Victorian Building

Boston & Albany Depot // 1881-1958

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Courtesy of Digital Commonwealth

When the Erie Canal opened in 1825, New York City’s advantageous water connection through the Hudson River threatened Boston’s dominance as a historic trade center. Since the topography of the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts made construction of a canal infeasible, Boston turned to the emerging railroad technology for a share of the freight to and from the Midwestern United States. The Boston and Worcester Railroad was chartered in 1831 and construction began the next year. Stations and rail lines were built westward of Boston and would eventually reach the Berkshires and the Hudson Valley with three existing lines merging in 1867 as the Boston and Albany Railroad, becoming the longest and most expensive point-to-point railroad yet constructed in the United States. The B&A undertook a significant program of improvement and beautification in the 1880s and 1890s, when the railroad hired architect Alexander Rice Esty to design this building, the Boston passenger station which was completed in 1881, the year of Esty’s death. That same year, the B&A hired architect Henry Hobson Richardson to design a series of passenger stations, connecting suburban villages west of Boston to the city. This station was located on Kneeland Street and serviced passenger service from Boston until the new South Station, a consolidated train station of various lines, was completed in 1899. This station later became a freight and storage warehouse for the railroad until the 1950s when the building was razed for the Central Artery, signaling the death of train travel as we knew it for decades to come. The site of the former station has remained undeveloped since then.

John T. Andrew Carriage House – Cornwall Historical Society Building // c.1865

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This ornate carriage house on Pine Street in Cornwall, Connecticut was built by John T. Andrew around 1865 adjacent to his late 18th century home in the village. Andrews was born in Bethany, Connecticut in 1811, graduated from Yale College in 1839, becoming a minister and later a teacher. For health reasons he left both professions and turned to farming and stonework. After Andrews’s death the property was purchased in 1890 by Charles Marsh, a local undertaker, and his wife Inez. In 1954 the barn was converted to a home by their daughter, the town librarian Emily Elizabeth Marsh, a charter member of the Cornwall Historical Society. In 1966, the Society raised funds to buy the building from her estate, but could do little to adapt it for their specific exhibit and storage needs. The Society restored the exterior to its original appearance, down to the brackets, round arched windows and cupola.

Cornwall Bridge Railroad Station // 1886

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One of the most attractive railroad depots in Connecticut, the Cornwall Bridge Railroad Station exists in almost complete originality. Its siding is board and batten and its slate roof with a wide overhang supported by the original brackets, showcases the attention to detail railroad companies paid to design and appoint these important landmarks. Built in 1886, the building can be classified as Stick Style and is one of a few buildings in town of the style, adding to its significance. The station was built by the Housatonic Railroad to replace an earlier station on the site. The Housatonic line was acquired by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in 1892 and later by the Penn Central Railroad in 1969, which went bankrupt by 1970. This station was subsequently sold to private ownership and listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a tool to bring awareness to its significance and threatened status. Luckily, the building was preserved and has been converted to a private residence.

Porphyry Hall // 1880

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The Jacob E. Spring Mansion, also known as Porphyry Hall, is a high-style estate house located in Danvers, Massachusetts, that is one of the finest and most unique in the state! The house was built in 1880 for Jacob Evans Spring (1825-1905), who was born in Brownfield, Maine, and at the age of twenty, he went to Argentina and amassed a fortune in the wool business in Buenos Aires between 1845 and 1865, when he returned to the United States. Jacob and his wife, Sara Duffy, would purchase a large farm in Danvers and began planning for their family country home. Their residence was built on a high hill over two years and constructed of over 40 types of stones of irregular size and color with door and window sills of Nova Scotia freestone with arches of the doors and windows and corners of brick. The mansion was designed by architect George M. Harding of Boston, and built by several skilled masons over many months. Mr. Spring named his estate, “Porphyry Hall” with Porphyry meaning an igneous rock with large crystals in a fine-grained matrix; suitable for the walls of their mansion. The Spring’s lived lavishly at this home and spent nearly all of their fortune, selling the property after just ten years to the Xaverian Brothers, who opened it as Saint John’s Normal College. In 1907, the compound was re-organized as a Catholic boys prep school. In 1915, a chapel was added to the rear of the building, constructed from gray fieldstone to blend with the main house. Have you ever seen a building like this?

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.

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!

United Church of Norwood // 1886

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Located across from the church-like Norwood Town Hall, the United Church of Norwood is a landmark example of the Victorian Gothic architecture style and an important historical landmark for the town. The cornerstone of this present church was laid in 1885 and was completed and consecrated by December of 1886. Boston architect J. Williams Beal, got his start at the firm of McKim, Mead & White, designed the church here for the local Universalists, who lost their previous church to fire in 1884. In 1934, the town’s Universalist and Methodist congregations merged and they joined together in this, as a Union Church. Built of Milford granite and pressed brick, the United Church of Norwood features a side chapel and clock in its steeple which are unique and add charm to the historic church.

Whitaker Block // c.1870

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One of the finest commercial buildings in downtown Saugerties, New York, is the Whitaker Block, a landmark Second Empire style structure from the years following the American Civil War. The structure dates to around 1870 and was first owned by an E. Whitaker and was mixed use with retail at the street and offices above. Additionally, the building was home to the local chapter of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) a fraternal social organization. The three-story with mansard roof building stands out for its architectural details and integrity which largely remain intact to this day.

Ms. Perkins’ Millinery Shop // c.1890

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This charming one-story shop sits on the Porter-side of Kezar Falls village, a district that spans the Ossipee River between Porter and Parsonsfield, Maine. This shop was built at the end of the 19th century as a millinery shop (womens’ hat store) for Ms. Florence Perkins (1862-1950), who appears to have been unmarried all of her life. Retaining almost all of its original decorative detail, the building has a symmetrically arranged facade with two-sided projecting bays; the upper sash in the facade windows, including that in the entrance door, has a border of small rectangular colored glass panels. The storefront is a rare survivor of this period, with not many other examples in the area.

Bread Loaf Campus – Maple Cottage // c.1900

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Welcome back to the Bread Loaf Campus! For more early history and context of the complex, check out the post on the Bread Loaf Inn. By 1900, owner Joseph Battell’s enterprise exceeded the capacity of the original inn, and cottages were added to accommodate more guests visiting his new permanent home in the mountains of Ripton, Vermont. Located adjacent to the Mansard-roofed Birch Cottage, one of the most visually striking buildings in the campus is Maple Cottage, which reads more porch than cottage, but it’s 100% perfect. It was the last cottage built by Battell for his family and friends to stay at when visiting. They must have loved evenings on the three-floors of porches looking out over the Green Mountains.

Webber Duplex // c.1890

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In the late 19th century, the Longwood section of Brookline, saw a second surge of development when larger pieces of land were sold by heirs of the original developers. On the lot across from the Longwood Towers and near the Longwood rail station, Maine-born lumber dealer, John Prescott Webber, built this two-family residence and rented it out for supplemental income. Webber lived in a large home on Beacon Street while renting this and other properties in town to middle-class commuters to Boston. The Queen Anne style residence exhibits a unique rusticated stone first floor with wide arched entry with Richardsonian Romanesque carved detailing.

Cheesman Mansion // 1887

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Timothy Matlack Cheesman was born in New York City in 1824, a son of physician, John Cummins Cheesman. Following in the footsteps of his father, he graduated in 1859 from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, now known as Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. Timothy served as Surgeon in the 7th Regiment NY National Guard in 1853 and upon the start of the Civil War, he mustered into US service April of 1861 as a Surgeon. In the late 1880s, like many other wealthy New Yorkers, Dr. Cheesman and his wife, Maria, decided to build a country home in Ridgefield, Connecticut. They chose nearly 30 acres on the east side of East Ridge, an area that was being touted as “Prospect Ridge” for its view. Dr. Cheesman was ill with Bright’s disease and and may have been seeking the clean air of the country climate to help his health or at least as a place to rest. Sadly, he died one year later in 1888, and did not get to fully enjoy his country retreat. He was 63 years old. His widow Maria continued to use Matlack (the house’s name) until her death in 1903. In 1922, the estate was acquired by the Holy Ghost Fathers, who set up a school for new members of the order who would get their initial training to be priests or brothers there. Declining membership and costs required them to sell the campus, which was acquired by the Town of Ridgefield in 1971. Matlack is now the centerpiece of a large housing complex for the elderly in town and is managed by the local housing authority.

Theodore Helme Block // 1875

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One of the finest commercial blocks in Newport is this building, the Theodore Helme Block, located on Spring Street, just behind Trinity Church. The block was built for Helme by 1875 and was possibly an early design by Dudley Newton, a local architect. The Second Empire style block has a slate roof with rare intact iron cresting and small dormers. The building was restored by Federico Santi & John Gacher, who operate The Drawing Room Antiques here.

Yale University – Battell Chapel // 1874

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As the Old Campus of Yale was being enclosed at its north and east by Farnam and Durfee halls, architect Russell Sturgis was again tasked to design a new building, but for a corner site; though this time, he would design a college chapel. Built between 1874–76, it was funded primarily with gifts from Joseph Battell. Succeeding two previous chapel buildings on Yale’s Old Campus, it provided space for daily chapel services, which were mandatory for Yale students until 1926, which were all-male and mostly Protestant. The large stone chapel is constructed of New Jersey brownstone with decorative elements in sandstone. The design of the Victorian Gothic chapel is great, but how it sits with the entrance unceremoniously dumping out to the end wall of Durfee Hall leaves much to be desired.