Victorian Architecture

First Congregational Church of Georgetown // 1874

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The First Congregational Church of Georgetown, Massachusetts, is significant both architecturally as a Victorian Gothic/Stick style church designed by a prominent architectural firm, and historically as an important gathering place for the town’s members for 150 years. The congregation however is much older than 1874, as when Georgetown was then a part of Rowley, Massachusetts, members here in 1731 petitioned to create their own parish in Rowley to travel a shorter distance to services. The church, then known as the Second Church of Christ in Rowley, was organized in 1732 with services held in a rustic Meeting House. A second meetinghouse was built in 1769, which was both outgrown and in much need of repairs by the time the congregation decided to build a new building on a new site in the new commercial center of town. The congregation hired the esteemed firm of Peabody & Stearns to design the church which today, is the most high-style and architecturally grand building in the suburban town.

Old New Gloucester Public Library – New Gloucester Meetinghouse // 1895

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The original New Gloucester Public Library is located in the central village of New Gloucester, Maine, and is one of the finest architectural buildings in the town. The library was established in 1888 when voters passed a resolution to establish a public town library as before this, a private, social library existed here. A committee was chosen to purchase books and make decisions for expenditures and staff. The library was originally located in the town hall building, and was supported by an annual poll tax of 50 cents. The first librarian was Helen A. Moseley, with a salary of $50 a year, she remained the town’s librarian until 1920. By 1895, the library had grown to more than 2,100 volumes and it was decided a new, purpose-built library was needed. That next year, a lot was purchased and this Victorian style building was constructed adjacent to the Town Hall. The wood-frame building has a decorative central section with recessed, arched entry and gable with decorative Stick style ornament. Additionally, a tower protrudes from the roof, giving the building additional whimsy. The library was eventually outgrown and relocated in the former High School, two buildings down the street. The old library has ever-since been the town’s meetinghouse.

New Ipswich Public Library // 1895

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The New Ipswich Public Library is a one-story Shingle style building on Main Street in the charming village of New Ipswich, New Hampshire. The library building was likely designed by Ernest M. A. Machado, one of the best, and relatively unknown architects of the late 19th and early 20th century in Salem. The entrance which faces the side, is flanked by two diamond-pane windows, which can also be found on the primary facade. A special ten-light vertical window is recessed within a shingled depression in the gable, which adds some complexity to the design.

Former Boston & Lowell Railroad Depot // 1871-1927

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Courtesy of Boston Public Library collections

The Boston and Lowell Railroad was established in 1830 as one of the first rail lines in North America. The first track was completed in 1835, and freight service began immediately connecting Boston to the newly established town of Lowell, which had just 6,400 residents at the time (compared to Boston which had 10x that). The original Boston depot was a modest structure, but after the Civil War, it was decided that a new station connecting two of the most important industrial cities in Massachusetts, should be built. Architect Edgar Allen Poe Newcomb and his father’s firm, L. Newcomb & Son, was selected to design a new station on Causeway Street. The French Second Empire masterpiece was built between 1871-1878. Inside, the concourse was lined with oak walls and marble flooring. The depot was added onto in 1893 and incorporated into a Union Station of multiple former lines, and ultimately demolished in 1927 for the first North Station.

Former Arlington House Hotel // 1870

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The Bulfinch Triangle area just south of the TD Garden in Boston is a cohesive and historically preserved district of similar commercial and industrial buildings of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Somehow, the area has been preserved largely intact besides some sites serving as surface parking lots and some incompatible infill developments. Historically, the area was a tidal flat, before the land here was filled beginning in 1807, with Causeway Street as the northern boundary. The area’s namesake, architect Charles Bulfinch, designed the street layout for the landowners, and the area was filled with material taken by lowering Beacon Hill and Copp’s Hill. Development was fairly slow until railroad companies built depots in the area around present-day North Station, many of which connected the area to cities north of Boston. These new train lines boosted the value of the surrounding land, with manufacturers and developers building factories and hotels in the area. This handsome structure on Causeway Street was built in 1870 by William G. Means, a manufacturer who also invested in real estate in Boston. He commissioned architect Samuel J. F. Thayer to furnish plans for the apartment hotel in the Second Empire style with a mansard roof and window lintels of diminishing detail as the floors increase. In later years, the Arlington House Hotel changed hands and names, later known as the Eastern Hotel and Hotel Haymarket. Stay tuned for more Boston history in this series highlighting the North Station and Bulfinch Triangle district!

Katherine Prescott Wormeley House // 1876

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The Katherine Prescott Wormeley House is an eclectic and eye-catching Queen Anne architectural landmark on Red Cross Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island. Boston-based Katherine P. Wormeley (1830-1908), a native of England, served as a nurse for the Union Army during the Civil War and was one of the best-known translators of French literature into English. She built this double-house at a cost of $7,000 and rented another unit in the home for additional income. The Wormeley House is one of Charles Follen McKim’s early, independent works after working in the office of H. H. Richardson but before forming his own firm with William Rutherford Mead in 1877. Just years after she moved in, Ms. Wormeley in 1882, hired McKim, who was now under the firm, McKim, Mead & White to update and enlarge the home. By 1893, Wormeley had moved to New Hampshire and sold the house to Elizabeth Cabot Hayden and Dr. David Hyslop Hayden. The golden onion dome roof at the tower is a real treat!

Oakwold Cottage // 1883

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Oakwold, a stunning Queen Anne residence on Old Beach Road in Newport, Rhode Island was supposedly built on speculation and purchased by Augustus Jay (1850-1919). Mr. Jay was born in Washington, D. C., the son of Peter Augustus Jay and Josephine Pearson Jay. Augustus Jay graduated from Harvard College in 1871 and from the Columbia Law School in 1876, and worked as a diplomat. His wife was Emily Astor Kane (1854–1932), a daughter of DeLancey Kane and Louisa Dorothea (née Langdon) Kane. Emily was a descendant of John Jacob Astor. The “cottage” was named Oakwold, and was designed by architect Clarence Sumner Luce, who designed many summer residences in Newport, and specialized in the Queen Anne style. Particularly noteworthy in the design of Oakwold are the brick first floor with entrance within a recessed arched opening and pebble-dashed and half-timbered gable ends.

Eveherdee Cottage // c.1889

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This Queen Anne style “cottage” is located on Gibbs Avenue, one of the lesser-visited streets for house-stalking in Newport, Rhode Island, but wow is she something! The summer cottage here was built by 1890 for Ogden Hoffman Burrows, a merchant who went into business with his father and brother in San Francisco, shipping goods from East Asia to America. He purchased two adjacent lots here on Gibbs Avenue in 1884 and 1889, having this house built as a summer residence, where he could mingle with other wealthy neighbors. The Queen Anne style house was reportedly designed by local architect, John Dixon Johnston, who incorporated all the hallmarks of the style: varied siding types and materials, turned post porte-cochere, applied ornament, and complex, asymmetrical form. Burrows would sell this house by the turn of the 20th century. Later owners, Herbert E. Stride and Daisy Thompson Stride, who would reside here with Daisy’s mother, Eve. The Stride’s named the home “Eveherdee” an amalgamation of their individual names: Eve (Eveline), Her (Herbert), and Dee (Daisy). The home was most recently owned by television producer, Vin Di Bona, who restored the house to its grandeur we see today.

Dr. Thomas J. Shanahan House // 1892

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Dr. Thomas Joseph Shanahan (1873-1929) was born in Lawrence and graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1896. He practiced medicine in Brookline and Boston and was engaged in local organizations. He purchased this 1892 house on Aspinwall Avenue in Brookline in 1911, which had previously been rented to families. Two generations of Shanahans would own the house until the 1970s. After Dr. Shanahan’s death in 1929, the widowed Margaret Shanahan remained in this house with their daughter, Mary Margaret Shanahan, who was employed in 1940 as a medical secretary for a hospital. Mrs. Shanahan transferred title to the property in 1947 to her daughter, who converted the house to a two-family dwelling in 1953 for supplemental income. Architecturally, the house is Queen Anne and Shingle styles with continuous shingle siding, complex form with bays and oriels, and a unique arched opening in the gable over the entrance filled with a spindle screen. Architects were William Langley Morrison and Peter J. McEwen.

William Dexter House // 1899

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One of the best examples of the eclectic architecture designed at the of the 19th century in Norwood, Massachusetts, can be found on Beacon Street in the William Dexter House. Built in 1899 for William W. Dexter (1827-1911), who in 1852, married Harriet Blake, later settling in Massachusetts. Tragedy struck the family in 1871, when on the same day, his wife and daughter died; two days later, his sister-in-law, and six days after that, his other daughter Carrie died, all of bacterial infections. All that remained of the family was William and his only surviving daughter, Nellie. William remarried and built a blended family until his death in 1911. This house was built by Dexter, who worked as a contractor and painter, and George F. Bagley, a local builder. The complex form, rooflines, varied siding types, corner tower, and intact historic windows all add to its beauty. If only it had a historically appropriate color scheme to compliment it!