BlockThe nomination, in full
Bibliography, boundary description, and the people who prepared and reviewed the nomination.
ORM B*- BUILDING APR - 4 1986 ASSACEUSETTS EISTORICAL COMMISSION O BOYLSTON SIREET; BOSTON, MA 02116 bld Cam- aridge 0. C. USGS Map #1 Iowa Address Cambridge MRA Cambridae, Mass. 35-51 Walker Street Historic Name Bennink-Douglas Cottages PHOTO: (3x3" or 3x5", black & white) staple to left side of form Photo aumber. 60-30 SKETCH MAP Show property's location ia relation to nesrest cross streets and/or geographical features. Indicate all buildings berween inventoried property and nearest intersection. Indicate aorth. Use: Present residential Original DESCRIPTION: residential Date_ 1874 Source deeds and tax records Style. Mansard Architect G.J. Bennink & Douglas, builders ixterior wall fabric wood Outbuildings _NA Major alterations (with dates) None (See Attached Map) Moved no Date NA Approx. acreage . 385 acres Setting A mid-nineteenth century residential neighborhood. Recorded by B.
Bunting/T. Alduino Organization Cambridge Historical Comm. Date 1968, 1985 UTM: USGS049323140/4653925 .385 acres (Staple additional sheets bere) INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston Commmity: Cambridge, Mass. Old Cambridge Form No: o.C. I 13 Property Name: Bennink-Douglas Cottages Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below. Architectural Significance The Bennink-Douglas Cottages are four virtually identical double Mansard style workers' cottages. Rising one story from a brick foundation to a full mansard roof above, the houses have scored flush boarding on the street facades and clapboards on the sides and rear. The facades are symmetrically arranged around a pair of paneled double doors flanked by projecting bays carried up into the mansard; there are also bays on the side elevations.
Architectural embellishment is limited to elaborate brackets at the doorways and scalloped or hexagonal slates. The paired eaves brackets are small and simple as are the hoods above the 2 + 2 windows. None. of the houses retains its original steps, and 49-51 lost its entrance brackets when a Colonial Revival porch was added. Otherwise, the Walker Street houses retain a remarkable degree of integrity and are significant under Criterion C as displaying distinguishable characteristics of the Mansard style, particularly of the cottage type. Historical Significance The four Bennink-Douglas Cottages at 35 to 5lwalker Street charac- terize one of several low-cost, middle-class housing solutions developed in Cambridge after the Civil war. Population growth in this period was explosive, increasing from 29,000 in 1865 to 48,000 in 1875 to 82,000 in 1895.
Most new housing constructed in the fifteen years after the War was designed in the Mansard style, chosen because it was cheap to build with the nearly perfected balloon frame technique and because the full top story under the Mansard roof afforded more space. After about 1870, scarce building sites accessible to transportation and rising costs cramped housing alternatives, especially for the lower and middle classes. Doubie houses on smaller lots produced an early solution to this problem, and were popular in Cambridge until the development of the three- and four-decker styles in the 1880's, which soon supplanted Mansards as the speculative building of choice. These cottages also characterize the typical pattern of land de- velopment in nineteenth century Cambridge. Originally part of the Lower Common, Walker Street was laid out in 1868 on a former cow pasture.
The pasture was the property of Thomas Stearns, whose house fronted on Garden Street. Immediately after the War, Stearns subdivided, and sold four lots on the south side of the new street to Gerritt L. Bennink, a house carpenter, and William G. Douglas, a builder. Bennink and Douglas had each constructed a handful of houses at the time and seem to have been young men who went Continued Staple to Inventory form at bottom INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston Commumity : Cambridge, Mass. Old Cambridge Form No: O.C. I 13 Property Name: Bennink-Douglas Cottages Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued bela. Historical Significance (cont'd) into partnership to take on a larger project; these cottages were their only recorded collaboration.
This may have been a result of the Panic of 1873, as none of the houses had been sold by 1876. The Bennink-Douglas partnership produced a speculative housing development typical of its time. William Dean Howells, writing of this part of Cambridge shortly after his arrival from the Midwest in 1871, remarked on ". . . the flight of French roofed houses suddenly settled a year or two hence. .. ," and elsewhere of the ". . . half-finished wooden houses, empty mortar-beds, and bits of lath and slate strewn over the scarred and mutilated ground . . - all around carpenters were building new houses. - This activity made the Mansard the typical tract house of the seventies, and characterizes many Cambridge neighborhoods.
- The Bennink-Douglas Cottages are significant under Criterion A for their importance in understanding the development of the double house in Cambridge, in particular those aimed at the lower and middle-income homeowner in the post-Civil War period. Staple to Inventory form at bottom INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston Community : Candr ¿amorlage Form No: o.C. I 13 Property Name: Bennink-Douglas Cottages Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below. Criteria For Evaluation The Bennink-Douglas Cottages are a cluster of Mansard double cottages. The four virtually identical buildings retain their integrity of location, design, setting, material, feeling and workmanship.
Although their components are not distinctive, these buildings represent a dis- tinguishable entity that meets Criterion C of the National Register of Historic Places. They also meet Criterion A for their significance in understanding the development of multi-family houses in Cambridge. Bennink-Douglas Cottages were found to be significant under the theme of architecture: mid-nineteenth century vernacular double houses, as proposed by Dr. Cynthia Zaitzevsky to the Review Committee for the Study of Architecture of Harvard University and Its Environs in Cambridge. Walker Street is an I-shaped street which is relatively free from traffic. Houses are small and set close together. While the cottages share a similarity of scale and style with the other houses on Walker Street, they are distinguishable as a rare grouping of double Mansard- cottages in Old Cambridge.
Staple to Inventory form at bottom INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston (Conmnity: Cambridge Mass. Property Name: Resource Cambridge Multipie Area Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below. Standard Bibliography - Cambridge Multiple Resource Nomination Bunting, Bainbridge, and Floyd, Margaret H., ed., Harvard, An Architectural History. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1985 Cambridge Historical Commission, Survey of Architectural History in Cambridge. Cambridge: The MIT Press. Report One: East Cambridge (1965) Report Iwo: Mid cambridge (1967) Report Three: Cambridgeport (1971) Report Four: Old Cambridge (1973) Report Five: Northwest Cambridge (1977) Cambridge Historical Society, Proceedings.
Cambridge, 1906-present Daughters of the American Revolution, Hannah Winthrop Chapter, An Historical Guide to Cambridge. Cambridge, 1907 Gilman, A., ed., Cambridge of Eighteen Hundred and Ninety Six. Cambridge: The Riverside Press, 1896 Paige, L.R., History of Cambridge. Boston: H.O Hougton and Company, 1877 Paige, L.R.; Gozzaldi, M.I., ed., History of Cambridge Supplement and Index. Cambridge: The Cambridge Historical Society, 1930 Rettig, R.B., Guide to Cambridge Architecture. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1969 Stillman, W.J., ed., Poetic Localities of Cambridge. Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1876 woods, R.A., and Kennedy, A.J.; Warner, S.B., ed.. The Zone Of Emergence.
Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1962 Zaitzevsky, C., with the advice of the Review Committee members, The Harvard University Study of Historic and Architectural Properties in the Environs of Cambridge, (April 1983 - December 1984) Staple to Inventory form at botiom ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE (Describe important architectural features and evaluate in terms of other buildings within the cormmity.) -(See Added Sheet) ISTORICAL (Explain the role owners played in local or stat listory and how the building relates to the development of the cammmity. (See Added Sheet) BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES (name of publication, author, date and publisher) (See Standard Bibliography) Specific Reference: Howel1s, W.D. 1875. Suburban Sketches. Boston: J.R.
Osgood Company, 10M - 7/8 NPS Form 10 (7-81) United States Department of the interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form Continuation sheet Item number For NPS use only received date entered Multiple Resource Area Thematic Group Page /1 411 Name State Cambridge Multiple Resource Area MA Nomination/Type of Review 161. Mead, Alpheus, House Heviey Keeper Attest 162. Snow, Daniel, House DOE/OWNER OBJECTION / Keeper Sudefentivo Feviev Attest 163. Wyeth, John, House Tolle Smeifve Kawtore / Keeper Attest 164. HumER-hovell HousE subefentive hevtew Keeper Attest Subsbantive Review 165. Reversible Collar Company Building Keeper Attest «Slyi 166, Ash street Illstord District (Boundary InereasKeeper Subsbentive Reviem Attest 167. Berkeley Street Historic District (Boundary fKeeper Increase) Entered Nationel Register 168.
Bertram Hall at Radcliffe College Eatored 1n tlia National Regieter Date/Signature Weliam H. Bravam 4.138 William H. Braviam 4.13.82 Determmed elizbu WeiamH.Brackom 4.13.82 Lnl Duhi 122283 tuclan Oanyul 9-22-85- AuennalByas 5-19-8e 169. Bennink-Douglas Cottages Fateced ona. Regletor 170. Brabrook, E. H., House Entered 1n the National Regiates Attest fakéeper AelmByus-s-16 Attest fKeeper Attest frkeeper AelmeByuns1916 Attest 86001212 WASO Form - 177 ('R" June 1984) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES EVALUATION/RETURN SHEET Bennink--Douglas Cottages (Cambridge MRA) Middlesex County MASSACHUSETTS resubmission nomination by person or local government owner objection appeal Substantive Review: Reviewer's comments: sample request APR Working No._ Fed. Reg.
Date:c 2 13/82 Date Due: 5/ 181 Action: _LACCEPT Entoced I W -RETURN National Register REJECT- Federal Agency:. 4 1986 -5/19/86 5÷9-86 -appeal -NR decision Recom./Criteria Reviewer. Discipline. Date see continuation sheet Nomination returned for: _technical corrections cited below _substantive reasons discussed below 1. Name 2. Location 3. Classification Category Ownership Public Acquisition 4. Owner of Property 5. Location of Legal Description 6. Representation in Existing Surveys Has this property been determined eligible? yes no 7. Description Condition - excellent good fair deteriorated ruins unexposed Check one - unaltered altered Describe the present and original (if known) physical appearance summary paragraph completeness clarity alterations/integrity dates boundary selection Status Accessible Present Use Check one MJ original site moved date 8.
Significance Period Areas of Significance-Check and justify below Specific dates Statement of Significance (in one paragraph) Builder/Architect summary paragraph completeness clarity applicable criteria justification of areas checked relating significance to the resource context relationship of integrity to significance justification of exception other 9. Major Bibliographical References 10. Geographical Data Acreage of nominated property Quadrangle name UTM References Verbal boundary description and justification 11. Form Prepared By 12. State Historic Preservation Officer Certification The evaluated significance of this property within the state is: national _state local State Historic Preservation Officer signature title date 13.
Other Maps Photographs Other Questions concerning this nomination may be directed to _ Signed - Date - Phone: GPO 918-450 Comments for any item may be continued on an attached sheet Walker Street N .R.D. Canbridee MRA 45-47 Walker St. 60-30 Cottages CHAUNCY GARDEN (ou.00) (29.41) M.I3 (aao) WALKER ST.PLACE (E2ao TAY WALKER Nº (60°) ST. Cambridge MRA Bennink-Douglas Cottages 35-51 Walker Street, Cambridge, Mass. 40 Base: City of Cambridge Assessor's Plans January 1983 SHEPARD ST. Please refer to the map in the Multiple Property Cover Sheet for this property Multiple Property Cover Sheet Reference Number: 64000275