victorian homes Boston

Frank and Elizabeth Ratcliffe House // 1890

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I do not think that I have ever seen rounded shingled columns like this before… What a treat! This house is located on Rice Street in Newton Centre, and was built in 1890 by Henry H. Read, a leather dealer who developed the entire street. This house was built on speculation and initially rented out to tenants before it was sold to Frank Ratcliffe and his wife, Elizabeth Ratcliffe. Frank Ratcliffe was born in England and would become treasurer of the Boston & Albany Railroad, which had a stop in Newton Centre. Frank and Elizabeth would sell or gift this property to their daughter, Mary Elizabeth Ratcliffe Holt and her husband, Warner R. Holt. Besides the unique shingled columns, the house features a broad gambrel roof and sunburst panels and a two-story rounded shingled bay. I could not locate the architect for this one, sadly.

Henry S. Chase House // c.1882

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One of the many “hidden” gems of old houses in Brookline is this charmer on Francis Street, just west of the Longwood district. The residence was built by 1882, by Henry Savage Chase (1825-1885) who lived in a larger stone mansion across St. Paul Street (no longer extant). This house was rented out by Chase, possibly to friends and remained in the family for decades. This early Queen Anne style dwelling (and likely the main house) was designed by architect Edgar Allen Poe Newcomb, a relatively unknown architect of the period. The house has an irregular plan with varied siding and materials, with applied ornament that has survived intact for nearly 150 years.

William Potter Rental House // 1889

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William W. Potter, a shoe manufacturer and businessman, and his wife, Isabella Abbe Strickland Potter, lived in the Longwood section of Brookline and became active in the surround areas development in the last decades of the 19th century. William bought land off Kent Street and began to lay out house lots, becoming a developer overseeing construction of stately Queen Anne Victorian rental properties marketed to upper-middle-class residents. For this house on Francis Street, he commissioned architects George Rand and Bertram Taylor, who were known for producing stylish residential designs for the middle class in the Boston area. The massive property was a duplex, providing units to two lucky families! The building has just about every hallmark feature of the Queen Anne style including: the conical roof on a rounded corner bay, a complex roofline, asymmetrical plan, varied siding/materials, and applied ornamentation. In the 1920s, the house was owned by Simmons College, and used as a boarding house. Luckily, the property was restored and now is one of the finest residences in the neighborhood.

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.

Betteley Cottage // c.1883

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Albert Cabot Betteley (1816-1893) was an inventor and coal dealer in Boston. He invented an elevator to hoist goods into a warehouse, a peat grinder for the speedy drying of peat for fuel, and even patented wooden pavement…seriously. He eventually would build this home on Cobden Street in Roxbury where he and his wife Mary Jane would live out their retirement. While he didn’t “make it big” persay with his inventions, he exemplified the typical middle-class resident of Roxbury at the time and built this modest home, with its two-story form with octagonal bay, bracketed cornice, and mansard roof. The cottage was recently repainted the purple color, which I really enjoy!

Pope-Barron Townhouse // 1871

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Merry Christmas to those who celebrate! As there is no snow on the ground in Boston, I wanted to share a house with a prominent pine tree, which resembles an oversized urban Christmas tree on Beacon Street. This house at the corner of Beacon and Fairfield streets was built in 1871 by architect and builder Frederick B. Pope on speculation. It did not sell as quickly as he would have hoped, and it took two years for it to finally sell at public auction in 1873. The relatively modest brick Second Empire style house was bought and sold numerous times until March 1905, when the residence was purchased by Clarence Walker Barron, a prominent publisher and journalist. In 1903, he purchased Dow Jones & Company and from 1912 until his death in 1928, he was its president. During this period, he was also de facto manager of The Wall Street Journal, he expanded its daily circulation, modernized its printing press operations, and deepened its reporting capabilities. In 1921, he founded Barron’s National Financial Weekly, later renamed Barron’s Magazine. Barron pushed for the intense scrutiny of corporate financial records, and for this reason is considered by many to be the founder of modern financial journalism. In 1920, he investigated Charles Ponzi, inventor of the “Ponzi scheme”. His aggressive questioning and common-sense analysis helped lead to Ponzi’s arrest and conviction. For his Boston townhouse, Barron hired the firm of Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson to completely renovate the dwelling with an extra floor, limestone facades, and more bold roof design.

Cushing-Fearing Townhouse // 1862

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168 Beacon in the Back Bay was built ca. 1861, one of two contiguous houses for Robert Maynard Cushing and his older brother, John Gardiner Cushing (more on the house nextdoor in the next post). This home was Robert Cushing’s home for him and his new wife Olivia Donaldson Dulany (m.1863). They also maintained a home, The Ledges, in Newport. The Cushing Family owned the townhouse until 1908, when it was sold following Robert’s death in 1907 by his estate to George Richmond Fearing, Jr., an investment banker. He also served as President of the Free Hospital for Women from 1910 to 1936. The home was recently renovated with a darker, brownstone facade, new copper gutters and downspouts and slate roof. It presently houses three condo units inside.

Storrow-Meyer Townhouses // 1862

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Two is always better than one, especially when it comes to historic townhouses! These two residences on Beacon Street in the Back Bay neighborhood were built in 1862 for two esteemed Boston families, the Storrows and the Meyers. 192 Beacon Street (right) was built as the home of Charles Storer Storrow and his wife, Lydia (Cabot Jackson) Storrow. Charles S. Storrow was an engineer by training and made his fortune as the chief engineer at the Essex Company, a company organized to harness the water power of the Merrimack River downstream from Lowell, Massachusetts in present-day. There, Storrow designed and built the Great Stone Dam across the Merrimack river, canals to distribute the water, several large textile mills, and a city, Lawrence, to house the mill workers. He came up with the idea to make roads that go to the mills in Lawrence, allowing him to become the first mayor of Lawrence in 1853. He retired and lived out his final years at this home in Boston. James J. Storrow, after whom Boston’s Storrow Drive is named, was Charles Storrow’s grandson. 194 Beacon Street (left) was built as the home of George Augustus Meyer and his wife, Grace Helen (Parker) Meyer. George Meyer was a prosperous German-American East India merchant and lived in this home until his death in 1889.

Peleg Chandler House // 1860

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One of the most ingeniously symmetrical and academic facades on Beacon Street in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston can be found at the Peleg Chandler House. Built in 1860 for Peleg Whitman Chandler (1816-1889), the two-bay bow-front townhouse appears to have been designed by architect Charles Kirk Kirby, a relatively unknown architect of Boston in this time period. The brownstone home originally had a mansard roof, but it was removed and replaced with a flat roof with parapet during the Great Depression, possibly to reduce the property taxes. Peleg Chandler was an attorney and publisher of the Law Reporter, which he established in 1838. He served as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1845 to 1847 and as Boston City Solicitor from 1846 to 1853. He was an early advocate of the Public Garden and led efforts in 1859 to prevent the construction of houses on the eastern side of Arlington Street. The house has been divided up inside and now five fortunate families get to call this stunning building home!

Freeman House // c.1870

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One of my favorites in Dorchester is this Second Empire manse, built c.1870 for cotton broker Freeman S. Packer. The house at 14 Everett Street in the Clam Point/Harrison Square neighborhood is a handsome, formal example of a Luther Briggs-designed Italianate Mansard residence. Although today sheathed in vinyl siding, much of the original siding and trim detail are likely still under there, preserved. Set back from the street facing an ample hedge-enclosed front yard, the three bay main façade exhibits a center pavilion and full-length front porch which undoubtedly appealed to summer guests who vacationed here when this house was known at the Russell House, an apartment hotel during the 1890s and early 1900s.