The Josephine M. Hagerty House is a historic house at 357 Atlantic Avenue in
Cohasset, Massachusetts. Built in 1938, it was the first building in the United States commissioned from
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...
architect
Walter Gropius, who collaborated with
Marcel Breuer on its design. It is one of the nation's early examples of
International Style International style may refer to:
* International Style (architecture), the early 20th century modern movement in architecture
*International style (art), the International Gothic style in medieval art
*International Style (dancing), a term used in ...
architecture, 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 1997.
Description and history
The Hagerty House is set on a point of land overlooking
Massachusetts Bay on the north shore of Cohasset, west of Sandy Beach. The house is set near the rocky coastline, on a foundation made of locally gathered fieldstone. Parts of the house are supported by
lally column
A Lally column is a round or square thin-walled structural steel column filled with concrete and oriented vertically to provide support to beams or timbers stretching over long spans.Lally columns are an engineered Component and as such mu ...
s. The house is an L-shaped structure, with a horizontal (roughly north–south) single-story section and a three-story section extending west (inland) below its left end. The exterior is finished in vertical board siding, interspersed with floor-to-ceiling plate glass windows, and bands of windows set to maximize ocean views. A sundeck projects further to the south. The building has undergone a number of minor alterations, primarily in response to the harsh conditions imposed on the original materials used. Windows have been replaced, retaining the basic plan and intent, and stone used in the chimneys, foundations, and retaining walls has been repointed using salt-resistant cement.
The house was built in 1938, and was the first commissioned design of
Walter Gropius in the United States (his first US design was
his own house in
Lincoln, Massachusetts
Lincoln is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. The population was 7,014 according to the 2020 United States Census, including residents of Hanscom Air Force Base that live within town limits. The town, located in the MetroWest region o ...
). It was commissioned by John Hagerty, a student of his at the
Harvard Graduate School of Design
The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) is the graduate school of design at Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It offers master's and doctoral programs in architecture, landscape architecture, urban ...
, as a home for his mother, and was completed in collaboration with
Marcel Breuer. Like his own house, Gropius emphasized simple lines and the use of native materials (wood and local stone) in its construction.
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See also
* National Register of Historic Places listings in Norfolk County, Massachusetts
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hagerty, Josephine M., House
Walter Gropius buildings
Houses completed in 1938
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Norfolk County, Massachusetts
International style architecture in Massachusetts