The Edwin Abbot House, also known as the Zabriskie House, is an historic house at 27 Garden Street (originally 1 Follen Street) in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

. Built in 1889 to a design by Longfellow, Alden & Harlow, it is a prominent local example of residential

Richardsonian Romanesque Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revival style incorporates 11th and 12th century southern French, Spanish, and Italian Romanesque ...

architecture. It has served as the principal building of the Longy School (now the

Longy School of Music of Bard College Longy School of Music of Bard College is a private music school in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1915 as the Longy School of Music, it was one of the four independent degree-granting music schools in the Boston region along with the New En ...

) since 1937. It 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 1979, and included in the Follen Street Historic District in 1986.

Description and history

The Edwin Abbot House stands west of

Harvard Square Harvard Square is a triangular plaza at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue, Brattle Street and John F. Kennedy Street near the center of Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The term "Harvard Square" is also used to delineate the busin ...

in western Cambridge, at the formerly five-way junction of Concord Avenue, Garden Street, and Follen Street. Follen Street and the eastern portion of Concord Avenue, both quiet residential streets, are isolated from the rest of the intersection by a pedestrian plaza just south of the house. The traditional front facade of the house faces south toward Follen Street, with its major entrance now in the modern addition facing the Garden Street/Concord Avenue intersection. The main block of the house is stories in height, and is built out of a combination of gray and rust-colored rectangular granite blocks, with red sandstone trim. It is covered by a red slate hip roof. The front facade is divided into three basic sections, the most prominent a projecting polygonal bay topped by a pyramidal roof. The entrance is set in the center section, under a segmented stone arch. Trim beltcourses extend around the building, acting as both sills and lintels for windows. The interior includes a grand entrance hall with high quality woodwork and a grand staircase. The house was built in 1889 to a design by Longfellow, Alden & Harlow for lawyer and railroad executive

Edwin Hale Abbot Edwin Hale Abbot (1834–1927) was a lawyer and railroad executive, active in Boston and Milwaukee. Biography Abbot was born in Beverly, Massachusetts on January 26, 1834. His relatives included brother Henry Larcom Abbot and nephew Fred ...

(1834–1927). It remained in the Abbot family until 1937, and has since then been home to the institution now called the

. In the 1960s a modern addition was made to the north, designed by Huygens and Tappe; it houses the Pickman Concert Hall. The rooms of the mansion are used by the school for a variety of academic purposes, including offices and practice spaces.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Houses completed in 1889 Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Cambridge, Massachusetts Longy School of Music of Bard College Harvard Square Historic district contributing properties in Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Description and history

See also

References