In its column, “On the Block,” the Globe featured three capes designed by architect Royal Barry Wills in Holden, Groton and Hingham.  RBW designed Tudors, Colonials, and even a few Modernist houses, but it’s the quintessential New England Cape for which he is best known.

If  you’re a Royal Barry Wills enthusiast, as I am, you’ll enjoy seeing the houses featured.  Click on the small photo below for more info and lots more photographs.

Want to see more? We’ve got an earlier post with a link at the bottom that shows all the Royal Barry Wills houses in Massachusetts that are on the market (or at least those where the agent included the architect’s name in the MLS description).  It’s probably the most charming collection of MLS photos you’ll ever see in one sitting.

Richard Pinkham House Medford - Octagon House

We were on our way to a brokers’ open house in Medford when I stumbled upon the house at right. I love octagon houses and knew there was an unusual example of one in Medford but I never knew where it was.  Turns out it’s the Richard Pinkham House at 24 Brooks Park in Medford.

Richard Pinkham was a house builder and this was his own home.  The house’s construction dates from 1850 – 1855. Pinkham purchased the land in 1850 and the house first appears on a map in 1855.  Richard Pinkham lived in the house for at least 50 years.

The house is very distinctive - blending elements of three architectural styles: Greek Revival, Italianate and Octagon Mode. What’s most unusual about the house is that the octagonal element is enveloped by the rest of the house with wings or rooms projecting from three sides of the ocatagon.  It’s best appreciated in an aerial view.

The Richard Pinkham house was restored and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.

Next door to the house (with a parking lot that straddles the Pinkham house) is this handsome building.  It’s a large Federal Colonial style apartment building at 20 Brooks Park.  The building was designed by Stirling / Brown Architects of Winchester.  It’s a beautiful city building. You really have to look long and hard to realize that it’s only a few years old rather than 150 years old or more.  Why can’t more new buildings look so good?

20 Brooks Park Medford MA

I’ve always liked Brooks Park.  The loop of the street circles the grassy park of the same name.  It’s tucked away but close to Medford Square, just across Main Street from the Royall House.  There’s an interesting asssortment of houses of different eras including the house for sale at 13 Brooks Park that was our reason for visiting the neighborhood.

Working as a real estate allows me to indulge myself -  though I have to guard my enthusiasms.  It’s hard not to fall – and fall hard – when I see a fabulous house on tour.  My budget keeps my home buying in check but there are fewer safeguards on my time.

It’s easy to get carried away online – spending precious time cruising through the listings on MLS.  But every once in a while I indulge myself.

I call it the serendipity approach to MLS searching.  When you need to pull up an MLS listing to make an appointment or answer a question an address search is typically the easiest way to find the entry.

But rather than type in “404 Elm Street” I type in just “Elm” and skim through the universe of listings on streets with “Elm” in the name.

Elm in fact would be a good one to search.  So are street names like Main, North, Adams, West – any street’s that likely to have been around for a long time and have lots of old and interesting houses.

Yesterday I hit the motherlode when I searched the MLS for “High”.  The search results maxed out – over 500 properties were listed for sale on High Street, Ave, etc or some variation of High such as Highland, Highfield or Highway.

And there were some glorious houses in the bunch.  One after another fantasy-inducing house came up in the results. Too many to go through in one sitting.

Here are two of the most wonderful.

The first is a splendid turreted Queen Anne Victorian in Spencer.  It’s really a compound with a large turreted carriage house and another small cottage. Check out the architectural details in the photos.   All this on two acres for $799,000.

The second property is one of the most amazing houses I’ve come across on MLS.  It’s a Japanese styled house in Fall River at 657 Highland Avenue.  It was designed by noted architect Ralph Adams Cram in 1897 for Unitarian minister  Reverend Arthur Knapp. 

Buildings designed by Cram and his firm in Cambridge include houses at 128 Brattle Street and 26 Elmwood.  Cram designed many churches including the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York and at least two in Cambridge: the Unitarian church in Harvard Square and the Society of St. John the Evangelist on Memorial Drive. 

The extraordinary house in Fall River with its pagoda roof is on the National Register of Historic Places.  Known as “Rising Sun” 657 Highland Ave is listed for just $299,888 – under $300k and magnificent!

You gott see these Houses on High - click on the small image for lots more photographs.

Tree Growing In The Middle Of A Cambridge House

There were many memorable elements but the one that caused the biggest stir was the tree growing up in the middle of the dining area, pictured here.

More about Catalano and his most well known designs can be found here, including additional photos of the house on Grozier Road.

I can remember a couple of us wondering if the house would be too “out there” for Cambridge home buyers or if perhaps some design enthusiasts would be in the market and able to afford it.  We needn’t have worried – the house sold immediately – for more than $400,000 over the asking price.

Triple decker lecture at the Arlington Historical Society

Arlington Historical Society Triple Decker Lecture   This Tuesday, Stuart Brorson of the Arlington Historical Society will give a talk on “The ‘Menace” of the Triple Decker” that will answer the question – if you ever thought to wonder – why there are so many triple deckers in Cambridge and Somerville but relatively few in Arlington and other nearby towns.

Brorson’s lecture will touch on architectural features of the triple-decker, public perceptions of this new style of building, and what the triple-decker can tell us about the period in which it was popular.

There’s relatively little information readily available about triple deckers so this is a not to be missed event for architecture enthusiasts or for anybody who’s ever called a triple decker home.

“The ‘Menace’ of the Triple Decker” lecture is scheduled for 7:30 pm on Tuesday, October 26, 2010 at the Arlington Heights Nursery School, 10 Acton St, Arlington, MA 02476. 

Open to the public.  Admission is free for Arlington Historical Society members or $3 for non-members.

East Cambridge Greek Revival Doors

To learn more about East Cambridge architecture see the Cambridge Historic Commission’s book East Cambridge by Susan E. Maycock.

Decorative Fireback in a Fireplace at 37 Lancaster Street

The Yerxa-Field House at 37 Lancaster Street in Cambridge, MA has 10 fireplaces.  The house was built in 1888 and the fireplaces are beautiful examples of Victorian style tile, masonry, and woodwork.

Every fireplace is different – the tiles or stone vary, a variety of woods are used and some of the detail is handcarved, there are handsome decorative  firebacks like the one you see here, and amazing andirons that in many cases match the light fixtures in the room.  It’s very hard to pick a favorite!

The Yerxa-Field House at 37 Lancaster Street, Cambridge, MA 02140 is listed with John Petrowski and Christian Jones of Hammond Real Estate for $4,495,000.

For years, whenever I walked or drove past 37 Lancaster Street on Avon Hill I would think to myself that one of the many reasons I loved being a real estate agent in Cambridge was that someday I would get to see inside that amazing house.

37 Lancaster Street Cambridge Mass

Well, a few weeks ago, someday finally came. John Petrowsky and Christian Jones of Hammond Real Estate listed the Yerxa-Field House for sale and held an open house for brokers.  Cambridge real estate agents turned out en masse to see the house, a number bringing spouses who, like me, had long dreamed of seeing the inside of this landmark house.

The house was every bit as extraordinary as people had imagined, leaving at least one agent in tears, overcome by its beauty (no – it wasn’t me - I’m not the crying type!).

The reading nook off the living room. An exquisite stained glass window is on the left wall

37 Lancaster Street was built in 1888 for Henry Yerxa and is an example of Shingle Style architecture.  When it was sold to the Field family in 1919 many original furnishings remained with the house, giving us a rare glimpse of how people lived 12o years ago.  Walking through the house it seemed that the children’s books of the 1880s and 1890s that I loved as a girl had come to life.

The two families that have owned the house kept extraordinary care of this masterpiece.  Shades were pulled to prevent sun damage and the lavish finishes on walls and ceilings in room after room are in superb condition.  There are nine different types of wood used for the woodwork throughout the house and it is all in impeccable condition.

Everywhere you look there is incredibly rich detail – far too much too describe here. Window seats, built-ins galore, fine paneling, hand carved details - the house is a feast for the eyes.  Here are a few of my favorite things:

37 Lancaster Street, Cambridge – A Few of Many Fine Features

• There are ten fireplaces in the house, each with a different fire back, each with a different set of andirons that match the light fixtures in the room.
• The reading nook off the living room is one of my favorite spaces with a large stained glass window and a window seat to curl up on with a book
• The laundry room has eight soapstone sinks in a row, each with two brass faucets, and at the end of the row of sinks, a brick reservoir that held the hot water is still intact.
• There are two wonderful pantries. A third is now a bathroom though the original icebox with its marble shelves remains, now used as storage for towels.
• Even normally mundane features like door hooks and hinges are over the top – “like fine jewelry” one agent exclaimed when she spotted a particularly fine hook that held the pantry door ajar.
• My heart almost stopped when I first saw the second reading nook off an upstairs bedroom. This sweet space has a built-in bench opposite a lovely bookcase-flanked fireplace. This is happiness.
• Best yet – the small square stained glass window in the reading nook that opens up and looks out over the fireplace in the landing downstairs.  What fun it must have been for a child to poke her head out the small window to wave at the adults below!
• A second floor bath has a painted mural of a river above the vintage fixtures.
• The carriage house has a row of horse stalls, complete with original raffia fringe trim above the stalls. The tack room has racks for saddles and tack, bearing 1880s patents from a Boston company.

At once grand and charming, the house has beautifully proportioned rooms and an elegant flow.  To walk or drive up to this house and call it home – to wake up and walk out to the beautiful golden oak hall – to sit on a bench and gaze out at the neighboring houses on Avon Hill – the new owners of 37 Lancaster Street will be very fortunate.  It’s truly a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Click on the small photo below for more information and additional photographs.

Here’s a peek at the fireplaces at 37 Lancaster Street.  I have lots more photographs to share in another post or two.

37 Lancaster Street, on Avon Hill in Cambridge, MA 02140 is listed for $4,495,000.