Roxbury Timeline 1868-1910



ROXBURY AFTER ANNEXATION 1868 – 1910         Roxbury to Boston Highlands

ARCHITECTURE

1869- Cochituate Water Tower. Beechglen and Fort Ave. The land was owned after the revolutionary by the Williams family.Designed by Nathaniel J. Bradlee. In addition to being one of Boston’s preeminent post Civil War architects, Bradlee served on the Boston Water Board from 1865-m 1871. Bradlee also designed the Chestnut Hill reservoir pumphouses. Dimensions vary with the source consulted - 158  feet high according to Drake. Contemporary reports state it was 110 feet high x 10 feet around ( Boston Herald, 1870) 120 feet high (Roxbury Gazette-1869.)

1873. March. Parker Hill reservoir built. Receiving basin for water from Sudbury River after Dorchester And West Roxbury were annexed and more water was required for those new sections. 4.5 acres granted by James Parker. Completed in Nov 1874. Brick and granite Gothic gatehouse designed by L. Fred Rice.

1879. Palladio Hall. Dudley street corner of Warren St. Nathaniel J.  Bradlee   developer and architect. Proposed to move house office to the building.

1869 – 1872- Read-Richardson House. 507 Blue hill Avenue cor .of Schuyler St.

Part of the first subdivision of the Parker estate- originally the Ebenezer Seaver farm. House built after Schuyler St was laid out in 1868. The only single family woodframe house still standing in Grove Hall. The type of domestic architecture common along thinly populated horse car routes.

1890 – JS. Waterman & Son Funeral Home 2326 -2328 Washington Street  JS Weisbien,  architect. Completed Dec 3, 1890.

1898. 108 - Seaver street. Simon Goldsmith House. The architect was probably HH Hathaway who designed 268 Humboldt Ave in a similar style in 1899.

First of the grand but short lived mansions along Seaver street facing the then new Franklin Park.

1898. The Silva Building. 648 Warren Street at Blue Hill Avenue. Social hall and offices.

Built by MW Hall. Architect was AS Drisko, 3 story brick building swell front that  takes the curve of the intersection. Remodeled in 1945 as a dancing school and dance hall by Harry S. Silva.

1900 12 Seaver Street at Walnut Avenue. C arl Fehmer and Samuel Page architects. A small commission and unusual woodframe domestic architecture by Carl Fehmer who normally  designed big Back Bay mansions and downtown department stores.

1900 274 Seaver street. James S Morse House. Designed by Julius Schweinfurth in full blown Colonial Revival Georgian style. One of series of briefly lived single family homes facing Franklin Park. This which succumbed to an apartment house in 1928.

1901 – 274 Seaver Street. Herbert Whiting House. Joseph T Greene architect. One of four survivors of turn of the 20th century single family wood frame houses on Seaver street; today sandwiched between two apartment blocks at 266 and 280 Seaver.

1902 Boston Five Cents Savings Bank ( Citizens Bank)  2343 Washington Street. Peabody & Stearns architects; completed in 1903. A superb example of the so called cottage style bank of two story stand alone buildings that began at the turn of the 20th c.

1910 – 71 + 73 Walnut park. Two triple deckers designed by Fred A. Norcross. Only documented woodframe buildings designed by Norcross who worked exclusively in brick such as at Wardman Road opposite which he designed in 1911.

HOUSING

THE APARTMENT HOUSE COMES TO THE HIGHLANDS

1871- HOTEL DARTMOUTH. 49-51 Warren Street John R Hall. Architect. First apartment house in Roxbury; a fashionably designed building of flats for the upper class renter.

Hall had just completed the majestic and expensive French Second Empire style Hotel St James  facing Franklin Square in 1868.

1871- Cox Building – Dudley and Bartlett Street. Multi family housing over retail. George Cox developer /builder/architect. C ox built housing near railroad and street car lines and the Cox block was built opposite the Highland Street Railway station where the Timilty School is today. The Cox block was the first to mix housing over retail. It was also very big; Cox usually built woodframe duplex houses.

1875- The Hotel Eliot. 27 Dudley street. Corner of Lambert opposite the Cox block, this was a tall elegant panel brick fashionable family hotel designed by J H Besarick. Abandoned in the 1970’s, it was destroyed by fire in Nov 1982.

1877- Hotel Comfort –Washington Street opposite Eustis St. A marble fronted business mans hotel designed by Louis Weisbein. Not a family hotel or apartment house.

1885- THE Dunbar Apartment Hotel.2401 Washington Street. A broad swell front multi family building designed by Louis Wesibein, near the site of the old Dudley house.

Destroyed by fire in June,1982.

1884. The Dale- 101 Dale Street. A family hotel ( as stated on the building permit) made of 8 flats. Louis Weisbein architect ( as Weisbein and Jones ) It was the first apartment house in a strictly residential neighborhood and a precursor of residential housing patterns in the next quarter century.

1886- The Warren. Warren and Regent Streets. A fashionable, intricate and very large

apartment building designed by Carl Fehmer ; the biggest in Dudley Square.

Sacrificed for the 12th Baptist church parking lot.

1887 – Cheney & Morse Blocks- 483 and 487 Blue Hill Avenue, Grove Hall.

First apartment buildings in Grove Hall. 483 Blue Hill Ave.cor Cheney st.

Designed by AS Drisko  for Edward  Reynolds.

487 Blue Hill Avenue-attached to 483- WP Wentworth architect for Mr. Morse.

Reynolds and Morse were pioneers in the development of the apartment house in Grove Hall- a term they used on the building permit, not “family hotel” like 101 Dale st. Also pioneers in adding commercial storefronts below second floor flats.

These two attached but distinct buildings were built opposite the Highland street railway waiting room and barn.

The buildings were part of the 40 acre Seaver Farm acquired in 1796. Daniel Holbrooke land in the 17th c.

1890 Harriswood Crescent. 68-72 Harold street. J Williams Beale architect. Completed on Oct. 3, 1890

1896- 1897- 35-39 Vine Street /37- 41 Forest Ave. EP Morse architect. Six attached 3 family apartment houses forming a large imposing yellow brick Queen Ann style buildng around the corner from the Carmalite convent.

1895- 2 – 12 Humboldt Avenue “Lanesborough Gables: Charles E. Park and Ralph Sawyer architects, for ED Bell. 18 apartments in five attached buildings. Completed in 1896.

1899- 50- 68 Highland Street corner of Dorr. Nine attached 3 family yellow brick apartment houses with ground floor retail. Earliest known apartment houses designed by noted Boston apartment house architect Fred Norcross. Age 26. This block began a career-long collaboration of Norcross with Jewish developers.

1902- Wellington Court Apartments. 515- 517 Warren Street. One of the earliest courtyard style apartment blocks Charles E. Park, architect.

19o8 - 56-58 Seaver Street. Five detached brick and limestone 3 family houses. John J Bowles architect. All completed in Nov 1908.

1908 - Harvard Apartments Longwood Ave., Huntington Ave and  St Alphonsu St 4 story brick apartment housing  for medical students attending Harvard Medical School on Longwood Avenue. Nathan Douglas architect.

ECONOMY & INDUSTRY

1880- Dennison Manufacturing Company. 43- 45 Vale Street. Factory buildings. Building permit for 3 story manufacturing building May 20, 1880. Kirby & Lewis architects. Two additional buildings 1883- 1884.

1886 Eblana Brewery( Alley Brewery) 123 Heath Street. Designed by Otto Wolf for John R Ally.

1891- American Brewing Co. 235- 249 Heath St corner of Lawn street. Frederick Footman, architect for James J Kearny. Built in three phases. After 1919 it was used as a laundry.

1895 - Rueter & Ally Highland Spring brewery Heath & Parker St. Established in 1867.

Apparently they used existing breweries; the first Brewery building - on Heath Street - designed by J Williams Beale in 1895.

1907 - Metropolitan Life Insurance Building. 90 Warren Street. A LeBrun architect.

EDUCATION

1873 Dudley School. Putnam and Dudley Streets. Tentatively attributed to NJ Bradlee, architect.

Destroyed by fire Nov, 1975.

1882 – Dilaway School. 16-20 Kennilworth St. George A. Clough architect. Building permit Aug 5, 1882. Foundation stones taken from the walls of the Beacon Hill reservoir.

1896- Henry Dearborn School. 25 Ambrose st. Edwin A Lewis architect. Unique v -shaped building for maximum light and air to all rooms. Completed in Jan., 1896. On site of the original 1825 Dearborn School.

1898- Dudley Association Clubhouse. Kennilworth & Dudley Street. A Warren Gould, architect.

Opened in Sept., 1898. Dudley Club began in 1874 by science students at the Dudley School.

1905 - Sarah Baker School. 27 Perrin Street. Julius Schweinfurth, architect.

1909. - Nathan Hale School. 51 Cedar school. Parker Thomas & rice architect.

Opened Nov., 1909.

INSTITUTIONS

1873- Police Station and Fire Station. Dudley St & MT Pleasant St. Gray & Tarbox,architects. Building permit Oct 18,1873.

1871-1872 Police Stationhouse #10. Roxbury Street. Alden Frink,architect.

1873- Fellowes Athenaeum and Roxbury Public library. 46 Lambert Ave. Nathaniel J Bradlee architect. Opened July, 16. 1873. Bequest of Caleb Fellowes. Union of Athenaeum and Roxbury branch public library July 9, 1877. Begun at Dudley and Bartlett street but half built building moved up the hill after the Metropolitan St Ry bought adjacent land for stable and carbarn.

1872- 1909- New England Hospital for Women & Children. 41-55 Dimock Street. Incorporated March 12, 1863. Ten acre campus composed of nine buildings; eight built between 1873 and 1909. First hospital in NE to educate woman physicians and first to graduate a black nurse

( 1877)

Zakrzewska Building - 1873 - Cummings & Sears.

Cary Cottage - 1872  Cummings & Sears

1894- Hook & Ladder House # 1. BFD. Warren and Quincy Streets. Edmund M Wheelwright, architect ( with Charles M Maginnis). Building permit May, 1894

1898- Grove Hall Fire Station/engine house. 53 Washington Street. Perkins & Belton, architects. Permit Oct., 1897.

1902. New Roxbury District Courthouse. Roxbury Street. Frank R. Allen & J Lawrence Berry architects. Opened by Mayor Patrick M. Collins on July 28, 1902. On site of the 1810 Washington School which was used as the Roxbury courthouse before it was razed in 1901.

1906. Intercolonial Club. 214- 218 Dudley street. Harris M Stephenson, architect. Organized by Maritime Provinces Club. Dedicated by the Govr. of Nova Scotia on Dec. 16, 1907. Razed March, 1999.

LAND USE

1870 – John Amory Lowell began to subdivide Bromley Vale May 10,1870. Bromley Park constructed in 1872. In 1873, 28 attached brick row houses were built on Bromley Park,Bickford and Parker Street. Developed by S. Pattee, probably a housewright. Deed restrictions prohibited any commercial and industrial use.

1902- 538- 568 Warren Street. Elm Hill Park developed and built up by Alexander C. Chisholm.

Bought the Samuel Little house, greenhouse and estate. Little was President of the E Howard Watch Co. Chisholm designed and built 3 large brick apartment houses on Warren Street and 17 woodframe homes on a new street he called Elm Hill Park ( an extension of the approach drive to the Little House) between 1901- 1904.


 * 1) 20 Elm Hill Park is the original Little House built by C Lowell Thayer in 1875;  moved and turned to face southwest.  Rear addition later added.

1910- John D and Charles Williams estate purchased for apartment house development by Meyer Dana. About one acre, Humboldt and Wyoming Streets.

1910- Developer Simon Hurwitz bought the 2 acre Charles Clapp estate, Westminster Ave and Walnut Park, on Sept 6, 1910. To take advantage of the recently opened Egleston Square elevated station, he built 14 ,3 story attached brick apartment houses - seven designed by Fred A Norcross - between 1911-1912; as well as two new perpendicular streets that were private ways for 20 years. Called Wardman Apartments.

RECREATION

1883- December. Land acquisition begun for Franklin Park. Spring 1885 Plan approved by Mayor Hugh O’Brien and work begun in the spring of 1886 after further land acquisition, 525 acres. Park largely completed in 1898. Walnut Avenue taken up into the park and discontinued at Park Lane. Frederick Law Olmsted landscape architect with associated architects.

1895 - Highland Park. 3.66 acres. Formerly owned by the City Water Dept. which transferred it to the Boston Parks Dept in 1895; FL Olmsted hired to design walks, walls,steps and the reconstruction of the quadrangle of the old 1775 Revolutionary War earthen fortifications. Work slowly done; completed in 1916.

1905 – April. Marcella Street Playground construction underway. 10 acres. On site of the old smallpox hospital, later the Juvenile Offenders Home ; demolished for the playground.

TRANSPORTATION-

1870- New passenger station built on Lowell estate between Heath and New Heath Street for Boston & Providence Railroad. On Jan 13,1870 John Amory Lowell sold 7,562 sf parcel to

B&P RR.

1872- Highland Street Rwy horsecar line extended from Dudley Street down Blue Hill Avenue to Grove Hall. HS Rwy bought two parcels on Blue Hill Avenue for a passenger waiting room and carbarn. Over the next 16 years more land would be bought - until the yard extended over 5 acres - and more buildings built –including a large 3 story mansard,waiting room  stable and carbarn that  served electric cars after 1889 and dominated Grove Hall until  it was razed about 1925 for a Chevrolet dealership.

1886. Humboldt Avenue completed from Walnut Avenue + Bower St to Seaver Street and Franklin Park entrance, Sept 15, 1886. ( the only entrance FLO designed to Franklin Park on Seaver St faces Humboldt Avenue )It soon became used as streetcar then bus route 45 to Franklin Park and opened up large estate lands to residential subdivision.

1888 Roxbury Crossing passenger station. Opened Nov 1888 Triangular building designed by Charles D. Brigham ( Brigham & Spofford) ,architect.

1895- August/Work begun by the New York New Haven & Hartford Railroad on eliminating all grade crossings on the Boston & providence RR from Cumberland St to Forest Hills. Designed and supervised by NYNH&H engineers it consisted of a 4.5 mile long granite wall 12 feet wide with six steel plate bridges at Ruggles, Tremont, Prentiss, Heath st  and Hoggs Bridge( Center street). The largest bridge was supported by huge arch  over Tremont street built 100 feet wide to accommodate two stations and the new aligned Tremont Street. The Tremont Street bridge caused the reconstruction of Stony Brook culvert which was built under the bridge well underground to support the huge stone abutments; it also destroyed the last vestiges of Pierponts Mill. All work completed at the end of 1897.The next year Columbus Avenue was extended from Northampton Street paralleling the viaduct as far as Center Street –where it took up Lowell street - and then went across  vacant land to Egleston Square.

1898- Land taking begun for the new Dudlye Terminal Boston Elevetaed Railway. Deeigned by Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow. Groundbreaking Jan. 23, 1899. Long Hip roof, high vaulted ceiling; pressed metal sheathing over wood frame. Enlarged in 1909 for extension of the cars to Forest Hills. Waiting rooms, platforms and street car ramps designed by Robert S Peabody.

1901- Guild Street carhouse with elevated platform to accommodate 5 tracks. Granite block abutment walls connected to spur line of elevated tracks and at grade brick carbarns.

Completed June 1, 1901.

1909 - Egleston Square station completed in November, Architect unknown.

Robert S Peabody ? Power Station at 3023 Washington Street at Bray Street completed to convert electricity for the line. Robert S. Peabody architect.

RELIGIOUS

1871- St Patrick’s Church. 400 Dudley Street at Hampden Street. Triangular church lot. Land bought in 1871. Prominent location. Brick Gothic church with the intended steeple facing down Dudley street never built. Architect unknown.

Dedicated Dec 5, 1880. Congregation removed from original church built on Northampton Street.

1873- Eliot Congregational church. 120 Walnut Avenue Chapel built. Harris M Stephenson possible architect. Main church dedicated on Feb 2, 1889. 3 story crenelated bell tower on Dale St corner. J Williams Beale architect.

1878 - Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Mission Church. 1545 Tremont street. Designed in the Romanesque style of 12thc Germany by William Schikel. Cornerstone laid May 1876. Quincy granite with puddingstone foundation excavated on site. Dedicated April 2, 1878.

Twin spires completed in June 1910. Franz Joseph Untersee architect. to accommodate the grade of the hill, the spires are 213 + 215 feet.

-St Alphonsus Hall – Opened Feb 26, 1900

-Parochial Residence Tremont street. Franz Joseph Untersee ,architect. On site of Brinley Place which was demolished in April 1900 to make way for the hall. Permit May 1902.

1889 – Main Sanctuary for Eliot Congregational Church. Dedicated Feb 27,1889.J Williams Beale,architect.

1889 – All Souls Unitarian Church. 551 Warren Street. Dedicated Oct. 6,1889. J Williams Beale,architect. Purchased in Sept 1938 by First African Methodist Episcopal Church ( Charles ST AME).

1892, Roxbury Presbyterian Church, 326 Warren St corner of Woodbine. Brigham & Spofford, architects. Building permit May 14, 1891.

1892. German Evangelical Lutheran Trinity Church, 720 Parker St. Dedicated May 20,1892 Jacob Liuppold architect.

1896. Mt Carmel Convent. 61 Mt Pleasant Ave. Timothy Walsh architect. Blessed by Archbishop Williams on Oct 15, 1896. Purchased Joseph Morrell estate in 1894.

1899 - Disciples of Christ Church. 98 Regent Street. Chapman & Chapman architects. Dedicated Jan 22, 1899. Built of conglomerate dug up on site.

Removed from Shawmut Ave and Madison St. Sold to Congregation Mishkan Tefila.

1905. St Mark’s English Lutheran Church. 29 Winthrop St. Gay & Proctor architects. Organized in 1891 as the first English Lutheran Church in Boston. Land bought in 1900. Groundbreaking April 11, 1905.

1906 – Congregation Adath Jeshurun 393 Blue Hill Ave. Dedicated Sept 16,1906 by Mayor John F Fitzgerald. Fred A Norcross,architect. (One of only two religious buildings he designed in his 28 year career). Twin Romanesque towers 84 feet high. Building is 137 feet long.

First synagogue in Roxbury.