Photograph by Marcbela (Marc N. Belanger), Public domain. Via
Wikimedia Commons.
Kittredge, Alvah, House
Built in 1836 in the Greek Revival architecture. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1973. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
From the record
“The Alvah Kittredge House is an historic house in the highlands of the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The Greek Revival mansion was built in 1836 for Alvah Kittredge, a leading real estate developer of the time.”
Wikipedia article Alvah Kittredge House, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 206 National Register listings in Suffolk County · listed in 1973 · category: Building · built in 1836, Greek Revival architecture · one of 5 National Historic Landmarks in Suffolk County.
National Register reference number.73000855- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
What happened here
An account from the chapter on Boston city, The inset identifies its exact
source book and publication year.
IN giving some notices of manners and social life during this period, I shall speak first of usages which were characteristic of the close of the last century: most of them continued without essential modification until our city charter swept away the old landmarks, and Boston felt the im¬ pulses which mark a new epoch in her history.
Illustrations: State House and the Monument (in 1811), 64; the Monument from the corner of Temple and Derne streets, 65 ; the Monument and the Thurston House, 65; Beacon Street and the Common (in 1804-1811), heliotype, 65; Boston from Breed's Hill (in 1791), 66; the Faneuil-Phillips House,
IN giving some notices of manners and social life during this period, I shall speak first of usages which were characteristic of the close of the last century: most of them continued without essential modification until our city charter swept away the old landmarks, and Boston felt the im¬ pulses which mark a new epoch in her history. It is difficult to deal justly with ways of living which are not widely different from those that surround us. We miss the salient contrasts which lend themselves to picturesque de¬ scription, and are tempted to look for exceptional occurrences to brighten a narrative, rather than for facts which are truly symptomatic of taste and thought. Were it possible to go back four-score years, or even a century, and mingle with those then conducting the town, we should not feel among strangers. In many respects their ways were counterparts of our own. In certain directions, indeed, we might note a narrowness of range and a contraction of outlook, while envying the vigor of speech and de¬ cisiveness of action which seemed the outcome of the limitations. When Massachusetts took her place in the sisterhood of States, the gigantic up¬ heaval of the French Revolution had not taken place. The prophets whom her capital was to raise up to demand the redemption of human society, each with his panacea for its sad ailments, had put in no appearance. The tyranny of England had been broken by an heroic effort, and any further redemption which society might need would be provided by those who VOL. iv. - i.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 42 fires within 5 miles of Kittredge, Alvah, House between
2015 and 2020, burning about 40 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 were recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Recreation and ceremony
19
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
13
Smoking
7
Arson/incendiarism
2
Equipment and vehicle use
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 15,929 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Kittredge, Alvah, House between 1810 and
1975: 6,840 Plantae, 4,379 Fungi, 3,545 Animalia, 655 Chromista, 212 Protozoa, 208 Bacteria, 90 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by (MARSDEN, H W), ?, A B Seymour and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
9 workings within 5 miles of Kittredge, Alvah, House: 7 plants, 2 past producers.
7 still produce. What was taken out: Iron, Lead, Gypsum-Anhydrite, Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Boston, the town this property stands in, in 64 storm reports between 1994 and 2024: 37 thunderstorm wind, 9 flash flood, 7 lightning, 7 flood.
The reports record 1 death and 9 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
A 50 year old man was struck by lightning while walking in an area known as the Sugar Bowl in South Boston. Lightning struck him in the head, passing through his back and exiting his feet. He collapsed in cardiac arrest and was revived and hospitalized for several days before dying from his injuries.
A 29 year old male and a 29 year old female were knocked unconscious when lightning struck them at Thomas Park, where the pair were watching the July 4th fireworks. They regained consciousness prior to the arrival of EMTs, but unable to feel their legs and were transported to Brigham and Women's Hospital.
In Boston, two cars were stuck in flood waters on Corey Road. Storrow Drive was closed due to flooding at the Mass Avenue and Longmeadow Bridges. Several other roadways in the city experienced significant flooding.
Numerous trees and wires and several utility poles were downed throughout Boston, including in Boston Common. Several trees were downed onto cars throughout town, though no injuries resulted. One tree was downed onto a building on Corey Road. The Automated Surface Observing System at Logan International Airport in Boston, MA (KBOS) recorded sustained wind speeds of 47 mph and wind gusts up to 68 mph.
Multiple trees and wires were downed throughout Boston, including on Barstow Street, Forrester Street, Washington Street, Houston Road, and Keith Street. Trees were downed onto cars on Forrester and Washington Streets. A portion of a chimney was blown over onto Keith Street.
The National Weather Service at Logan International Airport recorded a wind gust to 60 mph as a severe thunderstorm moved across the city of Boston. Scaffolding was blown down at government center and some large trees were blown down in Revere and Winthrop. One damaged a house in Winthrop and a tree limb and electrical wires fell onto an auto. The occupants of the auto were not injured.
At 546 PM EST, an amateur radio operator reported two trees down on Belden Street in the Upham's Corner section of Boston. Also, two trees were down on Hamlet Street including one down on three cars. A tree was down on Willis Street. A tree was down on wires on Taft Street.
At 3:26 PM EST, heavy rain caused the intersection of Lewis and Marginal Streets in East Boston to be flooded and impassable. At 3:36 PM EST a car was trapped in floodwaters at Clark and Stockton Streets in Chelsea. At 3:38 PM EST several cars were trapped in floodwaters on the McClellan Highway, Condor Street and Putnam Street in East Boston.
At 5:05 PM EST several cars on Child Street and Boynton Street were trapped in flood waters as high as the car doors. At 5:10 PM EST a car was trapped in flooding on Columbia Road at Bodwell Street, and Ceylon Street was impassable at Quincy Street due to flooding.
A tree was downed by thunderstorm winds onto a car at the intersection of Bakersfield and Stoughton Streets. Another tree was downed onto a car on Columbia Road.
8 papers published in this town,
digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read: 0 issues,
0 pages. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be
looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
From the nomination file
1,647 words on record
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
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 -
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.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 73000855, 9 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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