The Dr. S. O. Richardson House is a historic house at 694 Main Street in
Wakefield, Massachusetts
Wakefield is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, incorporated in 1812 and located about north-northwest of Downtown Boston. Wakefield's population was 27,090 at the 2020 census. Wakefield offer ...
, United States. Built in the late 1830s, this wood-frame house is one of the finest Greek Revival houses in Wakefield, and was the home of Dr. Solon O. Richardson, a locally prominent physician and real estate developer. 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 ...
in 1989.
Description and history
The Richardson House is located at the southeast corner of Main and Summer Streets in northern Wakefield, just east of
Lake Quannapowitt
Lake Quannapowitt is a lake in Wakefield, Massachusetts. It is one of two large lakes in Wakefield, the other being the man-made Crystal Lake. The lake is named for Quonopohit, the Naumkeag Native American who signed a deed to the town that w ...
. It is a -story wood-frame structure, with
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 a ...
styling, distinctive for being five bays wide while presenting a gabled roof end to the street. It has a particularly elaborate Greek Revival entry treatment, deeply recessed, with flanking sidelight windows and fluted pilasters, and a transom window above. The front gable has a window at its center, which is topped by a dummy fanlight.
This house was probably built in the late 1830s, and originally stood just off Main Street near where Richardson Street now runs. It was built by Dr. Solon O. Richardson, son of the inventor of Richardson's Sherry Wine Bitters, and is where his son, also named Solon, was born in 1841. Solon O. Richardson Sr. was also trained as a doctor, but he continued his father's successful business, developing new packaging and marketing for the product, which made him quite wealthy. He was active in the town's civic life, founding Richardson's Light Guard, a militia company, in 1851.
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The house was moved in the late 19th century by Solon Jr. to make way for development of Richardson Street on part of the family estate.
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See also
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Richardson, Dr. S. O., House
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Wakefield, Massachusetts
Houses completed in 1837
Greek Revival architecture in Massachusetts