Nomination for Kittredge, Alvah, House

From the form

The catalogue entry the section above was filed under.

PAUL GUZZI Sornetary of the Commonucalth The Commonwealih of Massachusetts Office of the Secretary Massachusells Historical Commission 291 Washinglon Stred Boston, Massachuselts 02108 (617)727-8470 alNIIy RECEIVED 1978 NATIONAL REGISTER July 28, 1978 Mr. Charles Herrington, Chief Registration Branch National Register OAHP, Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service Washington, D.C. 02040 Dear Mr.

Herrington: Please note the changes which should be made to the following National Register forms: - Boston: Kittredge House Holk co - change address to 10 Linwood Street, Roxbury, MA K Concord: Pest House _ middlesex - change UTM coordinates to: 19/306260/4701800 UYNatick: Natick Center Historic District Mildlesd - # 10 Harwood Baseball Shop - change owner to: Village Realty Development t#3 Clark's Block - change owner to: Arnold Zaltas Sincerely, Candace Jenkino Candace Jenkins National Register Coordinator Massachusetts Historical Commission CJ/1h EL-SC-L PH0026743 Form 10-300 (July 1969) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY - NOMINATION FORM STATE: Massachusetts COUNTY: Suffolk FOR NPS USE ONLY ENTRY NUMBER (Type all entries - complete applicable sections) NAME COMMON: Alvah Kittredge House AND/ OR HISTORIC: MAY 8 DATE 1975 LOCATION STREET AND NUMBER: 12 Linwood Street CITY OR TOWN: (Roxbury) Boston STATE Massachusetts CLASSIFICATION CATEGORY (Check One) District [X Building Site Structure CODE COUNTY: 025 Suffolk CODE 025 OWNERSHIP STATUS Object Public Private Both Public Acquisition: - In Process Being Considered X Occupied - Unoccupied X Preservation work in progress ACCESSIBLE TO THE PUBLIC Yes: - Restricted Unrestricted No PRESENT USE (Check One or More as Appropriate) Agricultural Government Commercial Industrial Educational Military Entertainment Museum Park Private Residence Religious Scientific Transportation [XOther (Specify) Community Center - Comments OWNER OF PROPERTY OWNER'S NAME: City of Boston STREET AND NUMBER: Boston City Hall CITY OR TOWN: ISTATE: Boston Massachusetts LOCATION OF LEGAL DESCRIPTION COURTHOUSE, REGISTRY OF DEEDS, ETC: Registry of Deeds STREET AND NUMBER: Suffolk County Court House, Norfolk County Court House CITY OR TOWN: Boston, Dedham CODE 025 REPRESENTATION IN EXISTING SURVEYS TITLE OF SURVEY: Roxbury Highlands Study DATE OF SURVEY: 1969 DEPOSITORY FOR SURVEY RECORDS: Boston Architectural Center STREET AND NUMBER: 320 Newbury Street CITY OR TOWN: Boston - Federal Massachusetts31141/ CODE 3025 RECENF APR 5 1973 State Local Eaunty NA MONAL REGISTER TIION T6 STATE: CODE Massachusetts 025 Zn19 ^ 468830 M 32742 STATE: Massachusetts COUNTY: Suffolk ENTRY NUMBER DATE 1973 MA FOR NPS USE ONLY DESCRIPTION (Check One) - Deteriorated CONDITION Excellent X Good (Check One) Fair Ruins - Unexposed (Check One) X Altered - Unaltered X Moved - Origiral Site DESCRIBE THE PRESENT AND ORIGINAL (if known) PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

Description of the property

The Alvah Kittredge House is a large free-standing frame Greek Revival mansion of two stories. Presently, the house is square with a small rear addition and has a hipped roof topped by a flat glazed octagonal cupola. Tall Ionic columns that support the full portico's broad entablature exhibit strong horizontal and vertical emphasis. Surfaced with flush siding, the five bay facade has elongated ground floor windows with 6/6 pane sashes that are topped by slightly pedi- mented lintels but are otherwise unframed. The upper windows have 4/4 pane sashes. Although the central door frame is covered by a projecting bracketed hood of a later date, the trabfated bands of lights surrounding the doorway appear original. Heavy plain pilasters at the corners frame the entire facade.

The side walls, sheathed in narrow clapboards, are four bays deep; pairs of windows flank two evenly spaced interior fire- places whose chimney stacks protrude from the roofline. When the house was ion ed, inthenasea 1g5 leentng tostde ping caee mnee. The foun- 3) RECEIVED APR 5 1973 NATIONA! REGISTE OI' 3012 SEEINSTRUCTIONS F -

From the form

The catalogue entry the section above was filed under.

SIGNIFICANCE PERIOD (Check One or More as Appropriate) Pre-Columbian | 15th Century - 16th Century 17th Century SPECIFIC DATE(S) (If Applicable and Known) 1836 - 1896 AREAS OF SIGNIFICANCE (Check One or More as Appropriate) Abor iginal - Education Prehistoric Engineering Historic Industry Agriculture Invention Architecture Landscape Art Architecture Commerce Literature Communications Military Conservation Music - 18th Century [X 19th Century - 20th Century Political - : Religion/Phi- losophy Science Sculpture Social/Human- itarian Theater Transportation Urban Planning .Tosl Other (Specify) STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

Statement of significance

: Built in 1836, the Alvah Kittredge House, a handsome Greek Revival mansion, is significant both for its embodiment of the distinctive characteristics of its type and period and for its associations with the lives of two locally prominant persons--Alvah Kittredge, early developer of the area, and Nathaniel J. Bradyee, noted Boston architect. Kittredge, a merchant, purchased several large parcels of land in the Roxbury Highlands which rose south of the early 18th century settle- ment at Eliot Square. His mansion was constructed on the site of the Roxbury Lower Fort on what is now Highland, Linwood and Cedar Streets. The Lower Fort, erected in the summer of 1775, was a companion to the High Fort, built in the same year in the location of the present Highland Park. Both forts were part of the chain of defenses that helped bring about the evacuation of the British from Boston.

Kittredge and several other investors began an informal movement which resulted in the development of a dense residential suburb. Besides many designs for South End residences, Bradlee is known 5e 1fn 256, south End ros dence sigc 87 Kittredge sold the house in 1866, and in five years Bradlee became its owner- for his plans of The Fellowes Athenaeum in Roxbury, the former Boston & Maine Railroad Station at Haymarket Square, the Second Church, Copley Square, St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church in the South End, and the Old New England Mutual Life Insurance building at Post Office Square. Bradlee himself did some remodeling of his Roxbury house. By the time Bradlee sold the house in 1896, the development boom had spread, covering the Highlands with blocks of rowhouses and other forms of multi-family housing.

When the last two estates on Kittredge Square were to be sub- divided, the Kittredge House was moved from its probable Highland Street frontage to the present location on Linwood Street. Although hemmed in by later buildings, the house occupies a key position visually on Kittredge Square being clearly visible to anyone approaching the square on Highland Street. 12 RECEIVED APR 5 NATIONAL 1973 REGISTER OL 16

The rest of the file

Bibliography, boundary description, and the people who prepared and reviewed the nomination.

MAJOR BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES Drake, Frances S., The Town of Roxbury: Its Memorable Persons and Places, Roxbury, 1878 Unpublishedpapers of Reverend Wolcott Cutler (at Boston Athenaeum) Major, Howard, Domestic Architecture of the Early American Republic, Philadelphia, 1926. Plans, Vol. 1-50, N. J. Bradlee (at Boston Athenaeum) 12.

porci:a GEOGRAPHICAL DATA LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE COORDINATES DEFINING A RECTANGLE LOCATING THE PROPERTY 0 R CORNER LATITUDE Degrees Minutes Seconds LONGITUDE Degrees Minutes Seconds LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE COORDINATES DEFINING THE CENTER POINT OF A PROPERTY OF LESS THAN TEN ACRES Degrees LATITUDE Minutes Seconds LONGITUDE Degrees Minutes Seconds NW NE SE " 42 19 39.62 71 05 43.59 APPROXIMA TE ACREAGE OF NOMINATED PROPERTY: less than one acre 31 ILIST ALL STATES AND COUNTIES FOR PROPERTIES OVERLAPPING STATE OR COUNTY BOONDARIES STATE: CODE COUNTY STATE: CODE COUNTY: Fi Thng PdODE STATE: CODE COUNTY: NATIONAL CoDE STATE: CODE COUNTY: REGISTER 187g SgpE KODE FORMPREPAREDBY NAME AND TITLE: Judith McDonough for Elizabeth Amadon, State Survey Director ORGANIZATION Massachusetts Historical Commission DATE March, 1973- STREET AND NUMBER: 40 Beacon Street CITY OR TOWN: STATE Boston STATE LIAISON OFFICER CERTIFICATION Massachusetts NATIONAL REGISTER VERIFICATION CODE 025 As the designated State Liaison Officer for the Na- tional Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (Public Law 89-665), I hereby nominate this property for inclusion in the National Register and certify that it has been evaluated according to the criterid and procedures set forth by the National Park Service.

The recommended level of significance of this nomination is: National State Local I hereby certify that this property is included in the Nationa1 Register. Ootertur Chief, Office of Archeology and Hist oric Preservation Date 578/23 Name Secretary of the Commonwealth and Chairman, Massachusetts Historical Title Commission ATTEST: Date March 30, 1973 Date 4! minh PROPERT Kittredge(Qluah) Kouse STArE Masa Plymonth. WORKING NUMBER 4.5.23.2743 TECH REVIEW suffolk Photos Maps CONTROL REVIEW 73000655 4-13- 13 HISTORIAN OK 1/13/13 y- Am Retum Submettel ARCHEOLOGIST lassome it was moved c.1896, wlich meaus Hea t has been on the present site much longerthan it was ou the original site. Beantiful blde.

REVIEW UNIT CHIEF KH 4/24/23 BRANCH CHIEF KEEPER Aque i KH Gosept fr iti archuteateua ssfecient National Register write-up Federal Register entry 2-3-23 Send-back Re-submit Entered MAY 8 1973 BOSTONs (TrANESURY) ,ALVAH Hou HPS Humber Title: sitenias Loc. sutiaisTes saput.

Eeusat 10okl J N12900 SA PROPERTY OF THE NATIONAL REGISTER Form 10-301 (July 1969) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES PROPERTY MAP FORM (Type all entries - attach to or enclose with map) STATE COUNTY Suffolk FOR NPS USE ONLY ENTRY NUMBER 8 HAT Z - NAME COMMON: Alvah Kittredge House AND/OR HISTORIC: LOCATION STREET AND NUM BER: 10 Linwood Street CITY OR TOWN: Boston (Roxbury) STATE: Massachusetts CODE COUNTY: 025 Suffolk MAP REFERENCE SOURCE: USGS 7.5' Series, Boston South Quadrangle SCALE: 1:24,000 DATE: 1965 REQUIREMENTS TO BE INCLUDED ON ALL MAPS 1. Property broundaries where required. 2. North arrow. 3. Latitude and longitude reference.

CODE 025 RECÊNVED NATIONAL REGISTER 192g OIIIE18 ENTRIES IN THE NATIONAL REGISTER STATE MASSACHUSETTS MAY 8 Date Entered 1973 Name Location Pratt (Dexter) House O1d Chelmsford Garrison House Complex Kittredge (Alvah) House Boston Public Library Cambridge Middlesex County Chelmsford Middlesex County (Roxbury) Boston Suffolk County Boston Suffolk County Also Notified Hon. Edward M. Kennedy Hon. Edward W. Brooke Hon. Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr. Hon. Paul Cronin Hon. John Moakley Director, Northeast Region PHR NRowland: mm State Historic Preservation Officer Hon. John P. X. Davozen Secretary of the Conmonwealth Chaizman, Massachusetts Historical Commission 40 Beacon Street Boston, Massachusetts 02108 5/9/73