Category: Town

Matthews Hall, Harvard (1872)

by Dan//Cambridge, Collegiate, Gothic

According to the Official guide to Harvard University of 1907:

Matthews Hall, completed in 1872, at a cost of about $113,000, was the gift of Nathan Matthews, of Boston, who stipulated that half the net income from the dormitory should be used to aid needy and deserving scholars; students for the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church and sons of ministers of that church to be preferred. The fifteen Matthews Scholarships were thus established. This dormitory, containing 60 suites of rooms, is thought to stand on the site of the old Indian College, built in 1654.

When Matthews Hall was built, an earlier brick building, Dane Hall, had to be moved seventy feet to the south to make room. The new building, designed by Peabody and Stearns, has Ruskin-inspired Gothic ornamentation, but is symmetrical in its plan, maintaining a balance consistent with earlier buildings in Harvard Yard. Matthews Hall has had a number of interesting past residents, including Matt Damon, Chuck Schumer, Barney Frank, William Randolph Hearst, John Dos Passos and Ernest Thayer.

Tremont Temple (1896)

by Dan//Boston, Churches, Renaissance Revival, Theaters

The original Tremont Theatre, on Tremont Street in Boston, was designed in the Greek Revival style by architect Isaiah Rogers and opened in 1827. Many famous actors, orators and singers appeared there over the years. In 1843, the building was purchased by the Free Church Baptists, Boston’s first integrated church, who renamed it the Tremont Temple Baptist Church. Thereafter, it was used as a church, although public events were often held there as well. The church burned and was rebuilt several times. The current building on the site was built in 1896, designed by Clarence Blackall. The church has a large sanctuary on the second floor, which was also used for a time as an auditorium. Originally, there were shops on the ground floor and commercial offices on the upper floors. Revenue from rents and auditorium rentals allowed the Church to provide free seats to all worshipers.

Old Longmeadow Congregational Church Parsonage (1857)

by Dan//Houses, Italianate, Longmeadow

The Italianate-style former parsonage of Longmeadow’s Congregational Church was built in 1857 on the site where the home of the town’s first minister, Rev. Stephen Williams, once stood. Ministers resided in the house until 1917 and it was then used for church school classes and as housing for church caretakers. The building was moved to its current site on Longmeadow Street in 1921 to make way for the construction of Longmeadow’s Community House.

Jacob Colton House (1765)

by Dan//Colonial, Houses, Longmeadow

Elihu Colton was a Yale educated lawyer who had served as a soldier in the Revolutionary War. He was a delegate to the Massachusetts Convention of 1788, which ratified the U.S. Constitution. His house in Longmeadow was built in 1765, possibly for Henry or Jacob Colton. It is known as the Jacob Colton House. Two gravestones were discovered along the south property line in the 1960s, one marked “N. C.” and the other “Ebeneezer Colton.”