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Archive for the 'Everything Else' Category
Decorative Window Trim on Cambridge Houses
Bracketed window trim on a mansard on Avon Hill in Cambridge
Decorative Window Trim
Window crowns – curved trim, bracketed or pedimented window tops - became popular on houses during the Italianate period. Second Empire mansards often had trimmed window tops like the one at right and window-top ornamentation can be found on Queen Anne Victorians as well.
Here are some of my favorites spotted on houses in Cambridge. For the life of me I can’t get larger versions of the photos to show in the slideshow. If you click on it you’ll get the larger views.
It’s often a certain special feature that makes us fall for a house. Here are some more house parts we love:
And for more favorites, click on the House Parts tag link below.
Dutch Colonial House Style
Dutch Colonial Revival House in Arlington MA
When you skim through the American architectural guides looking for info on the Dutch Colonial style you’ll see pages about the houses built by Dutch settlers in the earliest years of our country. From 1625 to the 1830s Dutch immigrants built houses in the mid-Atlantic states with steeply pitched gambrel or gable roof lines.
In Massachusetts, what we think of as a Dutch Colonial is better described as Dutch Colonial Revival. These charming houses are common in the towns and cities around Cambridge and were built in the early decades of the 1900s. A Dutch Colonial in Arlington is pictured above.
The defining feature of the Dutch Colonial Revival is the gambrel roof with a continuous dormer. Federal or Georgian style entryways were common.
While the Dutch Colonial in the photograph is a center entrance, the side entrance became quite popular in the 1920s and ’30s. Typically you’ll find in the side entrance version that the living room runs across the front of the house to the side of the entry.
More Posts About Local Building Styles:
Concrete Buildings In Cambridge
And for even more click on the Architecture tag link below.
Blue Towns
It was Martha Coakley by a landslide in Centers and Squares territory. While we’re all in denial today, the votes were counted and statewide Brown won yesterday’s election 51.9% – 47.1% or 1,168,107 to 1,058,682 votes.
But the picture was very different in Cambridge and nearby. Here’s how we voted:
- Arlington: Coakley 65%, Brown 34%
- Belmont: Coakley 59%, Brown 40%
- Boston: Coakley 69%, Brown 30%
- Brookline: Coakley 74%, Brown 25%
- Cambridge: Coakley 84%, Brown 15%
- Concord: Coakley 62%, Brown 37%
- Lexington: Coakley 65%, Brown 34%
- Lincoln: Coakley 68%, Brown 34%
- Medford: Coakley 57%, Brown 42%
- Newton: Coakley 67%, Brown 32%
- Somerville: Coakley 75%, Brown 24%
- Watertown: Coakley 61%, Brown 38%
I was happy to see that Belmont, former hometown of Mitt Romney, was firmly in Coakley’s camp. Medford’s numbers are appalling given that it’s Martha Coakley’s hometown. Boston’s, Somerville’s and especially Cambridge’s results - woohoo!
My mother was ready to move to western Mass after seeing the Globe’s red/blue map – solid blue from Northampton to New York - until I told her about the vote in Cambridge. But we’re keeping the map posted on the fridge – we know where our friends live.
Documenting Belmont Buildings Destined for Demolition
26 Harris St, Belmont, MA
Documenting Belmont Buildings Destined for Demolition Have you ever noticed how difficult it is to visualize a building once it’s gone?
This happens to me even on streets I drive down every day.
When all that’s left is a gaping cellar hole, or there’s a new building on the lot where an old one once stood – you scratch your head and ask “What was here before?”
And in recent years with teardowns becoming all too frequent our architectural memory becomes even more fractured.
The Belmont Historical Society has started a project to photograph the houses destined for demolition.
566 Trapelo Rd in Waverly Square
The program began in 2008 and I would imagine was prompted in part by the outcry about the Belmont Hill School’s demolition of what may have been New England’s first Modernist house, designed by architect Eleanor Raymond.
There are only two photographs on the Society’s webpage for the project, both from 2008. Perhaps with the real estate market upheaval demolitions paused in Belmont in 2009 – I don’t know. Hopefully the project is ongoing.
Check out the photos of demolished Belmont houses on the Belmont Historical Society’s website. One is a sweet bungalow, the other a two-story mansard with turret in Waverley Square. The buildings that replaced them can be seen at right.
Not that a photograph is enough. But it’s a start. And maybe with enough Before and Afters we’ll think a little longer about allowing our older, smaller houses to disappear one by one.
Vintage Paving Company Markers
Cambridge Mass Vintage Paving Company Marker
Vintage Paving Company Markers ~ It’s funny sometimes, the things that start to catch your eye that suddenly start popping up everywhere.
For me, one of those things are the old metal markers that are set into concrete sidewalks. I love them! As I make my way around Cambridge, Arlington, Medford and other nearby towns I’ve started to photograph any I come across.
Who knew that concrete sidewalks are so durable? The oldest plaque that I’ve found so far is the clover-shaped marker dated 1907 by the Simpson Bros. Corporation of 166 Devonshire Street in Boston.
Other paving company markers I’ve found include:
- Benj. Fox, Inc., Concrete Construction, 15 Exchange St, Boston
- F.O. White Construction Co., Cambridge
- Thomas J. Hind, 19 Milk Street, Boston
- Vulcan Const. Co., General Contractors, Boston, Mass.
- W.A. Murtfeldt Company, Artificial Stone Walks, 161 Devonshire St, Boston
- Wm. F. Condon, Artificial Stone, 218 Putnam Ave, Cambridge, Mass.
I think most of these miniature plaques are made of bronze. And it still seems to be a practice of paving companies to inset a company marker. A house near my office had a newly constructed cement sidewalk and a metal plate with the company’s name was inset. It was a messy job though - the marker, not the sidewalk – and the sense of pride that these older signs exude was absent.
There doesn’t seem to be a lot written about these intriguing little signs. Someone has taken the time to extensively document the sidewalk markers in Buffalo, NY where the metal plates date from 1885 to the 1920s but I’ve yet to find much else.
If you know anything more about these vintage paving company markers please let me know.
The Tudor Architectural Style – Tudor Homes in Belmont and Nearby
Tudor Revival House in Belmont MA
Tudor Style Homes in Belmont and Nearby. Real estate buyers who move from other parts of the country may expect to see more Tudor style homes when they move to Cambridge.
The Tudor architectural style in America was popular in the early 1900s and was very popular in American suburbs in the 1920s and early 1930s after most of Cambridge and Somerville’s houses were built.
Characteristics of Tudor Revival Architecture
- Usually brick or stucco, less frequently stone or wood
- Many have decorative half-timbering
- Steeply pitched roof
- Massive chimneys, often with decorative chimney pots
- Tall, narrow multi-paned windows, often in groups of three
- Rounded arched doorways are common
- Patterned brickwork or stonework detail is common
Tudor Houses in Belmont and Nearby
Belmont has the largest concentration of Tudors in the area by far. There are some in Cambridge near Brattle Street or in the Divinity neighborhood. Tudors in Medford can be found in West Medford and the Lawrence Estates. In Arlington you’re most likely to see a Tudor Revival house in the Morningside neighborhood.
Here’s a slideshow of tudor style houses in Belmont Massachusetts.
SEARCH FOR TUDOR HOUSES FOR SALE
SEARCH FOR BELMONT HOMES FOR SALE
To see posts about other architectural styles in Cambridge and nearby towns click on the Architecture tag below.
Rent An Author For Your Book Club
Rent An Author for Your Book Club. I came across some flyers for this nifty program while shopping at the Harvard Book Store in Harvard Square in Cambridge.
The Harvard Book Store is sponsoring this program. Book clubs or other small groups who raise at least $1,000 to benefit the non-profit group 826 Boston are eligible to have a private evening with one of four well known New England authors:
- Julia Glass – author of The Three Junes (I loved this book), The Whole World Over, and I See You Everywhere
- Tom Perrotta – whose novels include The Abstinence Teacher, Little Children, The Wishbones and Election
- Jim Shepard – Shepard’s 2005 novel, Project X, about two boys who plan a Columbine-like massacre, won the Massachusetts Book Award in 2005 and his short story collection, Like You’d Understand Anyway won the Story Prize.
- Donald Hall- poet, memoirist, essayist, and critic was appointed Poet Laureate in 2006. His most recent memoir, Unpacking the Boxes: A Memoir of a Life in Poetry was published in 2008 and recently released in paperback. Two of his earlier memoirs are also among my favorites – String Too Short To Be Saved and The Best Day the Worst Day: Life With Jane Kenyon.
826 Boston is a non-profit tutoring and writing center in Roxbury that works with students ages 6 to 18. Check out their website for info about the Rent an Author program and a downloadable application.
What a rare treat it would be to have an author attend your book club meeting. Time to start fundraising!
Where to Buy Quality Wallpaper Near Cambridge
Reproduction of an 1800s wallpaper pattern I used in my old house
Where to Buy Quality Wallpaper Near Cambridge I’m a big fan of wallpaper – good wallpaper – and while on the Marblehead house tour this month I was delighted to see beautiful, historically accurate wallpaper in house after house.
Wallpaper has a bit of a bad reputation among home buyers unfortunately. In Cambridge you’re far more likely to see walls painted in the latest designer colors.
Granted, there’s plenty of bad wallpaper out there. We went through a long spell where much of the mass produced wallpaper was borderline tacky. As with paint you have to be careful to get it just right.
Wallpaper done right is a joy – whether it’s the perfect antique reproduction pattern for your old house or quality papers selected by a designer. And vintage wallpaper is an instant draw for me – I’ve bought more than one house after falling in love with the intact old wall paper.
I’ve been on a wallpaper quest ever since I bought my first old house and have spent hours poring over pattern books, chasing down patterns spotted in decorating magazines, always on the lookout for new sources of quality wallpaper. I’m a purist - only paper wall paper will do – no vinyl for me no matter how appealing the pattern. And that cuts out at least 90% of what’s available today. Luckily some European companies and a few specialized American manufacturers are still producing patterns on paper.
So I’m always interested in finding new sources to feed my fixation. And when I saw all that beautiful paper in Marblehead I figured there had to be a local store. Sure enough our guide filled me in on the place to go on the North Shore.
Best Places to Buy Wallpaper Near Cambridge
Norman Wallpaper and Paint in Vinnin Square in Swampscott, MA came highly recommended by our gracious host. And judging by what I was seeing on the house tour this store has top quality options. The store’s telephone number is 781-596-0345.
A real estate agent in my office turned me on to Waltham Wallpaper and Paint when I was obsessing over a pattern I spotted in a Somerville Victorian. Sure enough, the fine folks in Waltham were able to track it down for me. When I’m finally ready to paper that bedroom it’s Waltham I’ll go to. They’ve got an excellent selection of companies’ books on their shelves – “the widest selection of wallpaper books in New England” – and are very helpful. Their phone number is 781-893-3732.
When I went on my first wallpaper quest Phillips Hardware in West Concord had a fine selection of pattern books and was where I bought the paper above. Nowadays the store is no longer a full-service hardware store and instead is called Phillips Fine Paint and Wallcovering. Their telephone number is 978-369-3606.
If you know more places where you can buy quality wallpaper near Cambridge please let me know!
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