The Charles Newton House is a historic house at 24 Brattle Street in
Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...
.
Description and history
The original owner of the house was Charles Newton, a farmer. The exact date of construction is not known, but it was most likely between 1846, when Newton acquired the land, and the early 1850s, when the house was first noted in the city directories. About 1861 Newton sold the property to Calvin Foster, railroad financier and founder and president of the City National Bank of Worcester. In 1890 Foster sold the house to architect
James E. Fuller of the well-known firm of
Fuller & Delano
Fuller & Delano was an architectural firm in Worcester, Massachusetts, active from 1878 until 1942. It originally consisted of architects James E. Fuller and Ward P. Delano. The firm designed more than 20 buildings that were later listed on the U ...
, who lived there until his death in 1901.
[Caleb A. Wall, ]
North Worcester: Its First Settlers and Old Farms
' (Worcester: Caleb A. Wall, 1890) Fuller's sons, also architects, built their own houses on the property. J. Edward Fuller, the elder, built his house at what is now numbered 40 Brattle Street about 1896, while Robert L. Fuller, the younger, had built his at 14 Brattle Street by 1911.
[1911 atlas of Worcester]
Likely built in 1840s, the -story wood-frame house is a rare local example of a house transitional between Federal and Greek Revival styling. The side hall, front gable plan is typically
Greek Revival
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...
, but some details are
Federal
Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to:
Politics
General
*Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies
*Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...
, such as the narrow corner boards. The doorway, flanked by sidelight windows and surrounded by an architrave with corner and center blocks, was derived from designs published by
Asher Benjamin
Asher Benjamin (June 15, 1773July 26, 1845) was an American architect and author whose work transitioned between Federal architecture and the later Greek Revival architecture. His seven handbooks on design deeply influenced the look of cities a ...
.
The house's northern wing and main stair, featuring
Colonial Revival
The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture.
The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the archi ...
details, was likely an addition added by Fuller.
The house 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 1980.
See also
*
*
Notes
References
Houses completed in 1833
Houses in Worcester, Massachusetts
National Register of Historic Places in Worcester, Massachusetts
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Worcester County, Massachusetts
Greek Revival architecture in Massachusetts
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