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

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.

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.

Description and history

See also

References