Victorian

Dr. Tappan Eustis Francis House // 1879

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Located on Davis Avenue, a narrow residential street in Brookline Village, the Dr. Tappan Eustis Francis House is an unusual work by an architect that differs from the style they became best-known and sought after. Dr. Tappan Eustis Francis (1823-1909) graduated from Harvard College in 1844 and Harvard Medical School in 1847 and moved to Brookline where he practiced medicine for over 50 years. For his Brookline residence, Dr. Francis hired William Ralph Emerson, who has become best-known for his Shingle style designs and summer cottages that lined the New England coastline and in Boston suburbs, to furnish plans for his suburban residence. For Dr. Francis’ home, Emerson envisioned a brick house in the English Queen Anne style. The tall chimneys with panel brick designs, corbeled brick brackets and terra-cotta decorations in the gable peaks, and the massive slate-roofed entry porch are all stunning features on the house; but the most intriguing has to be the bracketed hood on the corner of the house which originally sheltered a wooden bench, as depicted in an 1879 drawing.

Damon-Griffin House // 1869

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The Damon-Griffin House at 92 Commonwealth Road in Wayland, Massachusetts, is one of the exemplary buildings constructed in the Cochituate village in town, which prospered in the 19th century and centered around industry. This stately Second Empire style mansion is sited on a rise in the land overlooking Lake Cochituate and was completed in 1869 for George A. Damon (1826-1885), a wealthy businessman. George Damon died in 1885, and the house was sold to Wallace Griffin, one of the Griffin brothers who worked for the Bent Company, a prominent local shoe manufacturer. In 1890, Noble Griffin bought the house from his brother and, as his business prospered, proceeded to fix up the house as the showplace of a successful shoe manufacturer. In the mid-20th century, the Damon-Griffin House became a funeral home, and later was purchased by a developer who subdivided the land to build a suburban-style development of detached homes behind the house, and constructed an addition to the rear with more condominium units.

James H. Small House // c.1898

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After the completion of the Wayland Railroad Depot in 1881, suburban development in Wayland Center increased, where the village saw dozens of large homes built in the late 19th and early 20th century. On Bow Road, the James H. Small House was built around 1898 by and for its namesake, who worked as a carpenter and builder in town. James Henry Small (1847-1913), while not a trained architect, built this home as a late example of the Queen Anne style, as the Colonial Revival style began to proliferate in the village, showing a changing of architectural taste. The James Small House consists of a main gable-front block with a side wing that includes a square tower. The use of clapboards, differing shingles, and diagonal sticks provide variety and texture to the house and serves as a unique contribution to the village which is largely dominated by rigid symmetry and vernacular of Colonial-era homes.

Dr. Albert Phillips House // c.1875

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Dr. Albert W. Phillips (1838-1929) was born in Marcellus, New York, the son of immigrant parents from England. He studied medicine in the Midwest and later opened a medical practice in Rockport, Illinois, but in response to President Lincoln’s first call for volunteers, he returned to New York and enlisted as a private in the Union cause. He served as assistant surgeon with the 149th N. Y. Volunteers, where he saw action in many battles, including at Gettysburg. After the war, Dr. Phillips moved to the rapidly developing industrial city of Derby, Connecticut, where he opened a family practice. By the 1870s, he built this Stick style residence on Caroline Street. While working as a doctor of great esteem, Dr. Phillips was elected as the fifth mayor of Derby in 1901 and in 1903, was elected as a state senator.His home on Caroline Street in Derby maintains its unique entry porch and trusswork in the gables.

Whiting Library // 1891

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The Whiting Library in Chester, Vermont, was designed by architect George H. Guernsey, and is said to be the only building in the village designed by a regionally significant architect. For the design, Guernsey created an eclectic library blending Romanesque and Queen Anne influences that strikingly enhance the library’s relatively modest physical stature. The building was named to honor Chester physician, Laurin G. Whiting and his wife, Abigail, who donated funds for the land and building. The polychromatic brick and granite building features unique gables, corner tower, and arched openings, which were carried over to a lesser scale into an addition a few decades ago.

William Pollard House // 1899

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This high-style and ornamental house in Chester, Vermont, ranks among the state’s best examples of the Queen Anne style. The residence was constructed in 1899 for William Pollard (1854-1941), a local businessman who owned a shirtwaist manufactory in town with his brother, who lived next door. The painted-lady Victorian house features an asymmetrical plan highlighted by a three-story octagonal corner tower that is surrounded by a wrap-around porch with a delicate spindled frieze. The use of accent colors in the paint scheme further highlight the millwork details on the residence, which have all been preserved for well over a century. 

Charles Storrow House // 1884

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Facade

This shingle and brick Queen Anne style house at 112 High Street in Brookline, Massachusetts, was built in 1884 for Charles Storrow and his wife, Martha Cabot Storrow from plans by architect, Edward C. Cabot, Martha’s father. The lot here is said to have been gifted to Charles from his father, Charles Storer Storrow, a prominent civil engineer and industrialist, who is known for designing and building the dam and textile mill complex in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Besides the Victorian main house, the property included a historic stable and a detached house on an adjacent lot, which appears to have been rented by Mr. and Mrs. Storrow. The property was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted’s firm, with rustic rock walls, natural topography, and large, mature plantings. The Storrow House originally had stained glass windows designed by John LaFarge, which were sold in the 1970s. 

Side elevation.

Charles Torrey House // 1889

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The Charles Torrey House at 36 Edgehill Road in Brookline, Massachusetts, is a great example of a Queen Anne style residence in the Boston suburbs. The stately home was constructed in 1889 for Charles Torrey, an artist who specialized in nautical scenes. The house is unique for its brick first floor, shingled second and stucco with half-timbering in the gable, a feature that suggests the renewed interest in English medieval motifs. The architect for the Queen Anne style home could not be located, but it appears to be from a more prominent Boston-area firm of the late-19th century. The house is currently (2025) undergoing a renovation.

Samuel Cabot Jr. House // c.1886

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This altered Queen Anne/Shingle style residence on Edgehill Road in Brookline, Massachusetts, was built around 1886 as a suburban retreat for Samuel Cabot Jr. (1850-1906) and his wife, Helen (Nichols) Cabot. Samuel Cabot, a member of the affluent and well-connected Cabot family of Boston, was a chemist who worked alongside his uncle, Godfrey Lowell Cabot, to produce household disinfectant, sheep dip, wood preservatives, and shingle stain using coal tar that was a by-product of the gas works in Boston. Their companies would split, with Samuel’s part of the company continuing as Samuel Cabot Incorporated, and Godfrey’s became Cabot Corporation. To showcase his company’s amazing wood stains, Samuel Cabot had this house built in Brookline, from plans by his uncle, Edward Clarke Cabot, of the firm Cabot & Chandler. In the 20th century, the house was somewhat streamlined with some dormers removed and the main entry relocated to the present location.

Low-Rock House // 1888

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This handsome shingled Queen Anne style home on Allerton Street in Brookline, Massachusetts, is part of the reason why the “Pill Hill” neighborhood gets its name. The residence was built in 1888 for Mr. Sumner Flagg, likely as an investment property as the neighborhood developed into one of the finest in the Boston area. An early resident here was Judith Motley Low (1841-1933), founder of the Lowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture, which was the first school intended solely to prepare women as landscape professionals in a field dominated by men. In 1945, the Lowthorpe School merged into the Rhode Island School of Design and became the basis of RISD’s Landscape Architecture Department. Another prominent resident of the house in the 20th century was Dr. John Rock (1890-1984), a physician and scientist who worked nearby at the Massachusetts Hospital for Women. As a Catholic doctor, John Rock is best-known for two groundbreaking medical discoveries in women’s health: the birth control pill and in-vitro fertilization. Dr. John Rock and his lab technician, Miriam Menkin, were the first researchers to fertilize a human egg outside of a human body in February of 1944, this research was compounded and later led to in-vitro fertilization as we know it today. Additionally, while running his clinic, Dr. Rock encountered a number of women bearing unwanted children that they could neither afford financially nor handle physically. Rock observed numerous women who, after giving birth to multiple children, had prolapsed uteri, malfunctioning kidneys, and were prematurely aging. In 1952, Rock was recruited to investigate the clinical use of progesterone to prevent ovulation. Enovid, the brand name of the first pill, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and put on the market in 1957 as a menstrual regulator. In 1960, Enovid gained approval from the FDA for contraceptive use.