. The house was later owned by Cardinal Richard Cushing (1895-1970) as his own summer residence. Cardinal Cushing served as Archbishop of Boston from 1944 to 1970 and was made a cardinal in 1958. Cushing’s main role was as fundraiser and builder of new churches, schools, and institutions, and he helped then-presidential candidate John F. Kennedy deflect fears of papal interference in American government if a Catholic became president. Kennedy grew up spending summers at his grandfather’s home in Hull (featured previously). The Conant-Cushing House remains significant even with 20th century renovations.

Lovell’s Tavern // 1744

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This gambreled Georgian cape house was built around 1744 and first occupied as a tavern. Local tradition holds that in this house, the town officials held meetings and managed governmental duties. After the Revolution, a new town hall was built and the tavern reverted back to its former use. It was occupied by Samuel and Olive Lovell until Olive’s death in the 1840s, she possibly ran the tavern alone for the thirty years she outlived her husband. The home is an excellent example of a pre-Revolutionary Georgian home, with a cedar shingle roof to top it all off!

Temple Israel Synagogue // 1920

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In the early 20th-century, Hull was linked by ferry, railway and road to Boston and this resort town became a popular urban recreational destination. Between 1915 and 1920, Jewish Bostonians started buying property and building summer homes in the area. The new Jewish summer residents required a temple for worship when away from their main homes. In 1920, land was purchased just north of the bustling Nantasket Beach for the erection of a place of worship. This temple was likely built by a Jewish architect/builder Joseph Rudnick, who arrived in Boston from present-day Lithuania in 1886. Unable to speak English, he hired a tutor to teach it to him, and quickly began working on constructing apartments and other buildings all over the Boston area. Temple Israel of Nantasket remains a handsome and rare example of a 1920 American
wood-framed, stucco-clad synagogue, with an active congregation.

Hull Public Library // 1879

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“We must not be Irish or African, or black or white. Not in America. We are gathering here … not to build up any petty community but to make the greatest nation and the strongest brotherhood that God ever smiled upon.”-John Boyle O’Reilly. This home (now the Hull Public Library) replaced the old Hunt House, which was the first parsonage of Hull, which was built around 1750. John Boyle O’Reilly, an Irish-American poet, journalist, author and activist bought the Hunt House in the 1870s and soon after demolished it as he felt it could not be salvaged. There are books about O’Reilly’s life story, so I recommend checking out his Wikipedia page. He constructed this house as a summer home by 1879, an excellent example of an early Shingle-style home. I cannot locate the architect, but am dying to learn! In the summer of 1890, O’Reilly took an early boat to his residence in Hull, Massachusetts from Boston. He had been suffering from bouts of insomnia during this time. That evening he took a long walk with his brother-in-law hoping that physical fatigue would induce the needed sleep.Later on that night he took some of his wife’s sleeping medicine and he apparently suffered an overdose of the medicine at this home, passing away at 46. Thousands of Bostonians mourned O’Reilly, and memorials were erected in the city, including the iconic 1896 John Boyle O’Reilly Memorial by Daniel Chester French.