Brattle, William, House

Moved Ruins - Unexposed (Check One) [X Origiral Site ( The William Brattle House has a five-bay, two-story facade with a gambrel roof, typical of early Georgian design in Cambridge. The bracketed cornice and the location of the second story windows close under the eaves are common features of the period. Clapboards are probably original although corner boards may have been added later and dormers are in the original location, if not the original condition. While these features give the house a convincing early Georgian appearance, several changes have occurred to alter details of the facade. Original window sash and frames were replaced probably in the early 19th century, by 6/6 sash and lighter frames, and the present blinds were added then as well.

The enclosed entrance vestibule is an 1891 addition, replacing a bracketed hood of c. 1860. The Brattle house has a two-room, center-hall plan with a three-run staircase whose main axis parallels the hall, a plan found in other moderate-size houses of the period. The carved spiral newel and the elaborate balusters are original but the staircase itself had to be rebuilt after a fire in 1955. Much of the trim of the main rooms has been removed but original paneling can be found in the right parlor where the southwest wall is decorated with pilasters on pedestals and ornate bolection moldings over the mantel and doors. / The Brattle estate comprised about 22 acres by 1801, which today would include an area from Brattle Square to Ash Street.

The grounds were always admired for their gardens, particular- ly in the late 18th century when they were landscaped with fruit trees and flowers, a mall, a pond, and a grotto as well.

NATTONA 00 The William Brattle House is a significant example of early Georgian architecture in Cambridge, preserving good interior trim and retaining its one-room deep, gambrelaroofed mass, in spite of later additions to the rear, and in the midst of increasing density of surrounding development. The house was built about 1727 for William Brattle, a promi- nent Cambridge lawyer and politician, who became major-general of the Massachusetts Bay militia in 1771.OLike many of his , to flee Boston in 1774 because of his Tory sympathies. During the Revolution, the house accomodated Thomas Mifflin, aide-de-camp to Washington and commissary general. In 1784 William Brattle's son Thomas took back the estate, restored the house, and improved the grounds with extensive landscaping.

The estate was broken up after Thomas' death in 1801, and it continued to be subdivided throughout the 19th century. Ine nistory of the Brattle House changed significantly when it was soia in 180 to. the Cambridge Social Union, a group founded in 1871 to provide intellectual and social activity for young adults in the area. Seeking more space and permanant quartens, the Union purchased the Brattle House and the lot to the south- east of the house, made extensive renovations carefully retain- ing much interior trim, then built Brattle Hall (Longfellow, Alden & Harlow, architects) at 40 Brattle Street for lectures, concerts, and dramatic presentations.

The role of the house changed again in 1938 when the Union could no longer be supported as a social agency and the Cambridge Center for Adult Education was formed to take its place. The Center sold Brattle Hall in 1948 and expanded the Brattle House itself to the rear to accomodate increased educational activi- ties.