Crowninshield House

Crowninshield House
Crowninshield House
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Coordinates: 42°21′9″N 71°4′45″W / 42.3525°N 71.07917°W / 42.3525; -71.07917Coordinates: 42°21′9″N 71°4′45″W / 42.3525°N 71.07917°W / 42.3525; -71.07917
Built: 1870
Architect: Henry Hobson Richardson
Architectural style: Other, Romanesque
Governing body: Private
NRHP Reference#: 72000145[1]
Added to NRHP: February 23, 1972

The Crowninshield House is an historic house designed by Henry Hobson Richardson, located at 164 Marlborough Street in Boston, Massachusetts.

Contents

Brief history

Architecture

Commissioned by Benjamin W. Crowninshield, the house was designed in 1868 and built in 1870 by H.H. Richardson. It is the earliest, still surviving, example of Richardson's private residence work. Unlike many of his later works and the signature Romanesque style that he would develop, this work is entirely in brick and features black brick trims and decorative green and blue tiles. This house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

Benjamin Crowninshield

Benjamin William Crowninshield (1837–1892)[2] was a member of the Boston Brahmin Crowninshield family. He attended Harvard College, graduating in 1858, along with classmates H.H. Richardson and Henry Adams. Adams' Education of Henry Adams (1918) includes descriptions of his friendship with Crowninshield.[3]

Crowninshield pursued the study of history, publishing and speaking on various topics, such as yachting[4] and military history. Published works include A History of the First Regiment of Massachusetts Cavalry Volunteers (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1891).

In 1868, Crowninshield commissioned his friend Richardson to design and build the house on Marlborough Street in the newly land-filled Back Bay area of Boston.[5]

References

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2008-04-15. http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/natreg/docs/All_Data.html. 
  2. ^ http://www.worldcat.org/wcidentities/lccn-n88-674263
  3. ^ Henry Adams. Education of Henry Adams.
  4. ^ Yacht Luxury. Boston Daily Globe. Jul 28, 1889. p.19.
  5. ^ James F. O'Gorman. Living architecture: a biography of H.H. Richardson. Simon and Schuster, 1997.

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