Tudor Revival

Sheep Pasture Gate Lodge // 1894

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As members of the Ames family in the mid-to-late 19th century built their many grand estates and civic buildings in their hometown of Easton, Massachusetts, Frederick L. Ames (1835-1893) was purchasing farmland at the edge of the village before his death. Upon Frederick Ames’ death in 1893, the contiguous parcels passed to his heirs with the vast majority of that land going to his widow, Rebecca, and his eldest daughter Mary. The expansive property was later acquired by Mary’s brother, Oliver Ames III (1864-1929) and his wife, Elise West, who developed the property into their country estate. Oliver and Elise hired the Boston-based architectural firm of Rotch & Tilden, in 1891 to design an impressive mansion and gate lodge off Main Street with landscaping designed by the great landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted, who was often hired for Ames Family buildings. Known as the Sheep Pasture, the rustic estate operated somewhat as a gentleman’s farm, with various barns and outbuildings constructed to house farm animals and equipment that were tended to by hired help. The Gate Lodge was built by 1894 and housed attendants who carefully screened visitors to the main residence. The large Tudor Revival mansion was demolished in 1946 after the death of Elise (Oliver and Elise’s only son, Oliver Ames Jr., was killed by a German sniper during WWI), but their daughter, Elise Ames Parker, sought to preserve the various outbuildings on the property, including the Gate Lodge on Main Street. Elise Ames Parker deeded the property to the non-profit group, Natural Resources Trust of Easton in 1967, who preserve the open space and buildings as the Sheep Pasture, and rent the Gate Lodge to tenants.

Ames Shovel Works Stable & Offices // 1897

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The former Ames Shovel Works comprises an area of roughly eight acres in the middle of the village of North Easton, Massachusetts, and it was here that the Ames Family and the village became known for incredible wealth and amazing architecture. The firm was started by Oliver Ames (1779-1863), who moved to Easton and began manufacturing shovels. After a fire destroyed many of the original wooden shops in 1852, O. Ames & Co., now run by Oliver Ames’s sons, Oakes and Oliver, Jr., opted to rebuild in fireproof granite for the new buildings. The company saw rapid growth in the second half of the 19th century, and by 1879, the company is said to have produced 60 percent of all the shovels in the world. Ames shovels were bought as America was expanding westward with its products used to move dirt for the transcontinental railroad and the Panama Canal. After a fire destroyed the company’s old barn/stable in 1887, the company held horses and oxen in a nearby structure until 1897, when this handsome stable building was constructed. The new, elaborate barn is designed in the English half-timbered style, with its proximity to the Ames family’s fancy residences Main Street, likely leading to its distinctive architectural appearance. In 1928, the stable was converted to company offices and after the company closed following WWII, it was rented until a massive rehabilitation of the site into housing, was completed in 2014. The stable building was converted into seven condominium units by PCA Architects, who preserved the stately exterior and modified the interiors to meet the new residential use.

I could not locate the architect of the 1897 building, so if anyone knows, please share!

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.

“Fair Oaks” // 1903

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One of the many grand Summer estates on the coast of Sippican Harbor in Marion, Massachusetts, is this mansion known as “Fair Oaks”. The residence was built in 1903 in the Tudor Revival style for Otis A. Shepard a wealthy lumber dealer in Boston. Given Shepard’s line of work he not surprisingly called his summer estate “Fair Oaks”, and his house’s building materials were undoubtedly supplied by his company. For his summer estate, Shepard hired Boston architect, Charles Allerton Coolidge, who spent summers at his own cottage nearby and designed many historic homes in Marion for other summer residents. A number of years later, the property was purchased by Elizabeth F. Clark and her husband Edward A. Clark (1868-1922), a stock broker in Boston. Exterior and interior images of the house during Clark’s ownership appeared in architectural publications in 1919, highlighting the architecture and interior design.

Adolph and Marion Ehrlich House // 1906

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The Adolph and Marion Ehrlich House on Beech Road in Brookline’s Longwood neighborhood is a stunning blend of Arts and Crafts and Tudor Revival styles, popular in early 20th century Boston suburbs. The house was designed by the firm of Andrews, Jaques and Rantoul, for Adolph Ehrlich (1868-1952) and Marion Ratchesky Ehrlich (1877-1966). Adolph was born in Boston and at the age of 11, began work in the textile business. He climbed the ranks and became a partner in a clothing company before becoming a director of the Jordan Marsh Department Store Company from 1925 until his death in 1952. His wife Marion was heavily involved in social causes until her death, including the Louisa May Alcott Club, a settlement house in Boston for young, predominantly immigrant girls.

Eben S. Draper Mansion // 1926

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Built in 1926 for Eben Sumner Draper Jr. (1893-1959), the son of Massachusetts Governor and Draper Corporation executive, Eben Sumner Draper, this massive Tudor Revival style mansion in Hopedale, provided a secluded country estate for the wealthy industrialist. The home was designed in 1926 by Boston architects Bigelow & Wadsworth, and replaced Eben’s father’s Shingle style country mansion “The Ledges“. The new Draper mansion was highlighted in numerous architectural magazines shortly after it’s construction, which highlighted the amazing brickwork, layout, and interior finishes, all of which remain to today! This spectacular home is over 14,000 square feet and has 17 bedrooms, several located in the staff wing, 10 full-baths and four half-baths, an in-ground swimming pool, gazebo, tennis court, and landscape design attributed to the notable landscape architect Warren Manning. In the 1960s, the home sold out of the family and was used as a home for adults living with developmental disabilities, mental illnesses, physical disabilities, the facility has since sold the Draper mansion and occupies the former carriage house on the grounds.

Dutcher Street Grammar School // 1897

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The former Dutcher Street Grammar School in Hopedale, Massachusetts, is a great example of a Tudor Revival/Chateauesque style public school building that has been adaptively reused. Built in 1897, the Dutcher Street School was designed by Charles Howard Walker of the firm, Walker & Kimball, at a cost of $40,000. The school is built of red brick with granite trimmings and is one of the finest late-19th century school buildings in the state. The school closed in the late 20th century after the Draper Factory, the largest employer in town, closed in 1980. Instead of being demolished, the Dutcher Street School was renovated and given an addition to convert the building into condominiums, a great example of adaptive reuse!

Graham Apartments // 1904

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This handsome, and unique example of a three-decker in the English Revival style is located on a corner lot at 128 Davis Avenue in the Emerson/Brookline Village neighborhood of Brookline, Massachusetts. Built in 1904 from plans by architect and genealogist, J. Gardner Bartlett, whose work focused on colonial New England and the English origins of colonial families. Trained as an architect at MIT, he gave up architecture for genealogy, but still occasionally designed buildings in the Boston area. The building here was developed for Richard Graham, an Irish immigrant, who along with his wife, operated a laundry business in the village. The use of a shingle and stone entrance porch and entrance bay with stucco half-timbering and diamond-pane casement windows stand out architecturally as one of the few examples of a three-decker built in this style in New England.

Bolton Public Library // 1903

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The Bolton Public Library was established in 1859, when the town’s library collection was housed on a few shelves in the Selectmen’s room at the Town Hall. In the following decades it became clear to the community that a purpose-built library building should be constructed in town to house the growing collections there. At the time when wealthy benefactors donated funds for public libraries in towns and cities across New England, sisters Emma and Anna Whitney gifted their hometown of Bolton, $10,000 to build a dedicated library building in memory of their father, Captain Joseph Whitney in 1901. Completed in 1903, the Bolton Public Library was designed by the architectural firm Stone, Carpenter & Willson and built of local Bolton fieldstone in the Tudor Revival style. Of particular architectural merit is the red tile roof and three gabled bays with carved stucco and woodwork within half-timbered frames. The library was added onto in 2010 from plans by Lerner Ladds & Bartels Architects, who replicated key materials and forms so the new wing feels coherent with the original yet clearly differentiated.

Irving-Strauss Mansion // 1906

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This unique Tudor Revival style house in the Cottage Farm neighborhood of Brookline was built in 1906 for Irving J. Sturgis (1873-1924), a banker and broker originally from Michigan. Architect Joseph Everett Chandler, specialized in the Colonial Revival style and historic restorations, but was clearly adept at other styles as evidenced in this stately manor for Mr. Sturgis. After WWI, the property sold to Mr. Leon Strauss, who worked in dry goods. The Irving-Strauss mansion is constructed of brick with cast stone trim and features classic ornamentation seen in the Tudor Revival style. Steeply pitched gable roofs have stone
coping, metal windows are casement or fixed with small pained lights and are framed in cast stone trim. Framing the entranceway is a brick and stone gateway, of which, a garden wall extends around the property, with a stately garden gate surmounted by stone finials displaying the flair of the style.

Curtis House – Boston University Children’s Center // 1904

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Built in 1904 as one of the finest Tudor Revival style residences in the Boston area, this residence in the Cottage Farm neighborhood of Brookline showcases all of the important elements of the iconic architectural style. The residence was built for Harry and Carrie Curtis, with Mr. Curtis being a partner with Curtis & Sederquist, bankers and brokers, with offices on Congress Street in Boston and in New York City. The couple hired architects Howard B. Prescott and William Sidebottom of the firm, Prescott & Sidebottom, to design the house. Rectangular in plan with massing enlivened by numerous cross gables and dormers, the house is decorated with exterior walls covered with wood shiplap at first story and half-timbered stucco at second story. The property was sold to Helen and Edward Mills by 1913. Mr. Mills was president and treasurer of the Edward C. Mills Leather Company. By 1931, the residence was owned by Erland F. Fish (1883-1942), a prominent lawyer and politician as well as the son of Frederick Fish, who owned the house across the street. Boston University purchased the property in 1964 as part of their institutional expansion into this neighborhood. Originally used as an alumni house, it later became the location for the Department of African American Studies. After an extensive expansion and restoration by Studio MLA (now Ashley McGraw Architects) and Kaplan Construction, the Tudor mansion is now a children’s daycare for Boston University faculty, staff, and graduate students.

Moseley-Widger House // 1906

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One of the many houses in the Cottage Farm-adjacent neighborhoods of Brookline, Massachusetts, is this great blending of the Tudor Revival and Arts and Crafts styles of architecture, which dominated residential architecture in the Boston suburbs in the early 20th century. This residence was built in 1906 for Mr. Frank Moseley and his wife, Martha Hawes Moseley from plans by architect Robert C. Coit. Covered in stucco siding and half timbering, the charming house evokes the countryside of England, right here in Brookline. After WWI, the house was owned by Ms. Lizzie Widger, a water color artist and member of Copley Society of Boston, and her husband, Samuel Widger, a cotton broker. The Moseley-Widger House looks as it did 120 years ago and is in a great state of preservation, thanks to generations of loving stewards.

George and Annie Andrews House // 1899

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By the end of the 19th century, Brookline’s connection to Boston via the streetcars opened the town up to suburban development unlike anything seen before. From this, Boston businessmen could move to the suburbs for more land and live in larger single-family homes while commuting to the city for work. This large house in the Cottage Farm neighborhood was built in 1899 on speculation and purchased by George and Annie Andrews, who two years later, built a stable on the adjacent lot. Architect Robert Coit, specialized in large suburban houses, primarily in the Boston-area suburbs, and showcased his design talents for this Tudor Revival home. Tudor Revival style ornament include the second story over-hangs supported on brackets, the diamond pane sash and casement windows, vergeboard with finials, and portico with steep gable.

Saint Lawrence Catholic Church // 1896

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The parish known today as Infant Jesus-St. Lawrence Church was established in 1898, two years after its original chapel building – shown here – was erected to serve as a mission church of St. Mary of the Assumption in Brookline Village. The St. Lawrence Church was built in 1896 on Boylston Street in the Chestnut Hill/South Brookline area of the town, built to serve a more local, well-off population in the area. The church (and the adjacent rectory) was designed by Franz Joseph Untersee, a Swiss-American architect, and Brookline resident, who designed many Roman Catholic churches throughout the eastern part of United States. The Neo-Gothic church building is built of wood and stone with stucco and applied half timbering. Besides the large stained glass window and applied ornament, the church is notable for its square, irregularly-laid granite tower with crenelation. The church remains active in the community and very-well preserved inside and out.

Chestnut Hill Benevolent Association Buildings // 1918

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In 1915, Mary Longyear, a faithful follower of Mary Baker Eddy and the Christian Science faith, purchased the land from the Lyman Estate in Brookline, Massachusetts, and donated to the Christian Science Church. Planning began immediately to build a facility as a “temporary resort where those seeking relief through Christian Science may go to find practical assistance in overcoming their difficulties.” The need for a hospital/sanatorium was established by Mary Baker Eddy as early as 1906, and it would be over a decade before this need was filled. The complex was built in stages beginning in 1918 with this building, the main building, observation tower and a powerhouse designed by Clarence T. McFarland. The buildings were designed in the Tudor Revival style, blending in with the many country estates in this section of Brookline. The complex would train nurses and treat patients for over 100 years and remains an important institution into the 21st century.