Tag Archives: Museums

Browne House (1698)

Posted on April 20, 2013 by Daniel

Browne House

It’s not a great picture above, but since Watertown is making headlines I’m featuring one of its most historic buildings. The Browne House at 562 Main Street in Watertown was built in 1698 by Captain Abraham Browne (1671-1729). The earliest section of the house is located on the far left of the image. On the right is the north ell, which was built in 1725. Browne descendents lived in the house until 1897. The house became dilapidated. It was purchased by preservationist William Sumner Appleton in 1919, just days before it was to be demolished. He restored the house, which is considered to be one of the best examples of a “First Period” New England residence. Appleton had founded the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (now Historic New England) in 1910, but the trustees had not thought the house could be salvaged. Having purchased and restored it, Appleton gave the house to the Society in 1922, subject to a mortgage that was finally discharged in 1949. With its unique architectural features, it is now used by Historic New England as a study property.

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Merwin House (1825)

Posted on August 24, 2012 by Daniel

The Merwin House in Stockbridge was constructed around 1825 by Francis and Clarissa Dresser. It remained in the Dresser family until 1875, when they sold it to William and Elizabeth Doane of New York City. The couple named the house “Tranquility” and used it as a summer home. They substantially renovated the house in 1900, remodeling the interior and doubling the home’s by adding a shingle-style ell. The house was later the year-round home of the Doanes’ daughter, Vipont Merwin (1878-1965), and her third husband Edward Merwin, who died in 1932. She wanted the house, which was acquired by Historic New England in 1966, to become a museum and it is now open to the public several times a year. (more…)

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Mission House (1739)

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Daniel

Rev. John Sergeant was the first missionary to the Mohicans of Western Massachusetts. He came to Stockbridge in the mid-1730s and lived at first in a small cabin. In 1739, he married Abigail Williams and by 1742 had built what is now known as the Mission House. In 1751, Jonathan Edwards succeeded Rev. Sergeant as missionary. The Sergeant family continued to occupy the house until 1867. The elaborate front doorway was added in the 1760s. The house originally stood on Prospect Hill, but between 1926 and 1930, it was moved to its current location at 19 Main Street and was restored by Miss Mabel Choate, the owner of nearby Naumkeag. The Mission House’s gardens were designed from 1928 to 1933 by Fletcher Steele. The Mission House is now a property of the Trustees of Reservations. (more…)

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Chesterwood: The House (1901)

Posted on August 22, 2012 by Daniel

In 1896, sculptor Daniel Chester French purchased the Warner farm in Stockbridge. Naming his new estate Chesterwood, he soon built his studio next to the C. 1820 farmhouse. In 1901 French replaced the farmhouse with a new Georgian Revival residence designed by Henry Bacon. Like the studio, also designed by Bacon, the house is covered with stucco that is studded with marble and coal chips. The sitting room is a replica of the Best Parlor in the French family homestead in Chester, New Hampshire. Chesterwood was inherited by French’s daughter, Margaret French Cresson (1889-1973), who was also a sculptor. She donated Chesterwood to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. (more…)

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Chesterwood: The Studio (1897)

Posted on August 21, 2012 by Daniel

Chesterwood is the 122-acre estate that was once the summer home of sculptor Daniel Chester French (1850–1931). French is famous for such sculptures as the Minuteman in Concord and the seated Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. Chesterwood, located in Stockbridge, is now owned by the National Trust for Historic preservation and is open to the public. In 1896, French purchased the farm of Marshall Warner. The following year, he moved the Warner barn, adjacent to the Warner House, to make way for his new studio. Designed by Henry Bacon (architect of the Lincoln Memorial), the Studio has a workroom, a reception area with a piano and a 50-foot veranda. The wooden frame building is covered with stucco in which marble and coal chips were mixed to provide texture. So that French could work on his pieces in natural light, the workroom has 30-foot high double doors through which sculptures could be brought outside on a flatcar along a short railway track. (more…)

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Naumkeag (1885)

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Daniel

Naumkeag (named after the original name of Salem, Massachusetts) is a shingle-style house built in 1885 in Stockbridge. It was designed by Stanford White of McKim, Mead & White for Joseph Hodges Choate (1832–1917), a prominent New York City attorney who served as American ambassador to the Court of St James’s from 1899 to 1905. Naumkeag was next owned by his daughter, Mabel Choate, who worked with noted landscape designer Fletcher Steele to design the estate’s landscaped grounds. She bequeathed the property in its entirety to the Trustees of Reservations and it is open to the public. (more…)

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The Jeremiah Lee Mansion (1768)

Posted on January 31, 2011 by Daniel

Jeremiah Lee, wealthy merchant and ship owner, built his fabulous Marblehead mansion in 1766-1768. With its lavish interiors and an exterior designed to make this wooden house appear to have a stone ashlar facade, the Jeremiah Lee Mansion in considered to be one of America’s greatest surviving examples of colonial Georgian architecture. Lee died in 1775 and the Mansion remained in the Lee family until 1785, by which time the great merchant’s empire had gone bankrupt. From 1804 to 1904, the Mansion served as the Marblehead Bank, an institution that made remarkably few alterations to the historic building. Since 1909, the house has been owned by the Marblehead Historical Society and is operated as a historic house museum.

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