Massachusetts Archives - Page 2 of 3

Architectural Monographs: Country Meeting Houses of Massachusetts & New Hampshire

Posted on December 6, 2013October 21, 2021 by S.A. Rogers

Along the border of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, in the towns of Ashby, Templeton, Fitzwillian and Westmoreland, some of the 19th century’s most beautiful wooden country meeting houses can be found. They’re beautiful examples of what can be created with wood, especially in terms of exterior detail and ornament. This issue of the historic White Pine Monographs, written in 1925, includes photos of standout structures as they could be seen in the early 20th century. The author notes that at that time, only the Templeton meeting house still stood without significant alteration.

“Built at the beginning of the last century, these simple structures are remarkable for the richness and originality of their exterior detail and ornament. They show the wooden country meeting house of a hundred or more years ago at its best. In many ways they are very similar. They are all set on high ground, fronting on village greens, with their backs to open meadow or woodland and, in two cases, a country graveyard. They can be seen from afar off and dominate, by bulk and height, each composition of town and landscape.”

Of Westmoreland, the author writes, “Here we encounter the Tuscan Doric in all its New Hampshire glory. The white woodwork, the dark green blinds, the slate roof and the red cupola make a pleasant picture at the upper end of the sloping column. We sought information from pleasant people living at the foot of the green who, giving us the key, told us to be sure to climb the tower. This we did and beheld the silvery beauty of the Connecticut Valley.”

Read more at the White Pine Monograph Library.

Architectural Monographs: Country Meeting Houses of Massachusetts & New Hampshire

Posted on December 6, 2013October 21, 2021 by Jeff Easterling

Read more at the White Pine Monograph Library.

A White Pine Monograph Hoax: The Massachusetts Town That Doesn’t Exist

Posted on November 15, 2013October 21, 2021 by Jeff Easterling

What’s the deal with Stotham, Massachusetts? Look up this little town online and you’ll find that it doesn’t actually exist. Yet architect Hubert G. Ripley waxes rhapsodic about the ‘unspoiled New England village’ in Volume VI, Issue II of the White Pine Series of Architectural Monographs, written in 1920. When it was printed, nobody questioned Ripley’s account. It wasn’t until the 1940s that catalogers at the Library of Congress discovered the apparent hoax.

Ripley writes of a small town which, by the early 20th century, was virtually preserved as it had been during its glory days, without the blight of cheap contemporary buildings. He goes into great detail about the lineage of the family that founded the town, explaining which of the descendants built each home featured in the photographs. “Generations of blushing maidens have swung on the old Billings gate, opening on the path leading to the meadows, in the pale light of the harvest moon, lending shy ear to the rustic swains of the village, as in whispered and halting phrases they spoke of their hopes and aspirations; and as a result of these meetings, old traditions were kept alive.”

Passages like this reveal that perhaps Ripley wished he were a novelist rather than an architect, for everything he writes about in this issue is fictional. There’s even a ghost story. So what was Ripley’s motivation for doing such a thing, especially when the White Pine Monographs were known for being so carefully researched and accurate?

The truth, as editor Russell Whitehead revealed in the 1960s, was that there were a great deal of photographs that didn’t make it into earlier publications for various reasons. He and Ripley looked through them and found them too good to be wasted, so they hatched a plan to write a little story. You can read the whole thing at the White Pine Monograph Library.

Architectural Monographs: Unusual Wooden Architecture of the Berkshires

Posted on September 20, 2013October 21, 2021 by Jeff Easterling

Lying along the stagecoach route of Massachusetts, the towns of the Berkshire mountain range found themselves open to a wide variety of visitors, and thus, stylistic influences. That variety, and the willingness of local craftsmen to experiment, can still be seen today in the wooden details of the architecture in towns like Stockbridge and Williamstown. Volume X, Issue V of the historic White Pine Architectural Monographs captures many of these details as they were in 1924.

In a single entranceway, taking a careful look at the door, porch and cornices, you might notice Baroque interpretations of Classic styles as well as Roman No-Classicism right alongside the spare and practical Colonial aesthetics developed more out of necessity than visual flair. “The complete record lies open to be read in the Berkshire towns,” writes the author.

“The Berkshire towns were so unlike so many other New England towns that displayed with singular nicety some one type of architectural development and became classics for the particular style that dominated their streets.” Periods of prosperity led to architects nailing on extra ornamentation over the original structures, often in disparate styles, leading to buildings of a Frankenstein’s monster sort.

“The Berkshire towns, it is true, suffered their share of calamities and accidents during the era of [architectural] unenlightenment, but they have managed to preserve intact a great deal that is well worth while – enough to retain their character and afford instances of architectural excellence and elegance that ought not to be overlooked in any survey of wooden architecture.”

Architectural Monographs: Early Wooden Architecture of Massachusetts

Posted on August 30, 2013October 21, 2021 by Jeff Easterling

Since they were founded in 1646, the towns of Andover and North Andover in Essex County, Massachusetts have served as an example of typical New England tradition and civilization, and that includes their architecture. These towns may have changed, like the rest of America, since this issue of the White Pine Architectural Monographs was written in 1917, but many of the homes featured here as illustrations of early wooden architecture still stand.

Of particular note is Andover Hill, where a group of about fifty houses sprung up after the establishment of the Phillips Academy in 1778. The author of this monograph, Addison B. LeBoutillier, notes that the occupants of these houses “left names well known in history, literature and theology.” Among notable early Andover residents are New England’s first published poet, Anne Bradstreet, and her husband, Massachusetts Governor Simon Bradstreet. When this monograph was written, the house labeled ‘Governor Bradstreet House’ was believed to have truly been that of the Bradstreets, built in 1667, but historians have since realized that it was misidentified. It’s now known as the Parson Barnard House, believed to have been built in 1715.

Other interesting wooden buildings in Andover and what is now West Andover include a number of gambrel houses, and spacious three-story houses “of a courtly period when the aristocratic ideas of old-country traditions still held in the style of living and social customs of the Colonies.”

Learn more about the history of America’s earliest architecture in Volume III, Issue II of the historic White Pine Architectural Monographs.

Architectural Monographs: Historic Architecture of Marblehead, Massachusetts

Posted on June 21, 2013October 21, 2021 by Jeff Easterling

The little town of Marblehead, Massachusetts lies on the coast just north of Boston, replete with humble yet beautiful early American architecture. This picturesque settlement was built upon the rocky coastline, resulting in meandering streets and tiered houses with charming, oddly-shaped yards. Volume IV, Issue I of the White Pine Architectural Monographs details some of the most notable historic buildings in this four-mile-long peninsular town.

Wooden clapboard houses with gable or gambrel roofs and brick chimneys are the most common type that can be seen throughout the town, but many different early architectural typologies are present. Several houses date to before the year 1700, though many have been altered in the centuries since.

This historic record notes the Lee Mansion as “one of the finest mansions in New England of its period,” and celebrates the “exceedingly graceful spire” of Abbot Hall. However, “in a word, austerity is the distinguishing characteristic of building in Marblehead.”

Read more at the White Pine Monograph Library.