Living Archives: Architectural Review of Buildings in Brookline (and Boston)
Following is a 'growing' document I plan to add to here and there with stories about select Massachusetts buildings as I write them. Please check back often for new additions.
Alden Park Manor/Longwood Towers
Originally dubbed the Alden Park Manor, the Longwood Towers are made up of three towering brick apartment buildings just outside of Boston’s Longwood hospital area. A similar project was also built in Philadelphia and Detroit in the 1920s by Kenneth M. DeVos Co. Builders.
The Brookline Historical Commission has defined the towers as Gothic Revival. But this might come as a surprise, as the buildings, also designed by Boston-born Harold Field Kellogg, are certainly not in-your-face-Gothic. In addition, they miss the heyday of the revival scene in the U.S. by several decades. But they do feature those castle-like battlement decorations at the top (along with the green copper ogee domes), and some ornaments are also clearly Gothic-influenced such as a gargoyle (or, grotesque, for the pedantic types), seen below.
Others, such as the Society of Architectural Historians, have called the buildings Tudor-style, which seems more fitting, especially given the construction date of around 1923-24. But it’s common in early 1900s U.S. architecture to see buildings that fail to strictly adhere to any particular revival style, so I’m not going to get too worked up over defining this one, but will say, they’ve got a kinda creepy feel.)
(This post was updated and edited with additional information and photos.)
Alvin T. Morrill Houses
The first time I did a double-take of a building in Brookline, it had to be at 1575-1577 Beacon St.
Those narrow cylindrical towers with the pointed cone tops, oriels and the steep roof lines all stand out among other stuffy architecture in the area. The Brookline Historical Commission called it Chateau-style, but I see a bit more Gothic Revival.
Half of the attached townhouses are handsome red brick, and, the other half, unfortunately, was at some point covered in white paint. (Why?)
Built in 1893, the place has awesome brickwork and stone decorations. Something tells me, however, the bill for replacing the glass in the curved and arched windows is one any owner would wish to avoid. Alvin T . Morrill, who’s the first owner, is listed as the architect. But the Historical Commission speculated that Morrill was likely not the actual architect, but fudged the paperwork. He was, after all, in the business of jewelry.
Whoever created the townhouses, it’s safe to say, designed a real gem.
The Memory of Irving’s
In an area so rich with history as Greater Boston, many buildings are so old that they eventually take on a life of their own. But a small number of them seem to die when the people who occupied them leave this earth.
The diminutive structure at 371 Harvard St. in Brookline is one such place.
For decades, this location was alive and colorful, welcoming children with its vivid red awnings and walls. Right there to greet visitors was Ethel Weiss, who proudly wore a pin that read, “I love my customers.”
Weiss was a fixture at the store for many decades. The one-story building was constructed in 1924 and was designed by Samuel Dudley Kelley in a supposed “Classical Revival” style, according to a document by the Brookline Preservation Commission. Businessman Mark Vartabedian had the place added to his building at 373 Harvard St.
The shop was at first a confectionery store, but was most well known as “Irving’s Toy and Card Shop.”
Weiss died in 2015 at the age of 101, and I was lucky enough — by chance, curiosity and overwhelming admiration — to take some photos of her a year or two earlier. I’m pretty sure she was 99 at the time.
Now the place, essentially a box with a door that peeks out between two larger buildings, looks sterile and empty, like a tomb of what was once there.
Rebecca Pierce House
Not long after I toured this stunning home in Brookline, an application was put in to make renovations to the historic dwelling.
It appears that some of the work included changes to roof line, in the back of the home. So, I hope these photos, which I took about a year before the work, are if not representative of the place, at least a record.
(click on the images to see in detail):
Designed by architect Frank Manton Wakefield in the late 1890s, the Rebecca Pierce House is like so many others in the area — in a style that’s hard to box in. The place is covered in shingles and has many classical and Colonial Revival elements but also craftsmanship that you’d never see today (real craftsmanship).
The Coolidge
For how grand the building is at 9 Sewall Ave., it seems to get very little attention.
I, for one, didn’t even fully appreciate its massive pilasters and pediment portico until many years after going by the place. (I was too busy thinking about what I needed to buy at the nearby Trader Joe’s, I guess.) The Brookline Historical Commission, which often gushes over old buildings in great detail, seems to reach as far as it can for something good to say about the building, when it notes it is “substantial-looking.” (Yeah, so is Boston City Hall.)
But the place is pretty impressive. Built in 1903, The Coolidge has a grand entrance that seems to say “this place is where important people go,” decked out in columns and that triangular pediment that is slightly reminiscent of the northern facade of the White House. At the corner, the building is gently rounded and covered in Neo-Classical decorations.
The architect of the place was Theodore Edward Sheehan, who was born in 1866 in Boston, and was also credited with designing Boston’s St. Gabriel’s Monastery, St. Williams Church (which burned down decades ago), and buildings at St. Regis College and St. Joseph's Seminary Church in New York.
Howdy, Georgian!
If you look at these Georgian-style Colonial Revival rowhouses in Brookline under late afternoon sunlight, the blackish bricks actually sparkle. It’s quite a stunning sight.
The buildings here, at 1572-1574 Beacon St., which are part of a larger group of attached rowhouses, are a gorgeous example of old rowhouses in Brookline. (I know, the South End’s Victorians and Beacon Hill’s Federal and Greek Revivals, seem to get all the credit).
Of course, these aren’t as old as many in Beacon Hill, but, built in 1895, they are legit. Notice the details of architect Alfred L. Darrow: The bricks in a Flemish bond, the dentils, quoins, curved bays and columns.
Box of Modern Amid History
(The following was rewritten from a post I wrote in 2018, but never formally published.)
The modern condos at 70 White Place in Brookline prove that it’s what’s on the inside that counts the most.
When architect Charles H. Osborne built the place, he included handsome wood screens – floor-to-ceiling planks of oiled red Balau – to dress up the stairs at every level of the home. An architectural tribute to the famed mid-century Finnish designer Alvar Aalto, the nearly wall-sized screens let light, air and sound pass through, adding nature and texture to the open-design home.
“The intent of the wood screen was to make the living spaces primary with the warmth of the wood and the stair and indirect light glowing through as a backdrop,” Osborne told me over email for a newspaper interview at the time the condos were built. “The consistency and simplicity of the wood screen throughout the four floors highlights the vertical connection to the living spaces… Having the screen on all floors maintains the simple language of clean, crisp and modern design.”
This feeling of warmth is carried on through the floors, kitchen details, balconies and decks that are mostly reddish brown exotic species and oak.
“The open floor plan, floor-to-ceiling height windows, porches and large balconies emphasize the idea that man and nature are inseparable,” said the architect. “The clean, crisp, modern aesthetic … accentuates the natural light that beams through the large windows or the views to the garden and neighborhood’s open space beyond. They speak to one another.”
Outside, the buildings stand out in the historic area known for its Italianate, Gothic Revival and Civil War-era homes: Osborne’s designs are box-shaped, with a flat, ash-white facade of horizontally lined recycled boards that are dramatically contrasted by tall, vertical windows and copper downspouts.
Protruding balconies and recessed decks add dimension to the building’s rear, and so do corners that step out from the front.
“The challenge was to meet the social, cultural and spatial requirements of today’s and tomorrow’s lifestyle,” said Osborne, who built the house with his wife, a landscape architect.
Vila’s Old House
As I go through my old notebook of buildings around town, I dug up these photos I took around 2017 of a house that T.V. handyman Bob Vila once called home. Built around the 1870s, this Medieval-style mansion on Rockwood St. in a wooded section of Boston’s Jamaica Plain has awesome woodwork, like the newel above and the staircase and columns, and the slate roof and uncut stone walls show off a rare historic look for the area. I think the photos speak for themselves.
Victorians in Brookline
(This post has been updated) The huge blue house, above, was built by architect Eugene Clark in the late 1800s atop Corey Hill. This Queen Anne is one of several massive homes of a similar Victorian style in this area of Brookline.
But some other homes, such as the one below, were in the Second Empire style (update: this one has reportedly been demolished but I haven’t verified yet). Built in 1884, this one on Clyde Street has the style’s iconic mansard roof – a tribute to the French fashion of the day. Its first owner was Levi W. Hastings, but the architect is unknown.
Louis Finn Building
While I was trying to photograph the Louis Finn Building on Beacon Street, a woman walked out of it, paused, and asked if I needed anything.
When I told her I was interested in the building’s facade, she stood silent for a moment, her expression exposing suspicion of my claim — as in “how could anyone seriously be interested in this old thing!”
But it’s true. For how much this century-old building in Washington Square is in need of repair, the Louis Finn Building has somehow always stood out to me — even more so than its prominent neighbors, the Colchester and the Stoneholm.
And I think the reason is clear: Those staircases and balustrades in front have got some real curves.
The three-and-a-half story attached rowhouse building was constructed in about 1915 in a sort-of old Italian style. If you look past the deep cracks and chips, you will see a quite handsome, yet creepy, facade, at least on the lower half. The upper portion is somewhat bland.
The Brookline Historical Commission calls the building Second Renaissance Revival, but I’m going to go out on a short limb and guess it actually meant Italian Renaissance Revival, kind of like the Colchester next door. (It’s definitely not Second Empire, which is completely different.) The funky arch-topped doorways flanked by columns appear in line with that style, which was common in the late 1880s to around 1935, according to the book “A Field Guide to American Houses.” Breaking up the flatness of the exterior are the shallow polygonal window bays and the modillion-decorated roof cornices.
The mind behind the design of the building is Silverman Engineering Co., who built a bunch of buildings around Boston in the early 1900s, including on Chiswick Road, Bancroft Street, Chestnut Hill Avenue, Columbus Avenue and more. The firm was apparently founded by Boston-residents and Harvard grads, Nathaniel Lawrence Silverman and Peyser Edward Silverman, who both lived prolific but short lives.
(Now, I wonder if that lady will believe my story. … )
Beaconsfield Terraces
It’s hard to know what’s myth and what’s real about the supposed “rags to riches” wool importer Eugene Knapp. But what’s pretty certain is the guy was one damn good real estate speculator – at least when he decided to bankroll what would become known as the Beaconsfield Terraces in Brookline.
Knapp began construction on the elaborate and ornate, almost castle-like townhouse complexes in 1889 – timed perfectly to coincide with the launch of Boston’s first electric street car route that would run back and forth from the Coolidge Corner area to Park Square. Built on land Knapp snapped up around Beacon Street, Tappan Street and Garrison Road in the 1880s, the complexes were largely a success, thanks to the newly built transit line to downtown, the recently widened Beacon Street roadway, advances in indoor heating technology and the growing number of people with big loads of cash who could afford the luxury living outside the city. The homes -- which include Richter Terrace off Beacon, Gordon Terrace on Garrison Road and Marguerite Terrace on Tappan Street -- were pretty ritzy at the time, too, with a casino, horse stables, huge park and tennis courts.
I’m kind of wary of real estate speculators in general, so I don’t want to spend a lot of time on Knapp. You can read about him all over the web if you Google his name. (Boston.com wrote a lengthy story on him already.) I’m more interested in the architects who drew up the striking homes.
Carl Fehmer and Samuel Page designed the brick and fieldstone Chateauesque complexes, which stand out for their turrets, cone-topped and hexagonal towers, dormers, arched doorways, and brick-dentil cornices. (Part of the project, I should say, veered from this style, namely the Fillmore Terrace and some buildings on Garrison Road, and included Flemish and Georgian Revival styles.)
A native of Germany, Fehmer drew up several buildings around town, including, and most famously, the Oliver Ames Mansion in the Back Bay. He also designed the Worthington Building on State Street. His business partner at the time, Page, was born in Brookline, according to Backbayhouses.org. Fehmer & Page also built several homes in the Back Bay and the old Bell Telephone building, according to the site. Fehmer left the firm about a decade later, and Page went on to practice architecture until he died in 1918.
Both men lived through the Civil War and World War I, and they were also able to enjoy the many inventions by a guy who would revolutionize modern technology: Thomas Edison (and you thought your Amazon door camera thing was so ingenious.)
An article in “The New England Magazine” from the late 1880s, in fact, notes how each unit’s heat could be adjusted by communicating via an “electric wire” to the boiler room. Pretty advanced stuff for the 1890s, I’m sure.
Among the first residents of the homes were people you might have heard of: William Lloyd Garrison, the son of the abolitionist and journalist by the same name, and William Shreve, of Shreve, Crump and Low fame, according to documents created by the Brookline Historical Commission.
The Stoneholm
For anyone who’s ever wanted to know the story behind the granite apartment tower at 1514 Beacon St. in Brookline that slightly resembles a giant stone frog, here’s the answer: It’s the Stoneholm, a French Renaissance housing complex built in 1907 in the Beaux-Arts style.
Decorated with its green-tiled mansard roof and over-the-top garlands, the building is as ornate as it is imposing, with its narrow courtyard set off by massive steps that seem to say to outsiders: You’re not welcome here. The landmark was designed by architect Arthur Hunnewell Bowditch, who earlier created the another European Revival-style building, the Colchester Apartment house down the street – the place with the big, fancy stone doorway – and would later design the Boston Paramount Theatre.
The building building, which originally housed 19 apartments but later expanded, was made possible by its first owner, a big-shot businessman, John P. Webber. The Mainer amassed his wealth by controlling hundreds of thousands of acres of spruce land in Maine and white pine lands in Wisconsin and Minnesota, according to a 1980 state report by C. Benka and L. Larkin of the Brookline Historical Commission. Since it first opened, the Stoneholm was home to – surprise! -- a bunch of rich people of the time – business owners, judges and engineers, according to Benka and Larkin. Don’t ask me how much the thing weighs.
The Colchester
If you walk by “The Colchester” on Beacon Street, you might not even take notice. At quick glance, it can appear like just any other old red-brick building.
But if you stop and look, details – such as fancy brick and stone work – pop out everywhere. And then you can’t stop studying the Colchester’s decorations. Built nearly 120 years ago, the building at 1470 Beacon St. is a creation of architect Arthur H. Bowditch, who would later outdo himself and build that giant granite frog of a building, “The Stoneholm,” further down Beacon.
The Colchester was constructed in the Renaissance Revival style, and stands out with its massive arched doorway decorated with blocky, rusticated stonework. Inside, intricate patterns decorate the walls and ceiling of the entrance.
Even its brickwork separates the building from some other nearby boring ones, with its two-color patterns, punctuated by belt courses, fancy friezes, and quoins echoed by brick patterns on the front corners. The massive cornice at the top is marvelous under proper lighting , but also looks like it could one day have the potential for a massive lawsuit if it ever fell off.
This is a lot of architectural jargon, but it’s all to say the place has a pretty cool facade.
Apparently the building, which at first housed 14 units but later expanded, was a present for the mother-in-law of Bowditch, Caroline B. Foster, according to a document by C. Benka and L. Larkin of the Brookline Historical Commission. (Lucky mom!) Foster, by the way, had earlier hooked up with the honcho of the Boston Sugar Refining Company, Charles Orin Foster, who must have been loaded with sugar and cash. (Hope he had a good dentist.)
Now, the building is a landmark and likely a rather rare example of a remaining Renaissance Revival building in the U.S. Also, one of the first residents was John P. Webber, who built the Stoneholm, according to Benka and Larkin.
1401 Beacon
The brick apartment tower at 1397 to 1401 Beacon St. kind of stands out for what it’s not. It’s not overly ornate, it has no fancy curved bay windows or grand turrets. And it can’t really compete with the gargoyle-topped Chateauesque-style brick and sandstone landmark across the street (more on that later).
But it’s still a handsome building, both for its courtyard and understated decorations such as the doorway portico and two white fake balconies at the tops of the towers along Beacon Street.
Designed by prolific architect Samuel Saul Eisenberg nearly a century ago, the building appears to be vaguely either Georgian Revival or Federal Revival (but any readers who are architects can feel free to jump in here and argue about that; I'm pretty sure it's some kind of revival). Its main doorway, set off by the deep courtyard, is flanked by paired columns. Right above the door is a decorative impression of a semi-circle fanlight carved into stone, and this is repeated over nearby windows.
The architect, Eisenberg, moved to the U.S. from his home country of Poland in 1901 and graduated from MIT a decade-and-a-half later, according to Backbayhouses.org, which credits him with a number of other buildings, including the Massachusetts Civil Defense Center in Framingham and Chelsea High School. The 1401 Beacon St. building appears strikingly and strangely similar to 401 Beacon St. in Boston, which Eisenberg was also involved in. (Is there numerical significance, here? I think so.)
Information on 1401 Beacon is sparse, but it is part of Brookline’s Beacon Street Historic District, as is most of Beacon Street.
Not a lot to joke about this serious building, and that’s especially true today, as the cost to live there is pretty serious.
The Wason Building
It’s easy to imagine that back in the 1890s, when architects George Shepley, Charles Rutan and Charles Coolidge walked down Beacon Street, they could be certain that only one thing was more prominent than their massive mustaches: The Chateau-style complex they created along a stretch of Beacon Street near Coolidge Corner.
The nine attached homes at 1394-1408 Beacon St. have it all: towers topped with circular and hexagonal cones and pinnacles, pointed dormers, rectangular and circular windows, roofs of various pitches, fancy stone and brick work, and enough triangles and curves to give me nightmares about past geometry exams. There’s even a gargoyle-like lion character keeping watch from above and holding a shield (I can hear him now, calling for maintenance to repair the tiles).
But the magnificent French- and Gothic-revival architectural feat holds a tragedy: At some point someone thought it would be an excellent idea to renovate the first and second floors with boxy storefronts and blast them in white paint. Look above those street-level alterations and you’ll witness the historic vision of the firm Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, who have direct links to design great Henry Hobson Richardson (who had so much street cred in his time, he just went by “H. H.”).
Dubbed the Mary J. Wason Building, after the first owner, the complex is one of only a couple structures remaining in town by the famed architectural firm, according to the Brookline Historical Commission. The other is the Leyden Church, now called the Chinese Christian Church of New England, further up Beacon.
A Random House in Brookline
Check out these pink shutters, what else can I say?