Victorian House

John Wales House // c.1885

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In the mid-1880s, John Wales, a wealthy hardware dealer with offices in Downtown Boston, purchased house lots in the Cottage Farm area of Brookline from Amos A. Lawrence, and set out develop the site with two stately Victorian homes. This lovely home was first occupied by John’s son, George Wales and his wife, Mabel, the year of their marriage in 1885. While the architect is unclear, it is probable that the design can be attributed to architect William Whitney Lewis, who was hired by John Wales the year prior to design a stable near his home in an adjacent neighborhood. The house was rented by Wales and subsequent owners for years. The elaborate Queen Anne style house exhibits an asymmetrical plan with recessed entrance set within an arched opening, shinged and brick walls with a prominent chimney at the facade containing a decorative terra cotta panel, and the most unique stucco gables containing what appear to be terracotta balls in geometric forms. This house is a perfect example of what is so special about the Queen Anne style!

Wells-Bullard House // c.1868

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One of the finest Second Empire style houses in Brookline can be found on Prescott Street in the fashionable Cottage Farm neighborhood of the city. Built around 1868 by Amos A. Lawrence, who lived in a house nearby, this “cottage” was rented out to John Wells (1819-1875), a Judge on the Massachusetts State Supreme Court until his death. The property remained in the Lawrence family into the 20th century and was later rented to George E. Bullard, a banker. The brick house is notable for its siting at the center of the lot, corner quoins, brick corbelled cornice, arched door and windows, and slate mansard roof.

Almy-Palfrey House // c.1858

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The area was developed thanks to Amos A. Lawrence (1814-1886), a wealthy second-generation Bostonian, who provided much of the capital and enthusiasm for the growth of the cotton industry in New England prior to the Civil War. Lawrence’s involvement in the industry aided the development of the Massachusetts mill towns of Lowell and Lawrence, whom the city was named after. In 1851, Amos Lawrence purchased 200 acres of land from David Sears, who himself developed the equally beautiful Longwood neighborhood of Brookline on the other side of Beacon Street. Amos began to subdivide the land, working with the architect George Minot Dexter and landscape architect and surveyor, Alexander Wadsworth, who designed Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, to create an early picturesque residential suburb. With houses designed in the newly popular Gothic Revival and Mansard styles and several small parks, the area became known as Cottage Farm. This house was built for Amos Lawrence as an early, brick Mansard home, and rented out to Frederick Almy, a wealthy Boston attorney. The property was sold out of the Lawrence Family and later purchased by John Gorham Palfrey (1875-1945) a lawyer, who modified the house by removing the mansard roof and replacing it with a full third story with a brick veneer to match the walls below to give it a more Colonial Revival design.

Kramer-Duane House // 1895

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One of five houses built by developer Albert Jewell along Powell Street in the Cottage Farm neighborhood of Brookline, this residence stands out for its materiality and stately design. The house was designed by J. Williams Beal, an architect who trained at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then worked for McKim, Mead & White before opening his own business. The house was first purchased from Mr. Jewell by Grace and Edwin Kramer, who worked as superintendent for R. H. White & Co., the large dry goods store in Boston. The next long-term owner was Harry B. Duane, a wealthy grocer. The Kramer-Duane House is unique for the stone veneer at its facade, gambrel roof covered in slate, and varied window styles including: bay windows, dormer windows, and an eyebrow dormer window at the roof.

Dana-Jewell House // 1872

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This house at the corner of Freeman and Powell streets in the Cottage Farm area of Brookline, Massachusetts, was one of the first to be built on Sears family land in the years following the death of the family patriarch, David Sears. In 1871, Dennison Dean Dana (1827-1899) purchased land here from the Sears heirs and constructed this Italianate house with three-story square tower. Dana owned the house through the 1880s, and by 1893 it had been acquired by Albert L. Jewell, a real estate developer who added the large veranda and a two-story addition to the house, and would subdivide the property, developing fashionable houses along Powell Street to the south. The house (while clad in asbestos shingles since the 1960s) is an important early residence in the neighborhood which is today, dominated by late 19th and 20th century architecture.

George Washington Smith House // c.1886

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This house on Westminster Road in Canterbury, Connecticut, is architecturally distinguished by its extensive and imaginative detailing, which reflects the widespread availability of manufactured architectural ornament in the Victorian period. The porch columns, archways, bay window, and round-arched windows all reflect an Italianate influence and the work of its original owner, Mr. George Washington Smith (1857-1937). The house dates to about 1886 when George W. Smith, built it from his workshop formerly located across the street. Smith manufactured mast-hoops, the wooden fixtures for attaching sails to the masts of sailing ships, and utilized his woodworking skills to build and decorate the exterior of his family home.


George M. Thornton House // c.1870

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One of the finest homes in Central Falls, Rhode Island, is this eclectic Victorian residence on Clay Street. The home was seemingly built around 1870 and modified by the end of the 19th century by later owner, George Mumford Thornton (1850-1916). Mr. Thornton was an industrialist who was elected as one of the first aldermen when Central Falls incorporated in 1895. The well-preserved house features varied siding, a rounded corner tower with spiral-columned porch and conical roof, and original multi-light sash windows. What a spectacular home.

Benjamin F. Greene House // 1868

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Built for Benjamin Franklin Greene, a second-generation mill owner of the Greene and Daniels Thread Company in Central Falls, Rhode Island, this large, Second Empire style house is one of the finest of its style in the entire state. The house is one of only a few high-style residences left from the mid-nineteenth century in Central Falls, when industrialization’s full expansion provided manufacturers such as Greene with fortunes to be expended on their houses. Designed by Providence architect Clifton A. Hall, the ornamentation of the Greene House is extraordinary for its elaboration, relieving the severity of the simple, block-like shape of the house. The central door is set under a flat-roofed porch which is supported by trios of Corinthian columns. Above the porch a trio of round-head windows is set under a “sunbonnet” gabled dormer which caps the central pavilion, is supported by brackets, and encloses a round-head window with a small balcony. What a spectacular home!

David G. Fales House // c.1858

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The David G. Fales House of Central Falls, Rhode Island, is an excellent example of the Second Empire architecture style in a high-end residence. The home was built around 1858 and belonged to David Gilmore Fales (1806-1875), one of the partners of the nearby Fales and Jenks machine works. Mr. Fales either built or purchased the home which was then a flat-roofed Italianate style home, and hired architect Clifton A. Hall, to modernize the residence, adding trim and the mansard roof. Its broad eaves are supported by brackets with pendants; segmental-head dormers are set in the mansard and a square belvedere with round-head windows tops the roof. A major fire gutted much of the house in the 1960s, and its future was uncertain. It was preserved and is now a multi-family apartment building.

Edward Johnson House // c.1886

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Central Falls, Rhode Island, is not necessarily known for its residential architecture, but like any good industrial city, there are some excellent examples of Victorian houses from the mid-late 19th century to be discovered! This is the Edward L. Johnson House on Cross Street in Central Falls. The house was built around 1886 for Mr. Johnson, a manufacturer, who resided here for some years with his wife, who founded the Pawtucket Women’s Club in 1899 and was an active member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The house is an excellent example of the Queen Anne architecture style, from the various siding types including clapboard and patterned shingling; its steep cross-gable roof; and its variety of windows, including a shallow bay on the first floor and oval and half-round windows in the 2nd-floor porch. 

Parsons-Zielinski House // 1897

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Bounded by three streets and overlooking the town Common, this stately house in Salem, Massachusetts, showcases a blending of Queen Anne and Colonial revival styles. Built in 1897 from plans by Boston architect, Alfred Fernald, the house was constructed by and for its first owner, Joseph Parsons, a Civil War veteran and house builder. The Parsons family continued to live in the house until Joseph’s death in 1915, after which his widow, Minnie, sold the property and moved to Florida. Dr. Ignatius Zielinski purchased the property in the 1920s and divided the house into a physician’s office and several residential units. Tragically, Dr. Zielinski died while serving his country during WWII, and the family would retain the property until 1987. The house is unique for its materiality with the first floor consisting of ashlar, rough-faced stonework with a wood-shingled second story, stained glass windows and a wrap-around porch.

Odell House // 1887

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Built in 1887 for Charles Odell and his wife, Alice, this Queen Anne house on Winter Street in Salem, Massachusetts, stands out as a high-style example of Victorian architecture on the street notable for early-mid 19th century architecture. The house lot was purchased by the Jewett Family who lived in the brick house next door and long used the lot as a garden. Charles and Alice Odell married in 1888, so this Victorian home was built for the newlywed couple to raise their family. Charles A. Odell (1863-1931) worked at his father’s insurance and real estate business, later assuming ownership of business upon death of his father and was a district agent for New England Mutual Life Insurance Company. Sheathed in a combination of wood clapboards and shingles in a variety of patterns, the house has a steeply hipped, slate roof punctuated by cross gables and hipped dormers. The predominant window sash style consists of a distinctive sash in which the upper displays a triangle with central muntin over a conventional two-light lower sash. The property has been lovingly preserved for well over a century and is a landmark example of a Queen Anne style house in Salem.

Charles H. Farnam Mansion // 1884

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Charles Henry Farnam (1846-1909) was a lawyer, genealogist, and the son of Henry Farnam, a wealthy railroad industrialist in New Haven, Connecticut. Following his father’s death in 1883, Charles, who may have inherited a small fortune in the will, purchased a house lot on the finest residential street in New Haven, Hillhouse Avenue. The existing house on the lot, the Benjamin Silliman House, was relocated to front Trumbull Street (and recently relocated again to 85 Trumbull Street), clearing the site for his new mansion. He hired esteemed architect J. Cleaveland Cady, who designed a large, Queen Anne/Romanesque masonry home unlike anything else on the Avenue. The house features an asymmetrical plan, corner tower, a Flemish style gable, fancy brickwork and terracotta detailing, and a slate mansard roof. Charles H. Farnam would sell the property to Henry S. Parmelee, a noted businessman and piano manufacturer, who also is credited with inventing the first automated sprinkler head and as a result, owning the first building in the United States to be equipped with a fire suppression system, his piano factory. Parmelee hired local architect Leoni Robinson, to design a rear addition for the house. Parmelee died in 1902, and the property was maintained by his widow and daughter, until it was acquired by Yale University in 1920. Today, the Farnam Mansion is occupied by the Economics Department.

Roughwood // 1891

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Roughwood is a historic estate house on Heath Street in Brookline, Massachusetts. The main residence and the various outbuildings on the grounds were designed by the Boston architectural firm of Andrews, Jaques and Rantoul, and built in 1891 as the summer estate of William Cox, a wholesale dealer in the footwear industry. Mr. Cox died in 1902 and the property was sold to Ernest Dane, the year before he married Helen Pratt, the daughter of Charles Pratt, a wealthy New York businessman and philanthropist. Mr. Dane was a banker who served as President of the Brookline Trust Company. The Dane’s owned the property for decades until the property was eventually purchased by Pine Manor Junior College in 1961. The estate house remained a centerpiece of the campus. In the early 21st century, Pine Manor College saw financial distress, and was saved by Boston College, who acquired the campus and its existing students as Messina College, which opened in July 2024 for over 100 first-generation college students. Architecturally, Roughwood is a high-style example of the Queen Anne/Shingle style of architecture. The mansion is built with a puddingstone and brownstone first floor and a second floor of varied patterns of wood shingles, all capped by a slate roof. The facade is dominated by towers and dormers and the great rustic entrance portico with dragon’s head brackets. To its side, a 1909 Tudor Revival addition served as a music room for the Dane’s family and while stylistically unique, is designed with impeccable proportions.

Governor Robinson House – Assumption Church Rectory // c.1870

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Located next to the Assumption Roman Catholic Church of Chicopee, this handsome Second Empire style residence is significant not only architecturally, but as the residence of a Massachusetts Governor. This house was built around 1870 for a Frank D. Hale, who resided here until 1878, when the property was purchased by George Dexter Robinson (1834-1896), who moved to Chicopee and eventually got engaged in politics, in 1873 winning election to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and was elected to the Massachusetts Senate in 1875. In 1876, Robinson was elected to the United States House of Representatives, where he served most of four terms, buying this home about half-way through his time as a Representative in Washington. While serving in Congress, Robinson was nominated to run for Governor of Massachusetts in 1883, he won and served three, one-year terms. After his time as Governor, he went back to his law practice, and in 1892, Robinson took on his most famous client, Lizzie Borden. During the infamous trial, Robinson was also able to cast significant doubt on the reliability of several witnesses to the events surrounding the murders. Lizzie Borden was ultimately acquitted of the criminal charges, and Robinson was a highly visible presence in the media circus that attended the trial. In the 20th century, this handsome property was acquired by the Assumption R.C. Church of Chicopee, who used the house as a rectory for its new church next door. It remains a well-preserved example of the Second Empire architectural style with slate mansard roof crowned by iron cresting.