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Comments
Dorchester Historical Society
By anon42
Mon, 05/16/2016 - 11:52am
Dorchester Historical Society Building? 195 Boston Street? wow if so it was in rough shape.
not quite
By ofd1984
Mon, 05/16/2016 - 12:34pm
That popped into my head too. But the chimneys on that building are more distinctive.
William Clapp House
By Allstonian
Mon, 05/16/2016 - 12:54pm
Yes, the William Clapp House has four chimneys, one on each corner of the house. Also, the entry to the Clapp house is completely different - there's a whole little porch with a roof, which was built in 1870, not the simple triangular pediment that's in this photo.
The Lemuel Clap House, also part of the DHS properties, has a more similar entrance, but the roof and chimneys are completely different.
Pierce House in Dorchester?
By anon
Mon, 05/16/2016 - 12:20pm
Pierce House in Dorchester?
We know what it's not
By anon42
Mon, 05/16/2016 - 12:56pm
We know what it's not
Dorchester Historical Society or the Pierce House
This is a 1700's house.
By John Costello
Mon, 05/16/2016 - 1:00pm
Pierce House is mid-1600's and not as elegant as this one.
Hey, you kids...
By Ward8Mahatma
Mon, 05/16/2016 - 12:45pm
.get off my l... Wait a minute! Where is my lawn?!?
Wild Guess
By Stevil
Mon, 05/16/2016 - 12:53pm
Curley's house before the renovations - you know - those ones apparently paid for by the guys that got all kinds of city contracts, including the shamrock "encrusted" shutters.
Loring Greenough House
By Sock_Puppet
Mon, 05/16/2016 - 1:17pm
Circa 1926?
Jabez Lewis-Dawson House
By Rob Not Verified
Mon, 05/16/2016 - 2:01pm
Pretty sure that's the Jabez Lewis-Dawson House that now sits on the Arnold Arboretum land on Centre Street.
http://www.arboretum.harvard.edu/jabez-lewis-house/
Modern Day: https://goo.gl/maps/b6hpdU1CWDR2
Can't be
By Sock_Puppet
Mon, 05/16/2016 - 2:30pm
That house has a gable roof. This house has a hip roof.
65 Pleasant Street, Dorchester
By JoJo
Mon, 05/16/2016 - 2:00pm
Founder of the Animal Rescue League - Boston; Ms. Anna Harris Smith's house?
65 Pleasant St Dorchester!
By LFB
Mon, 05/16/2016 - 2:09pm
It's located at 65 Pleasant St Dorchester!. Anna Harris Smith house, founder of Animal Rescue League.
close
By anon42
Mon, 05/16/2016 - 2:29pm
but no cigar
65 Pleasant is much smaller. They should really update the side picture. Stacy is doing a great job rehabbing the building.
It isn't.
By Sock_Puppet
Mon, 05/16/2016 - 2:29pm
Look at that house at 65 Pleasant Dorchester from the Whitby Terrace side. The main body of the house is only two windows long. Half as long as this house.
A hint?
By Stevil
Mon, 05/16/2016 - 3:10pm
Looks like there was a fire at that house which is probably why everyone is standing around - one window appears to be partly boarded up and there is a scorch mark by the lower right window on the side of the house - not the back one - the one just in front of that.
This looks remarkably similar to the Anna Harris Smith house - though some have said that this is a bigger home. Perhaps part of the house demolished due to a fire? Restorations also note that they completely rebuilt part of the original (17th c.?) foundation.
Love the ARL! We got our nebelung there (very cool cats):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebelung
Nebelung
By fenwayguy
Mon, 05/16/2016 - 11:30pm
Wow, beautiful. That's a helluva cat to go astray.
Kinda lucky
By Stevil
Tue, 05/17/2016 - 2:59pm
He was a bit scrawny and scraggly when we got him. They told us he was full.grown about 3 years old. 9 months later he was 2 inches taller, 2 lbs heavier and grew that magnificent coat. Found out that happens when they are about 2 years old and now he looks like those photos. Will never know if he's really a nebelung but i think so. Super sweet cat too which is why we got him Very social.
Similar story here
By fenwayguy
Thu, 05/19/2016 - 1:55am
Also via ARL. They do good work -- Anna Harris Smith would be proud.
The Answer
By Boston City Archives
Mon, 05/16/2016 - 4:16pm
Thanks for playing folks! This is 1027 Washington Street in Dorchester, on January 10, 1917. We're not sure who the children in the photo are, but the photo was taken by the city's Public Works Department
For real??
By Sally
Mon, 05/16/2016 - 4:27pm
Just looked at it on Google and it makes sense but ugh...so under that vinyl siding and horrible windows and horrible doors and cropped off or removed chimneys...is that house? Kind of sad.
I think
By Sock_Puppet
Mon, 05/16/2016 - 4:49pm
The fact that so few houses of this vintage remain is what makes them so precious.
In other words: no, that's not the house. That's one of the things they built when they tore the house in the photo down.
No--I think it's the same house!
By Sally
Mon, 05/16/2016 - 5:01pm
Really--look at the proportions, including the side depth. It's the same building--it's just been altered beyond recognition, including siding over that center window, replacing the front door with double doors, etc. It's just shocking how something so beautiful can be made so ugly with just a few changes.
Exaggeration?
By Saul
Mon, 05/16/2016 - 5:04pm
Other than the entrance portico, I'd say it's a stretch to call this house "something so beautiful". I see a box with windows. The equivalent in its day of the sort of recent architecture UHubbers often deride here.
Ok, so I may have an extra fondness
By Sally
Mon, 05/16/2016 - 5:41pm
for this kind of very plain architecture but I still say it was a very handsome house. Just comparing the windows, the door, the general proportions and symmetry with what was done to it...the effect is very different.
agree, same house
By scollaysq
Mon, 05/16/2016 - 11:30pm
If you look at the Google earth aerial you can see it even still has that funky back right ell angle
I don't think so
By Sock_Puppet
Tue, 05/17/2016 - 5:32am
The house in the photo had a hipped roof.
Also, the window spacing is different.
So the theory is that the original house is there underneath, except that they tore everything above the second floor windows off, built a gable roof, then came back and moved the windows around?
I think they tore down the original house and built a new one on the same foundation.
Same foundation?
By anon
Tue, 05/17/2016 - 10:05am
My parents lived in a house that was moved from another location around 1905. The foundation dated to the 1850s.
This was done more frequently than you might think.
Pretty sure it's the same
By VolksDragon
Wed, 05/18/2016 - 8:45am
Look at the side of the house. In Google Streertview, It's got the same 2,2,1 window layout of the original picture above. That's an odd configuration to randomly reproduce.
House built in 1899
By pattyf_allston
Tue, 05/17/2016 - 9:21am
Public records have that house built in 1899. Also a good photo here. Window placement, elevation looks consistent with 1917 pic. Now a duplex.
homefacts
(Hope I'm inserting this link properly...)
I'm convinced
By Sock_Puppet
Tue, 05/17/2016 - 9:56am
Pictures show a hipped roof on the right side of the front, and a gable on the left.
1027 Washington Street
By Michael Stella
Mon, 05/16/2016 - 7:51pm
These 5 bay colonial homes (often looking square as the 5 bay layout was sometimes carried around the front and both sides , and sometimes as an ell with only front and one side showing the 5 window symmetry)were a staple of New England streetscapes. It is sad that so many have disappeared, but there are a few other local ones that are very visible, my own at 770 Washington Street(a modified ell) and 168 River Street(a handsome square), 34 Adams Street are a few examples. Most have been carved up into multi-family homes.
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