Victorian House

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.

Dr. Ralph Fogg House // 1893

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Built in 1893, this house in Norwood, Massachusetts, was built for Dr. Ralph Fogg, a leading dentist in the Boston area with offices in Boston, Norwood, and Quincy. Dr. Fogg was dissatisfied with nitrous oxide gas as an anesthetic, as it failed to protect the patient against pain; and, in trying to find some harmless compound to accomplish the desired results, he produced the “Boston Vegetable Vapor,” an anesthetic to compete with nitrous oxide in markets. In 1885, the Boston Vegetable Anesthetic Company was formed for the purpose of placing the vapor in the market, and it was used by leading dentists across the country. With his dental practice growth and success of his new invention, Dr. Fogg and his new wife, Anna Saville, hired architect, Herbert Mosely, to design a stately home for their family. The Queen Anne/Shingle style house features a sophisticated use of stone, clapboard and wood shingle materials. It’s main facade is dominated by a broad gambrel gable with the main entrance set within a rusticated stone arch which is edged with large voussoir blocks.

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!

Oliver J. Barr House // 1908

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Built in 1908 as a late example of the Queen Anne and Shingle styles, the Oliver J. Barr House is one of the finest Victorian buildings in Norwood, Massachusetts. The residence was built for Oliver J. Barr (1863-1935), who served as the General Manager of the Norwood Press in town, following his company from Boston to Norwood. The house was designed by Eugene Clark a Boston-area architect who specialized in suburban houses in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The dwelling is noteworthy for its distinctive form, intact and rough textured wood shingle siding, and complex roof configuration. Particularly noteworthy is the verandah which encircles its northeast corner and rounded conically capped tower.

William Bates Summer Cottage // 1885

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While Salem is best-known for its First Period and Federal style buildings, the Salem Willows neighborhood features some of the finest Victorian summer cottages in the Boston area. This cottage was built in 1885 by William Marston Bates (1820-1912), a Salem-based dentist, as his summer retreat when not in the office. The Stick style cottage has a steep gable roof with jerkinhead clip at the facade and a wrap-around porch with decorative jigsawn bracketed details. The house is a well-preserved example of the style, examples of which are becoming less-and-less frequent in recent years.

George N. Faught Chalet // c. 1890

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The most unique house in Hull, Massachusetts is this stunning (and rare) example of a Swiss Chalet, located on Vautrinot Avenue in the fashionable Hull Hill neighborhood, which is dominated by late-19th century summer cottages. The earliest owner of the house was George N. Faught (1831-1915), an artist and tailor who moved to Boston from Maine. George went into the tailoring business in Boston and did well for himself, eventually building (and possibly designing) this summer home for himself in Hull. Mr. Faught died in 1915 in his bed in Boston, and this property was sold at auction in 1917. After some insensitive alterations in the 20th century, the property was sold in 2011. The later owners restored much of the house, while modernizing it to meet their needs. It is a showstopper!

The house is privately owned and not open for tours.

Galvin Cottage // c.1882

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Hull Hill is a relatively unknown enclave of summer cottages that sit on a rise overlooking Boston Harbor in the coastal community of Hull. The development of Hull Hill began in the 1870’s but became most active in the 1880’s and 1890’s. The land here was previously maintained as pasture and gardens by Hull villagers, but the land here was eventually sold and developed when the Hingham Water Company came to Hull in 1882. That same year, the railroad arrived which provided easier access to the town. This cottage on Andrew Avenue is one of the earliest summer residences built here, and dates to the late 1870s or early 1880s. The cottage was owned by Owen Augustus Galvin, a Boston lawyer, and his wife, Jane Sullivan Galvin. The unique cottage features a hexagonal section with a roof extending down to meet the wrap-around porch. The cottage exemplifies late 19th century cottage/resort architecture.

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.

Captain Ephraim Harkness House // c.1875

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Captain Ephraim H. Harkness was a young sea captain and Civil War veteran who built this large Stick style residence and detached stable in Rockport, Maine by 1875. Sadly, Captain Harkness would die just a few years after completing the home as he died from Yellow Fever while out at sea. The house has remained in an excellent state of preservation 150 years later, even including the stickwork and brackets, which are some of the applied ornament that is removed first in renovations on so many coastal homes.

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.

Haven Avenue Cottages // c.1877

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When Andrews Point in northern Rockport, Massachusetts, was opened for development by speculators Eben B. Phillips and George Babson, they envisioned the colony, “Ocean View” as a rival to other nearby summer colonies of Beverly Farms, Gloucester, and Magnolia. Roads were laid out and house lots were plotted with larger lots for big summer cottages along the coast and smaller cottage lots at the interior of the development. The rocky coast and more limited access compared to its rivals, caused Ocean View to lack in sales, but there are still some great remaining cottages to be found here. These two early cottages are great surviving examples of the modest, middle-class homes for summer residents. These two charming Victorian cottages sit side-by-side and were owned by an L. Brigham and Benjamin Lewis and both are in a great state of preservation 150 years later.

Eben Phillips Cottage // c.1877

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In the mid-1800s, Rockport, Massachusetts was best-known as one of the main ports for the quarrying and shipping of fine granite up and down the east coast of the United States. While the rocky coastline made granite a prime industry, the natural scenery also made the coastal areas desirable for residential development. While many of the coastal developments here never took-off as they did in nearby Gloucester, Magnolia, and Beverly, there are some notable summer colonies that sprouted up! In 1855, Eben B. Phillips an oil dealer in Boston, purchased undeveloped wooded lots and pastures, and slowly began to lay out roads and survey for developable lots for summer cottages on a peninsula near Pigeon Cove. The development was named “Oceanview” and it was marketed as the extreme point of Cape Ann. Development was very slow to materialize, and started in earnest in the 1870s. Eben Phillips built this summer cottage before 1877 (possibly as early as 1850), where he would spend summers until his death in 1879. The cottage retains much of its original character and is a rare survivor of the rustic style cottages which were built before the phase of larger Shingle and Queen Anne residences were built in later decades.

Bay Crest Cottage // c.1850

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Located across from the Winthrop-Eckley Double House on Corne Street, this gorgeous Italianate style summer cottage is a perfect blending of stature and whimsy. The house was built around 1850 and owned by Charles B. Peckham. Built in the Italianate style, the symmetrical house stands three-stories with covered side entrances divided by a projecting two-story bay. The house exhibits broad, overhanging eaves and paired and ganged round arched windows. The property was known as “Bay Crest” and remains one of the unsung landmarks of the 1850s in Newport.