Summer Colony

Stone Estate and Gate Lodges // 1910

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Jutting into Buzzards Bay in Marion, Massachusetts, Great Hill is significant not only as the highest point in town but it is also home to one of the grandest estates in New England. Before the present mansion and various outbuildings were constructed here in the early 20th century, the property was home to Marion House, a sprawling 1860s resort hotel that drew hundreds of summer guests every year. In the early 1900s, Boston financier and Hayden, Stone & Co. co-founder, Galen L. Stone (1862-1926) bought the entire 312-acre peninsula and had the old hotel torn down. In its place, Stone commissioned this massive Tudor-style stone mansion with a central Great Hall built from stone quarried in Pennsylvania and shaped on-site by dozens of stonecutters. The estate was designed by architect, Horace Frazer of the firm, Chapman & Frazer, and it takes strong design elements from the country estates in the English countryside. Inside, the spaces are finished largely in oak with the grounds dotted with formal gardens, greenhouses, by landscape architects, Shurcliff & Shurcliff. The castle-like Main House, was greatly reduced from its original size in the 1950s to make the residence more manageable for later descendants, but even over one hundred years later, it remains one of the most impressive English Revival country houses in the United States, and the property’s grounds are open on weekdays for walking and cycling on paved roads.

Nickerson Cottage // 1885

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Augustus Nickerson (1860-1928) was a Boston-based accountant and avid cyclist of the Boston Bicycle Club and secretary of the League of American Wheelmen. Nickerson seemingly built this home in Marion around 1885 as a summertime retreat from the stresses of city living, but rented it to other Boston families for supplemental income. The property was sold in 1905 to Martha and Matthew Buckman (1832-1910), President of the University of Vermont 39 years from 1871 to 1910, overseeing dramatic growth for the University, which was one of the first eastern schools to admit women. This Marion home was his summer retreat while classes were out. While the architect is not currently known, it is clearly the work of a well-educated architect of the time, and likely the work of either William Gibbons Preston or Charles Allerton Coolidge, two Boston-based architects who summered in Marion and designed many Shingle style homes there. The home exhibits strong horizontal massing with an elongated sloped roof and is covered with weathered wood shingle sheathing, characteristic of the Shingle Style.

Leonard-Mitton Estate // c.1900

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One of the grandest homes overlooking Hammetts Cove and Sippican Harbor in Marion, Massachusetts, the Leonard-Mitton Estate showcases the status of the coastal community as a premier summer colony for wealthy Boston families going back over 100 years. The estate was built around 1900 for Charles Webster Leonard (1844-1941) of Boston and later New York, who without formal education, became the owner of a number of mills and quarries throughout New England and was a director of several local banks and businesses. A renowned horseman, he owned a breeding farm in Lexington, Kentucky and a trotting track in Readville. He was married to Emelyn Thatcher Welch in Paris and together, they built and owned this house until 1916. The residence is a sprawling Colonial Revival style mansion clad in stucco and capped with a gambrel roof. Its form comprises of a 2 1/2-story main block with two-story wings extending at 30-degree angles from the sides to provide better views of the harbor. By 1916, the summer residence was sold to George W. Mitton (1869-1947), the eldest son of Edward J. Mitton and Sarah Wade, the second generation of a family of merchants who operated the Jordan Marsh department store in Boston. Starting as a stock boy, George Mitton eventually became president of the company. He was trained in the business by his father, Edward J. Mitton, the Jordan Marsh president, and Eben D. Jordan, the company’s founder. George Mitton was credited with growing the company into New England’s largest department store and introducing innovations such as executive training programs and employee benefits. George Mitton and his wife, spent summers at their Marion “cottage” until George’s death, but the property remained under the ownership of the family until the 1970s. The expansive waterfront property was recently renovated and sold, preserving this grand estate for another century. 

Hamlin-Spalding Cottage // c.1898

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This historic summer cottage on Water Street represents one of the more sophisticated examples of the Shingle Style in Marion, Massachusetts, and is evocative of the type of houses built for the wealthy in the late 19th and early 20th century as their summer retreats. The “cottage” was built around 1898 as a summer residence for George Peabody Hamlin (1867-1935) and wife, Mary Farnsworth Tappan, of Boston. George P. Hamlin was a successful coal merchant who’s family business became part of the Metropolitan Coal Company in the late 1890s. George P. Hamlin was treasurer of the company until his retirement in 1927, when he turned to commercial real estate and worked in that field until his death. It is likely that for his summer residence, Hamlin hired Boston architect and Marion summer resident, William Gibbons Preston, who also designed a house for George’s brother further up Water Street. After Hamlin’s death in the 1930s, the Marion cottage was purchased by Ms. Katherine Hobart Ames Spalding (1874-1949), the daughter of Oakes Angier Ames (1829-1899) and granddaughter of Oakes Ames (1804-1873), a Massachusetts Congressman and leading figure in the development of the Transcontinental Railroad, who was one of the wealthiest men in America. Katherine Ames married Philip Leffingwell Spalding (1871-1938), President of the New England Telephone & Telegraph Company. The shingled cottage with its rubblestone base, remains one of the best-preserved in Marion and a landmark of the style. 

Point Rock Cottage // c.1894

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One of the many beautiful late 19th century shingled “cottages” overlooking Sippican Harbor in Marion, Massachusetts, Point Rock Cottage stands out not only for its siting on the waterfront, but also for its preservation. As any good summer cottage must have a name, Point Rock Cottage derives its name from its location overlooking the rocky coast and Sippican Harbor on the tip of the village. The Shingle style cottage was built for David W. Lewis (1833-1915) of Boston, who purchased the land in 1893 and had the house built soon after. Lewis began his career in the retail shoe business in Vermont until he enlisted in the Union Army in 1862, serving in the 9th Vermont Volunteer Regiment. Lewis rose to the rank of major and saw action in several major campaigns of the war. After the war, David Lewis married Elizabeth T. Willett and they moved to Hyde Park in Boston where he shifted professions and became a dealer in building materials, which he saw immediate success as many Boston areas saw development in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The architect is not presently known, but it is probable that the cottage was designed by William Gibbons Preston or Charles Allerton Coolidge, both Boston architects who designed many of Marion’s summer homes and both of whom summered in Marion themselves. Architecturally, the residence is a blending of Shingle and Arts and Crafts styles with the low-pitched roof and continuous shingled cottage encircled by a one-story integrated porch supported by wood shingle clad rectangular posts with a Chinese-fret work railing.

Rev. John C. Brooks Cottage // c.1891

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One of the finest cottages in the coastal community of Marion, Massachusetts, is found tucked away behind the larger Shingled mansions overlooking the harbor; and while smaller in stature, it packs an architectural punch! This is the Rev. John C. Brooks cottage, constructed c.1891 as a blend of Shingle and the emerging Arts & Crafts styles in a bungalow form. The cottage, designed by Boston architect and summer resident of Marion, William Gibbons Preston,  was built as a summer residence for Revered John Cotton Brooks (1849-1907) who descended on his father’s side from the New England Puritan clergymen, John Cotton and Cotton Mather. Like many in his family, Rev. John C. Brooks joined the ministry in the Episcopal Church and was the rector of Christ Church in Springfield from 1878 until his death in 1907. He was also the younger brother of famed preacher and theologian, Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), rector of Trinity Church Boston, Episcopal bishop of Massachusetts, and a frequent visitor to Marion, which likely inspired him to build his own summer residence here. John Brooks was additionally a colleague of Reverend Percy Browne, for whom their friend and Trinity Church architect, Henry Hobson Richardson, designed the first Shingle Style house in Marion. After Reverend Brooks died in Paris in 1907, the family sold the property to David Rice (1856-1932), the brother of noted Boston architect Arthur W. Rice, who too summered in Marion at this cottage. While somewhat altered, the cottage stands out architecturally for its varied shingle types, an integrated porch spanning the façade supported by paired square posts and a shingled knee wall, and paired gable dormers linked by a blind shed-roofed dormer which is faced with a panel with applied rectangular fretwork. 

Frederick B. Cutler Cottage // c.1903

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One of the most interesting houses in Marion, Massachusetts, is the Frederick Cutler Cottage, at the corner of Water and Lewis streets which was split in the 1970s to create two homes. The Cutler Cottage was originally built around 1903 for Frederick Barker Cutler (1861-1946), partner in the firm of Stetson, Cutler & Company in Boston, a building materials company who sold everything from long lumber and shingles to lime. For his summer cottage in Marion, Cutler hired noted Boston architect Herbert Langford Warren, founding principal of Warren, Smith & Biscoe, to furnish plans for the Arts and Crafts style dwelling of shingles, stone and brick. In the 1970s, the owner separated the house into two detached dwellings and moved them to separate lots. Both parts of the Cutler Cottage have since been renovated and further expanded, but retain much of their original qualities.

Waters – Dyer Cottage // c.1890

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Benjamin E. Waters (1863-1962) was a local businessman and real estate developer in Marion by the end of the 19th century. He acquired a large property not far from the beach, in the middle of a high-class residential enclave and developed the property, running a small dirt path through the middle, known today as Pie Alley. He built three large Shingle style homes between 1890-1895 and appears to have rented them out to wealthy residents. This residence, the largest, features a broad gambrel roof with saltbox slope towards the rear, dormers, and a wrap-around porch facing Buzzards Bay. The house is entirely clad in cedar shingles, a common sight in this part of town. The home remained part of the larger parcel and was rented out until after WWII, when it was purchased by Holmes M. Dyer (1913-1997), a sales executive for the Acushnet Company of New Bedford. The architect of the home is not widely known, but it is probably the work of William Gibbons Preston or Charles Allerton Coolidge, both prominent Boston architects who summered in Marion and designed many of the Shingle style cottages here in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Charles A. Coolidge Cottage // c.1903

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When an architect designs a house for their own use, you know it is going to be special. This is the Charles A. Coolidge Cottage in East Marion, on the South Shore of Massachusetts. American architect, Charles Allerton Coolidge (1858-1936), was born in Boston as a member of a Brahmin family. He graduated from Harvard College in 1877 and studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, later entering the office of the well-known firm of Ware & Van Brunt. He later joined the firm of renowned architect Henry Hobson Richardson in 1883 and soon after the death of Richardson in 1886, he formed a partnership with George Shepley and Charles Rutan, two other Richardson architects. Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge went on to become one of the most prominent architecture firms of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, performing major residential and institutional work in Boston and across the United States. Charles Coolidge married Julia Shepley of St. Louis, sister of his business partner, in 1889, and the couple would begin planning their summer retreat in the coastal community of Marion. The couple purchased a site already containing a residence and lived there before building this cottage around 1903 in the fashionable Shingle style. The over the years, various out-buildings were constructed on the site for his children’s cottages and other various uses. The property remains part of the Coolidge Family and is a private residence. The Coolidge Cottage is entirely clad in shingles, a hallmark of the Shingle style of architecture, and features broad gambrel roof forms and sweeping porches supported by shingled columns. Photo is courtesy of Lynn Smiledge.

Burdett Summer Cottage // c.1910

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Beginning in the late 19th century, affluent urban dwellers from cities like Boston and New York were traveling by train and steamship to seaside destinations like Marion, on the South Coast of Massachusetts. The town began to attract many notable political, literary, and art world figures seeking a seaside respite away from the heat and pollution of urban centers. Initially visitors stayed at hotels or rented private houses, but as the end of the century neared and Marion became nationally known as a desirable vacation destination, wealthy individuals began to build their own permanent summer residences. The Burdett Cottage on Water Street was built around 1911 for Boston lawyer, Everett Walton Burdett and his wife, Maude. The couple hired the Boston architectural firm of Bigelow & Wadsworth, to design the Colonial Revival style “cottage” with an accompanying garden designed by noted landscape architect, Arthur Asahel Shurtleff. The house features two end wings with porches and balconies to provide sweeping views of the harbor. 

Cairncroft Cottage // 1892

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Set into the trees in Chocorua in Tamworth, Cairncroft stands as one of the many stately “cottages” built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for city-dwellers to escape the hot summers for the fresh air and views of the White Mountains of New Hampshire. This cottage was built for Emil Christian Hammer (1823-1894), who migrated to the
United States from Denmark in 1840, where he became a prominent businessman in several Boston business, including Waltham Manufacturing Company. In the mid-1880s, he founded the United States Watch Company in Waltham, one of the most important such companies in the country. From his success and connections, Emil was appointed by President Abraham Lincoln as Danish consul in 1864. Emil purchased the land here in 1886 and built a barn and ice house before having his home and nearby stone cairn built on the grounds; the latter is likely what gave the property its name. Cairncroft was designed by Boston architect, Edwin James Lewis, Jr., an expert at Arts and Crafts and Shingle style designs. After Emil’s death, just two years after his cottage was completed, the property passed to his wife, Martha. Her daughter, Cynthia Hollis and also an accomplished artist, inherited it later and eventually passed it to her husband, John Charles State Andrew, professor of theology at Harvard and Boston
University.

Chadwick Cottage // 1891

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One of the many summer cottages tucked away in the trees in the Chocorua Colony in Tamworth, New Hampshire, the Chadwick Cottage was built in 1890 for prominent gynecologist, Dr. James Read Chadwick (1844-1905). Dr. Chadwick was introduced to Chocorua during his summer visits to the White Mountains, where he and his family stayed at local hotels as early as 1876. He purchased seventeen acres of forest nearby Chocorua Lake in 1890 on which he erected this house and its outbuildings the following year. The design of the buildings is attributed to Boston architect, Clarence Howard Walker, who was affiliated with the Boston Society of Arts and Crafts and designed this rustic cottage to fit within the forest, enhancing the landscape surrounding it. Dr. James Chadwick was a professor at Harvard Medical School and a pioneer nationally in the field of gynecology, where he played a key role in organizing the American Gynecological Society. In 1905, while vacationing at his Tamworth cottage, Dr. Chadwick died following a fall from a piazza roof. The Chadwick Cottage was sold a year later to Lillian and William G. Farlow, a world-renowned authority on fungi and other non-flowering plants, likely a friend of the late Dr. Chadwick. The cottage and its associated out buildings are lovingly preserved over a century later and exemplify the best of summer cottages in New Hampshire.

St. Andrew’s in the Valley Church // 1927

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The St. Andrew’s in the Valley Episcopal Church in Tamworth, New Hampshire, is an architecturally significant early 20th century rustic chapel that has been lovingly preserved and expanded by its congregation. The church was envisioned by Reverend Frederick C. Cowper (1851-1929), who was called to gather congregants in the summer colonies in the White Mountains to fund and build a new chapel. Rev. Cowper was granted land in the Whittier area of Tamworth and worked with Boston architect, Walter H. Kilham, who had a summer home in Tamworth, to draw up plans for the new church. Kilham is said to have based his designs off of the 11th-century Church of Saint Helena in Austerfield, England, just in the local vernacular with rubblestone acquired from the land in New Hampshire and not cut stone blocks like that of St. Helena. The church exhibits elements of the Arts and Crafts style with the stucco wing and thoughtful stone bell tower.

Barnstormers Theatre // 1935

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Originally built in the early 19th century, this former commercial block in Tamworth was completely renovated in the 1930s as The Barnstormers Theatre, New Hampshire’s oldest continuously operating professional summer theatre. A general store was built here as far back as 1810 and after over 120 years, owner Samuel Kimball sold the building to Francis and Alice Cleveland in 1934. Francis Cleveland was the youngest child of President Grover Cleveland, who spent summers in town as a family. The Barnstormers were formed in 1931 by Francis and Alice Cleveland and Ed Goodnow, a drama teacher at Amherst College and later director of the Harvard University Dramatic Club, as a summer theatre group. “The Barnstormers, Inc.” had originally performed in an old barn on Tamworth’s Main Street and later held “barnstorming” shows in summer colonies in New Hampshire and Maine on a weekly rotation until the members, often well-connected artists and amateur actors, purchased the old Kimball Store in Tamworth. Architect W. Lincoln Boyden was hired to convert the vernacular store into a working theater, which was completed by the summer shows in 1935. The Barnstormers Theatre remains a vital landmark in Tamworth, clearly announced by its wide front steps and Neo-Classical pillared portico. The Barnstormers remain an active and beloved theatre group running every summer.

Highways Cottage // 1902

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One of the more unique and enchanting historic summer “cottages” I have seen in my travels is this early 20th century rustic example in the Onteora Park colony. Built in 1902 for John S. Stanton Sr. (1837-1933), this residence was later the summer home of Dr. Edward Ahrens and his wife, Gertrude, who founded the Mountaintop Arboretum nearby. The house stands 3 1/2-stories tall and features horizontal log siding on the ground floor and cedar shingle siding above. The facade is dominated by the broad gable end roof that extends downwards to the first floor at flared eaves on the sides and over the windows.