The Oliver Wendell Holmes House is a historic house at 868 Hale Street in the Beverly Farms section of
Beverly, Massachusetts. Built c. 1880, this modest
Victorian wood-frame house was designated a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
in 1972, as the only surviving structure associated with the life of
Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court
An associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States is any member of the Supreme Court of the United States other than the chief justice of the United States. The number of associate justices is eight, as set by the Judiciary Act of 1 ...
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (March 8, 1841 – March 6, 1935) was an American jurist and legal scholar who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932.Holmes was Acting Chief Justice of the Un ...
(1841–1935), whose
summer home it was from 1909 until his death.
Description and history
The Holmes House is a 2-1/2 wood-frame structure, with a steeply-pitched
gable roof, and three brick chimneys. Its exterior is sheathed in wooden
clapboards
Clapboard (), also called bevel siding, lap siding, and weatherboard, with regional variation in the definition of these terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping.
''Clapboard'' in modern Americ ...
, with shingles in the front-facing gable end and on the sides of a shed-roof
dormer. The house is roughly T-shaped, with a porch that originally wrapped around two sides, but has since been partly enclosed. The rear of the house is a full-height
service ell, and a
carriage house
A carriage house, also called a remise or coach house, is an outbuilding which was originally built to house horse-drawn carriages and the related tack.
In Great Britain the farm building was called a cart shed. These typically were open ...
stands behind the main house. A gravel drive leads from the street, around the north side of the house, to the carriage house.
The house was built between 1875 and 1880 by Asa Obear Marshall, and was sold by his widow to Justice
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (March 8, 1841 – March 6, 1935) was an American jurist and legal scholar who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932.Holmes was Acting Chief Justice of the Un ...
in 1909. The Holmeses divided their time between this house and a residence in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, generally staying here between June and October. While here, Holmes would continue to work on cases, and would entertain judges and politicians, including
Louis Brandeis,
Henry Cabot Lodge
Henry Cabot Lodge (May 12, 1850 November 9, 1924) was an American Republican politician, historian, and statesman from Massachusetts. He served in the United States Senate from 1893 to 1924 and is best known for his positions on foreign policy. ...
, and
Albert Beveridge
Albert may refer to:
Companies
* Albert (supermarket), a supermarket chain in the Czech Republic
* Albert Heijn, a supermarket chain in the Netherlands
* Albert Market, a street market in The Gambia
* Albert Productions, a record label
* Albert ...
. It was here that he was introduced to
Harold Laski
Harold Joseph Laski (30 June 1893 – 24 March 1950) was an English political theorist and economist. He was active in politics and served as the chairman of the British Labour Party from 1945 to 1946 and was a professor at the London School of ...
, a British politician and economist with whom he maintained a long correspondence.
[
After Holmes' death in 1935, the house was sold and its contents dispersed.][ It remains in private hands.
]
See also
* National Register of Historic Places listings in Essex County, Massachusetts
*List of National Historic Landmarks in Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has a total of 191 National Historic Landmarks (NHLs) within its borders. This is the second highest statewide total in the United States after New York, which has more than 250. Of the Massachusetts NHLs, 57 ...
References
{{Authority control
Houses completed in 1880
National Historic Landmarks in Massachusetts
Houses in Beverly, Massachusetts
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Essex County, Massachusetts
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.