Month: July 2012

Marblehead Lighthouse (1896)

by Dan//Lighthouses, Marblehead, Vernacular

The first lighthouse to be constructed at the northern end of Marblehead Neck (called Lighthouse Point) was built in 1835. There was a 23-foot white tower and a brick keeper’s cottage, attached to the tower by a covered walkway. The original cottage was replaced by a wood-frame keeper’s house in 1878. In the 1870s, large summer houses were being built on Marblehead Neck, obscuring the lighthouse from being seen at sea. To deal with this situation, a light was hoisted to the top of a tall mast near the lighthouse in 1883. The original lighthouse was demolished and a taller tower was finally constructed, which was first illuminated on April 17, 1896. Instead of a brick tower, a 105-foot cast-iron skeleton tower was erected, the only lighthouse of its type in New England. The iron tower was most likely selected because it cost only $8,786, instead of the the $45,000 required for a brick tower. Chandler Hovey, a well-known yachtsman, purchased the land around the lighthouse and in 1948 donated it to the town for use as a park.

Appleton Hall, Amherst College (1855)

by Dan//Amherst, Collegiate, Greek Revival

Appleton Hall, on the campus of Amherst College, was built in 1855 as Appleton Cabinet to house the college’s growing natural history collection, which was expanding beyond the the space provided by the 1847 Octagon. In 1925, the building was renamed Appleton Hall and remodeled as an academic building with lecture halls and offices. In 1999, Appleton Hall was converted into a first-year dormitory.

Todd House (1887)

by Dan//Amherst, Houses, Queen Anne

Mabel Loomis Todd (1856-1932) and her husband, astronomer David Peck Todd, erected the house at 90 Spring Street in Amherst, the first Queen Anne-style house in town, in 1886-1887. The house was built on land the Todds acquired from Austin Dickinson, brother of the poet Emily Dickinson. Mabel Loomis Todd, who had an affair with Austin Dickinson, is remembered for her editing of posthumously published poems by Emily Dickinson. The first volume of Poems by Emily Dickinson, edited by Todd and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, was published in 1890. Later, there was a legal battle over property owned by Austin Dickinson and given to the Todds by his sister Lavinia. In 1898, the Todds sold the house and moved to another home in Amherst. That same year, Senator George B. Churchill came to teach rhetoric at Amherst College. He moved the Todd House from its original location to the other side of Spring Street and in 1907 built on the site his own house, called “The Dell” (a name that had also been given to the Todd House).