Self-Guided Walking Tour Architectural & Historical Features Of
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Self-Guided Walking Tour Architectural & Historical features of the Neighborhood around Edward Everett Square and the Dorchester Historical Society 1 Many motorists drive along Boston Street and visit Edward Everett Square in the Dorchester section of Boston without knowledge of Dorchester or Edward Everett. This brief guide is being prepared by the Dorchester Historical Society to better explain Dorchester’s history and Edward Everett, as well as to commemorate his birthplace. The arrow shows the birthplace of Edward Everett on a detail from the 1874 map. Edward Everett (1794-1865) was a Dorchester-born U.S. Secretary of State, Envoy Exrtraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Great Britain, Massachusetts Governor, Senator and Congressman, Harvard University President, theologian, historic preservationist and orator who was born adjacent to Edward Everett Square and Richardson Park. The neighborhood was anciently part of Allen’s Plain, the first-settled part of colonial Dorchester, founded in 1630. Dorchester’s first Meeting House, and school were once located nearby. This district has as its center the Blake House (or Blake-Clap House), the oldest colonial structure in the modern city of Boston. It stands in Richardson Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the founder of landscape architecture in America. The district as a whole includes a fine assortment of Colonial, French Second Empire, Colonial Revival, and transitional Queen Anne-Colonial Revival style buildings, as well as three different types of Dorchester Triple Deckers arranged around a pleasant 1 acre green space in the middle of Boston.1 Edward Everett Square is located at the intersection of Cottage Street, Columbia Road, Boston Street and Massachusetts Avenue. Because Cottage and Columbia pass through the intersection, it is now a six-way intersection, perhaps the only such intersection in Boston. It began in Colonial days as a simple intersection of two roads, Cottage Street, and Boston Street, that then also led south (down what is now the 1 Much of the material in this tour has been taken from material composed by John Goff when he studied the Blake House in 2005-2006 and from the neighborhood descriptions at the Boston Landmarks Commission 2 south part of Columbia Road) to and beyond the 17th century burial ground, located at the corner of Stoughton Street. By the time of the Revolution, it had developed an extra radial street (Columbia Road east) which then led to the shore and perhaps was also used as a military route to the “Castle” and George Washington’s fortifications at Dorchester Heights. The intersection was called Five Corners before Massachusetts Avenue (originally East Chester Park) was built to the west in 1878 to connect with Boston’s Back Bay, and Cambridge. Because of the Cambridge connections after Mass. Ave. was built, some Dorchester residents (such as John Richardson, for whom Richardson Park was named) taught at Harvard, and commuted easily. Linking Franklin Park with the South Boston waterfront, Columbia Road was part of American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted's Emerald Necklace system of Boston parks. Introduced in the 1890s, his designs originally encompassed a landscaped-median park strip as well as planted areas bordering this thoroughfare, and the intersection was planned as rotary. The park-like character of this important artery was destroyed in the 1950s in favor of more traffic lanes. In 2006 the intersection is being re-constructed to include more green space and public art – a project the local neighborhood has planned in conjunction with city government over the last ten years. Massachusetts Avenue, the longest avenue in the Commonwealth, stretches from Edward Everett Square through Boston and northwest to Lexington and Concord, where the American Revolution began. Military action in Massachusetts ended in the first big victory for the patriots when troops moved through Edward Everett Square to occupy Dorchester Heights, forcing the Evacuation of Boston by the British in March, 1776. Conjectural appearance of James Blake House as it might have appeared when built in 1661. Illustration by John Goff. 1 Elder James Blake House The Blake House or Blake Clap House, built in 1661, is Boston’s oldest house, a Boston Landmark, and a rare and excellent example of West Country English timber frame construction. It is a Colonial Landmark that inspired the design of many Colonial Revival Style buildings and details in the late 19th century. It was also occupied by George Washington’s troops during the Siege of Boston in 1775-1776 in the American Revolution. One of the branches of the Mill Creek that fed Clapp’s mill pond led upstream to the original site of the Blake House, a 16+ acre home farm, where James Blake and his wife Elizabeth Clap and their descendants lived. When Massachusetts Avenue was constructed as East Chester Park in the late nineteenth century, the road cut off one corner of the remaining Blake House land with the result that the house now stood right at the edge of the new road. 3 Red lines indicate Massachusetts Avenue 1740s representation of Blake House Cottage Street 10256 The house is now located at the center of Richardson Park, a 1 acre trapezoidal park that was designed in the 1890s by Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of Central Park in New York City, and an advocate of public parks linked by landscaped parkways, and streetcar lines. The house was moved with the use of horses to be a primary park focus in 1895-1896. It was formerly located 1200 feet away, to the west. When new in the mid-17th century, it was the mansion house of a very large farm that overlooked Mill Creek and the South Bay, to our west. Mill Creek (since filled in) was a salt water tidal creek that powered Clapp’s Tidal Grist Mill, developed by Roger Clap’s brother Edward Clap for the grinding of local Dorchester grain and Indian corn into flour. Roger Clap, who crossed on the MARY AND JOHN, was one of the original founders of Dorchester in 1630. His brother Edward Clap was the father of Elizabeth Clap Blake who became the “first lady” of the Blake House, after she married Elder James Blake, a prominent early Dorchester leader in the church. The Blake House is owned by the Dorchester Historical Society, furnished with historical exhibits, and open for public tours on the second Sunday of each month between 11:00 am and 4:00pm. James Blake was a prominent man in the affairs of the town, holding some public office every year from 1658-1685. He was a selectman for thirteen years; and also served as rater, constable, deputy to the General Court, clerk of the writs, recorder and sergeant in the military company. He was deacon of the Church for fourteen years and was ruling elder for the same length of time. The Blake House is considered a “study house” for students of First Period architecture. This wood shingle clad, 5 b-ay x 1-bay, gable roofed house’s current appearance dates to a mid 1890s restoration by Dr. Clarence Blake and Dorchester architect Charles Hodgson. 4 2687 2 William E. Russell School. The Russell School at 750 Columbia Road, Dorchester faces the Blake House in Richardson Park. It is a fine tripartite brick elementary school that was designed and built in the Colonial Revival Style in 1903 by architect James Mulcahy. The flat hip roofs, arcaded windows, and splayed window lintels with keystone ornaments were all purposefully borrowed from Federal Style American landmarks (designed by architects such as Samuel McIntire and Charles Bulfinch) to make a building uniquely appropriate to Massachusetts. The wrought ironwork over the front door is especially fine. The building was named to honor Massachusetts Governor William E. Russell, a Democrat from across the Charles River in Cambridge, who died in 1896. 2041 Richard Clapp House Prior to the construction of the Russell School, the land here was reportedly wet and swampy. In Colonial times a cow is noted to have gotten stuck in the mud. Richard Mather, one of Dorchester’s most famous early Puritans and long-time minister to the First Parish Church, lived nearby. Increase Mather, his son, and Cotton Mather, his grandson continued the service of this family in the religious affairs of New 5 England. By the Federal Period, a large and handsome brick house was built near here that belonged to Richard Clapp, noted Dorchester brickmaker. The Clapps all descended from Roger Clap, and his relatives Edward, Nicholas, Nathaniel and Thomas. Pond Street in front of the Blake House and opposite the school is named for the two ponds, one located where the intersecton is now and one by the Russell School and beyond. 6944 3 Town Meeting Square 2175 Dorcheser Atheneum 6 Dorchester Atheneum building at Town Meeting Square Pleasant Street 2085 Pleasant Street, originally called “Green Lane,” led from Savin Hill, where the company of Englishmen from the Mary and John landed on June 1, 1630, to the first meeting house, which stood on a small island of land on Allen's Plain, delineated by Pleasant, Pond and Cottage streets. The thatched structure was enlarged in 1634 by a window-lit loft. The meeting house was rebuilt in 1645 and was moved by oxen to Rocky Hill (Meeting House Hill) in approximately 1673. By the mid-late 18th century, the Pleasant Street north area was called Allen's Plain after William Allen whose house on Pleasant Street was destroyed in 1784. 4644 4 10 Pleasant Street #10 Pleasant Street (corner of Howes) is a full blown Greek Revival house that probably dates to the mid 1840s. The earliest readily accessible deed reference to this house appears in a Norfolk County deed dated April 10, 1855.