Flagg--Coburn House

The Flagg-Coburn House sits on a bluff above the Merrimack River in the eastern section of Lowell, an industrial city in northeastern Massachusetts. Built in 1926, it is a low stone-faced structure, reminiscent in style and forn of an Old World cottage. The building, sited on a granite ledge, is set back about 52 feet above the river's southern shore and 80 feet from East Merrimack Street. Its northern facade overlooks the river, while its southern facade is oriented toward the street. The building is flanked by low, dense evergreen bushes and rhododendrons, while the lot contains several evergreens and deciduous trees.

The house is located in the midst of more recent construction, densely set: to the east and west, the 10,000-square-foot lot is abutted by mid 20th century houses, while to the north it adjoins the river. There is one outbuilding on the property, a simple frame storage shed built within the Tast 25 years. The housewas designed by New York-born architect Ernest Flagg and built according to his principles for inexpensive house construction. Its plan was said to be based on clasically proportioned modules, with attention paid to symmetry and balance aswell as to construction costs and practicality of room arrangement.

In appearance, the building is essentially a gable-roofed rectangular core with hip-roofed extensions, its roofline broken by projecting dormers, monitors, and fieldstone chinneys. A photoessay in the Boston Herald, published as the building was nearing completion in January 1926, depicted the most unusual features of Mr. Flagg's innovative system of small-house construction.

(in one paragraph) The Flagg-Coburn House retains integrity of location, design, materials, setting,feeling,workmanship, and association. Built in Lowell in 1926, the house was designed by prominent New York architect Ernest Flagg for Frederick W. Coburn, a member of a local industrial family. It is the earliest known New England example of Flagg's unique design for a smnall, inexpensive suburban bungalow. Representing the work of a master, the house therefore fulfils Criterion C. of the National Register of Historic Places on the local and state levels. Ernest Flagg (185/-1947), the house's designer/architect, was born in Brooklyn but educated abroad; in 1888, he graduated from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts ir Paris.

Flagg was well-schooled in the methods and principles of the Beaux Arts school, with its emphasis on a clear articulation of function and a logical balance between aesthetics and practicality. He returned to New York thoroughly versed as well in the richly detailed, classically inspired style favored by the school and its architects. He established an independent practice in New York City in 1891. In 1896, Flagg was commissioned to design the new campus for the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. A year later, he designed a fine Beaux-Arts style building for the Singer Sewing Machine Company on New York City's lower Broadway.

Shortly thereafter, he designed the Bourne Building on the lot to the west of the Singer Company's building, which was subsequently enlarged In 1906-1908, the Singer Offic Building and the Bourne Building were remodeled and intergrated in the forty-one-story Singer Tower, at 612 feet then the tallest office building in the world. He also designed the office building for publisher Charles Scribner's Sons at 597 Fifth Avenue, which still serves the firm today.