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FORM A - AREA Assessor’s Sheets USGS Quad Area Letter Form Numbers in Area 031-0001 Marblehead G See Data MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION North Sheet ASSACHUSETTS RCHIVES UILDING M A B 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Photograph Town/City: Wenham Place (neighborhood or village): Name of Area: Iron Rail Vacation Home Present Use: Recreation; Community House; Water Tower; Maintenance Facility; Burial Ground Construction Dates or Period: ca. 1880-2009 Overall Condition: Poor to Very Good Major Intrusions and Alterations: see continuation sheet Photo 1. Gymnasium (left) and barn (right). View Acreage: 79.6 acres looking north. Recorded by: Stacy Spies Organization: Wenham Historical Commission Date: June 2017 Locus Map see continuation sheet 4 /1 1 Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form. INVENTORY FORM A CONTINUATION SHEET WENHAM IRON RAIL VACATION HOME MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area Letter Form Nos. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 G See Data Sheet Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked, you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form. Use as much space as necessary to complete the following entries, allowing text to flow onto additional continuation sheets. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION Describe architectural, structural and landscape features and evaluate in terms of other areas within the community. The Iron Rail Vacation Home property at 91 Grapevine Road is comprised of buildings and landscape features dating from the multiple owners and uses of the property over the 150 years. The extensive property contains shallow rises surrounded by wetlands. Woodlands are located at the north half of the property and wetlands are located at the northwest and central portions of the property. Buildings are located in two groupings on the property. The Wenham Department of Public Works uses the four utilitarian masonry buildings, gasoline pumps, and water tower located at the southwest corner of the property, all of which were constructed after 1978. A large brick gymnasium, a frame barn, and a frame garage, all of which date from the Iron Rail Vacation Home period, are located at the center of the property. Stone walls and stone landscape features dating from the 19th century are located along Grapevine Road. A cemetery is located in the northeast corner of the property. Soccer fields are located in the southeastern corner of the property. A low, mortared stone wall extends the length of the south property line from Rubbly Road west to the property entrance near Essex Street. (Photo 2) Three square stone posts with crenellated tops are located near the entrance. These posts stand near the approximate location of an 18th-century house, known colloquially as the “Iron Rail House,” that previously stood on the property. (The house is said to have been named for the iron railing once located atop the stone wall along the property’s edge at Grapevine Road.) The entrance to the property is located on Grapevine Road approximately 150 feet west of the Essex Street intersection. A parking area is located on the east side of the drive at the entrance; it is bounded to the north by a wall of upright stones that once marked the driveway area to the iron rail house.1 (Photo 3.) An asphalt-paved drive leads north from the entrance and circles around to the barn and the rear of the gymnasium where another parking area is located. A second asphalt-paved drive leads northwest from the entrance to the gasoline pumps and the public works buildings. The main block of the Iron Rail Vacation Home Gymnasium (1939) (WNH.209) rises two stories in height and measures 110 feet wide by 52 feet deep. (Photo 4.) The building is banked into a hill; the south elevation is only one story in height. A large, 2-story appendage centered on the north elevation measures 50 feet wide by 25 feet deep. The building is constructed of common bond brick with a Flemish header course. A projecting header course is located at cornice height. Molded brick forms a projecting water table. The hipped roof is covered with asphalt shingles above a dentil course. The roof is capped by a wood cupola. (Photo 5.) The cupola has two stages: a square base sheathed with wood flushboards and an octagonal wood upper section. The north and south elevations of the upper section contain arched openings with wood keystone details above louvered panels. The remaining six elevations of the cupola feature pilasters flanking blank panels. A ball finial surmounts the metal-clad bell roof. A large rectangular brick chimney is attached to the east elevation of the gymnasium. The south elevation contains six bays of segmental arch 12/12/12 triple-hung wood sash windows with cast stone sills and two doors with fanlights. The block contains two bays at the east and west elevations. 1 The wall of upright stones is visible in a photograph of the Iron Rail House in Sanger, Helen Clay Frick: Bittersweet Heiress: 73. Continuation sheet 1 INVENTORY FORM A CONTINUATION SHEET WENHAM IRON RAIL VACATION HOME MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area Letter Form Nos. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 G See Data Sheet The substantial north entry appendage is five bays wide and two bays deep. (Photo 6) This volume has a shallow hipped roof above a dentil course at the eave. Windows are 6/9 double-hung wood sash at the first floor and 9/9 double-hung wood sash at the second floor with cast stone sills throughout. The entrance is centered on the first floor within a projecting brick surround with a semicircular pediment; a large metal lantern-style light is centered over the door. (Photo 7.) The building has a high level of integrity but is in fair condition as a result of water damage to the brick. The Iron Rail Vacation Home Barn (ca. 1910) (WNH.210) is sited on a northeast-southwest axis at the northeast edge of the drive. (Photos 8 and 9.) Currently used by the Boy Scouts as a meeting area, the wood-shingled building is constructed in two sections and rests on a fieldstone foundation. The roof is covered with asphalt shingles and an interior brick chimney rises from the east roof slope. The main (south) block is 2 stories in height and measures 40 feet by 40 feet. The south elevation contains double-leaf, vertical-board sliding doors suspended on an overhead track. Three personnel doors are located on the first floor of the south elevation. Windows on the second floor are 6/6 wood sash with flat surrounds. The west elevation of the main block features an additional 2/2 double-hung wood sash window and paired 8-light windows. Double-leaf vertical board doors are located at the basement level. A four-bay ell extension attached to the north elevation measures 35 feet by 35 feet and features 6/6 double-hung wood sash. The building is in fair condition with missing shingles yet retains a high level of integrity. The Iron Rail Vacation Home Garage (ca. 1910) (WNH.211) is located at the northeast corner of the parking area north of the gymnasium. (Photo 10.) The Craftsman-style building is sheathed with clapboards and cornerboards and rests on a poured concrete foundation. The hipped roof is covered with asphalt shingles and features exposed rafter tails. The building contains three automobile bays with doors on the south elevation; the center bay is slightly taller than the other two and is capped with a cross-gabled dormer. The two east bays have wood overhead doors; the west bay has been boarded-up. The building contains two window bays each on the east and west elevations that contain 6/6 wood sash windows and simple drip moldings. A shed-roof ell at the rear is sheathed with novelty siding. The building is in poor condition with separation of the walls from one another at the northwest corner. The building has also begun to shift off its foundation at the northwest corner. The building retains a moderate level of integrity. HISTORICAL NARRATIVE Explain historical development of the area. Discuss how this relates to the historical development of the community. In the eighteenth century, much of the Iron Rail property was owned by Captain Richard Dodge (b.1738) and passed through the Dodge family. In 1851, Dodge’s grandson, also named Richard Dodge, sold a 50-acre parcel along Grapevine Road to Henry Dodge and Benjamin Hawkins.2 The 1855 Massachusetts census includes three households on the property. One of the three households included farmer Henry Dodge and cordwainer Benjamin Hawkins and their families. “H. Dodge” appears as owner of the property on the 1856 map. One of these three dwellings became known as the “Iron Rail House.” (See below.) In 1856, Henry Dodge and Benjamin Hawkins sold the property to Knott Martin of Marblehead. (Essex South Deed Book 538, Page 171) Knott Martin’s widow, Martha, sold the property in 1875 to William J. Goldthwaite, who quickly sold it to Thomas Thompson, also of Marblehead.3 It appears that Martha Martin remained on the property through at least 1884, as indicated by the 1884 map. In 1899, the property was sold to real estate investor Oscar Willard, who in turn, sold it to Henry H. Melville and his wife, Marcia Lord Melville, of Boston. The Melvilles purchased the property for use as their summer home, thereby becoming one of the many Boston residents purchasing property along “Gold Coast” that developed on the North Shore at the turn of the 20th century.4 2 Essex South Deed Book 447, Page 37.
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