The Charles Browne House is a historic house located in North Adams, Massachusetts. Built in 1869, it was the home of Charles A. Browne Sr., inventor of the

electrical fuse In electronics and electrical engineering, a fuse is an electrical safety device that operates to provide overcurrent protection of an electrical circuit. Its essential component is a metal wire or strip that melts when too much current flows thr ...

and an innovator of devices and materials used in construction of the nearby Hoosac Tunnel. The house is a well-preserved example of a local variant of

Italianate architecture The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

, and was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1985.

Description and history

The Charles Browne House is located southeast of downtown North Adams, on the east side of South Church Street (

Massachusetts Route 8A Route 8A refers to two separate north–south state highways in western Massachusetts. Both sections are marked as "Route 8A" on guide signs and reassurance markers. In official documentation, MassHighway denotes one highway as 8A-U, and th ...

), a short way north of Southview Cemetery and also a short way west of the western portal of the Hoosac Tunnel. It is a two-story wood-frame structure, roughly cubic in shape, with a low-pitch hip roof and clapboarded exterior. The main facade is three bays wide, with the entrance in the left bay, sheltered by a hip-roofed portico supported by decorative metalwork. Both the porch and main roof have extended eaves supported by decorative brackets. A single-story polygonal window bay projects from the right side, and a two-story addition extends to the rear. The house was built in 1869 for Charles Albert Browne Sr., a local inventor who is credited with a number of innovations while working for companies providing explosives to the builders of the tunnel. Most significant of these was the development of an

that would work reliably in the tunnel's damp conditions. His house exhibits a number of characteristic signatures of a distinctive regional variant of the Italianate style: the side entrance on the front facade, the window bay, and the bracketed eaves. Browne and his brother established a small factory across the street, which survives in significantly altered form.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts, state=collapsed Houses in North Adams, Massachusetts Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Berkshire County, Massachusetts Houses completed in 1869 Italianate architecture in Massachusetts

Description and history

See also

References