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HomeMy WebLinkAboutshade-street_0110 FORM B - BUILDING i AREA FORM NO.591 i MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 294 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON, MA 02108 n Lexington ress 110 Shade Street toric Name Journey's End ''� . JOS i�c,k r1Ui f�Q►2( o�-w _ _ Presresidential s ,- ent Original residential v ESCRIPTION: e 1937 -ource plans SKETCH MAP Show property's location in relation Style Spanish Colonial Revival to nearest cross streets and/or geographical features. Indicate ArchitectWillard D. Brown all buildings between inventoried property and nearest intersection. Exterior wall fabric stucco Indicate north. Outbuildings garage h el Major alterations (with dates) This house u , rebuilt on foundation of previous house built in 1906 s Moved Date Sx Approx. acreage 6.9 A. Recorded by Anne Grady Setting A primarily wooded site in which Organization Lexington Historical Commission the house occupies the highest elevation. Date May 1984 Land falls off sharply to the rear, allow- ing distant views of the Cambridge Reser- voir. (Staple additional sheets here) ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE (Describe important architectural features and evaluate in terms of other buildings within the community.) This house, situated on one of Lexington's largest and most picturesque estates, holds the distinction of being the second house to have been designed by Willard Brown for the same foundation. Built thirty years after the original structure,which burned, this substantial Spanish Colonial dwelling includes features found in other buildings designed by Brown: stucco walls, red roofing;tiles, low hip roof with broad overhanging eaves, asymmetrical plan, and massing well--fitted to the site. The house incorporates a number of special features which must have resulted from collaboration between Brown and his good friend, J. Willard Hayden, (see continuation sheet) HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE (Explain the role owners played in local or state history and how the building relates to the development of the community.) Josiah Willard Hayden was the younger brother of Charles Hayden, philanthropist and founder of the investment banking firm of Hayden, Stone and Company. J. W. Hayden come to Lexington shortly after 1900. has first dwelling in southwest Lexington burned. In 1902 he employed Willard Brown to remodel two abandonned school houses into Ponywold, the house at 376 Lincoln Street. By 1905, Hayden had sold Ponywold. He commissioned Willard Brown to design the first Journey's End on this site on $hade Street in 1906. That house burned sometime bzfore 1937. Our knowledge of the first structure comes from plans, photographs and newspaper accounts in the album Willard Brown gave to the Lexington-Historical Society. Brown also designed an apartment for Hayden in the Somerset Hotel, Boston; the second Journey's End in 1937; and a summer home on Marblehead Neck thereafter. Hayden and Brown used to commute to Boston together, according to Brown's daughter. They collaborated on the 1915 and 1925 historical pageants in Lexington initiated by Hayden. The Hayden brothers were particularly interested in the welfare of children. J. W. Hayden endowed the Hayden Recreation Center in Lexington in his will and left the site of Journey's End to a children's hospital. The site was sold in the late 1950s to Cabot, Cabot . and Forbes Company, and for a while was to become the .location of a shopping center at the junction of Routes 2 and 128. Permission to build the shopping center was denied by the Town of Lexington, however. The current owner, Plato Spilios, purchased the property shortly thereafter. The house had stood vacant for a number of years and needed considerable repair and reglazing. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES (name of publication, author, date and publisher) Brown, Willard D. , "Scrapbook", Willard D. Brown Collection, Accession No. 7051, Lexington Historical Society, Lexington, MA. Schoenhut, Sara Emily Brown, List of buildings designed by Willard D. Brown, 1984, In possession of Anne Grady. Spilios, Plato, personal communication Worthen, Edwin B., "J. Willard Hayden", Worthen Collection, Cary Memorial Library 10M - 7/82 INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Comimmity: Form No: MASSACHUSETTS HI STORI CAL CC KII SS ION Lexington 591 Office of the Secretary, Boston. Property Name: 110 Shade Street Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below. ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE for whom both this and the previous house on the site were built. There is a two story =_.wing room with balcony connecting to the master bedroom; a fountain room with tub faced with tiles, a coved ceiling, and a mirrored wall; a liquor closet with mirrored walls, a gold coved ceiling and black and red lacquered shelves. The interior finishes reflect several different historical periods. The living room has Spanish medieval overtones, with paneled -walls and superb wrought iron overlay on the glass doors. A massive wrought iron chandelier in the room was, according to the plans, brought from Hayden's Beacon Street house. The dining room has Geor- gian Revival finishes and the partially oval-shaped study has First Period style shadow-molded sheathing on the walls and a bolection molding around the fireplace. The master bathroom and kitchen are finished with glass tiles. In the basement be- neath the terrace is a recreation room with a stage. Its simple Craftsman style finishes suggest that it may have been a part of the original 1906 construction which survived the fire. The house echoes some characteristics of the previous house in such features as the two story central room, the fountain or plunge room, and the tri-axial plan. dictated by the surviving foundation. The central element of the house is on an east-west axis and wings angle toward the north at either end. The overall length is 209 feet. The foundation, constructed of massive fieldstones, extends to sup- port a terrace which spans the south side of the house and is finished with a bal- ustrade of oval boulders. The house previously on the site, built in 1906, was perhaps Brown's most cre- ative design. Termed a bungalow in a contemporary description, and built as a summer house, the structure incorporated elements of Japanese, Mexican, and Adi- rondack Rustic design. Constructed of stained elm and stucco with a red corrugated wood roof, the building was one story in height except for a central two story - element which provided access to a roof garden. The decoration of the house drew upon the theme of twin elms, a reference to a spring by that name on the property from which bottled water was.sold. The entrance porch had a red thatched roof sup- ported by elm branches. The brick paved central hall had a pool with fountain and a staircase fashioned completely of elm logs and sticks (see illustration). The room was lit by lights submerged in the water. The light was dispersed by prisms of glass. There were touches of Japanese decoration in the hall: lanterns and murals on the walls and, indeed, the room was called the "Japanese courtyard." Rustic furniture visible in the photograph was very likely designed by Brown,for he designed pieces with similar lines for such houses as the Goldthwaite house in Wellesley. The house incorprated a tiled "plunge room" with a 6' x 8' x 4' deep tub. Staple to Inventory form at bottom 4 t at r.� fix.-�._ 5 �y�1�Ct .a. ��.r-�,,yy �y�¢. '• • ' • • • • •' I i • • WTI. _ • � �e �4:,:- to ,-J� r� - ,tk. 1 . 41 — N- ti � $ � .;dam -��_ •� �. `� ;;i WA- IA s '•t � i_7 vo a x„ � 1 MMEWAatz 1 9` 4 - # w u � t - _ y� 4�• psi �._. a �111954m!Nm LT "Japanese Courtyard", Photograph from "Scrapbook", Willard D. Brown Collection, Accession No. 701, Lexington Historical Society, Lexington, MA.