North End / Waterfront preservation study online

Boston; (11) Benjamin Franklin; (12) Memorial to the men of the North End who died in
World War I.



Bibliography (con't)

(8) Chase, Robert Savage, Editorial to the Boston Herald American, Jan. 20, 1940.



(Jl



Paul Revere Mall Significance (con't)

"/20/40 NE Editorial to the Editor of the Herald
by Robert Savage Chasr.
53 Snow Hill Street

"Today, through the beneficent bequest of George Robert White and through the wisdom
and consideration of the trustees of that bequest, Boston can take pride in the
establishment of a monument to the past of utility and beauty, such as no other city
in the country can boast; more historical, if less architectural even than Williamsburg.

In the creation of the Paul Revere Mall, which primarily did away with one of the most
sordid and congested areas of the city, turning it into a resting and breathing space, the
White fund trustees also established perhaps the most historic vista in America. At the
west end of the mall is Christ Church, the oldest church building in Boston,
in the center is a well designed fountain; on the north is the Eliot School, successor
of the early 1700 's; on the east is St. Stephen's Church, on the site of New North
Chiirch of 1711. These churches stand for Boston's past and present in an eloquence
beyond any words.



Q



Historic Dwellings

John Ciardi ' s Birthplace
25 Sheafe Street

Clough-Brown-Pierce House
21 Unity Street

Dodd House

190 Salem Street

Kose Kennedy's Birthplace
4 Garden Court Street

Major Pitcairn House
130 Prince Street

F. W. Smith Residence
10 Garden Court Street

Sexton's House - Old North Church
195 Salem Street




Building Information Form Form No.
W} ADDRESS 25 Sheafe Street COR.



AreaNorth End



NAM E John Ciardi ' s birthplace



present
MAP NO. 27N-13E



original



SUB AREA



N/W



DATE 1851-1854


5






soiirce




ARCHITECT








source




BUILDER








source




OWNER Robert Mclntyrne


Juliet E.


Chimccariello


original




present


PHOTOGRAPHS







19/330145/4692125



Ward 3, Parcel 2193



TYPE Residential) single double row 2-fam. 3-deck ten apt.
Cnon-residential)



NO. OF STORIES CI St to cornice)



four



plus



ROOf' £la±_



cupola



dormers



MATERIALS (Frame) clapbo ards shingles stucco asphalt asbestos al\im/vinYl
(other) CFrick^ stone ^concrete iron/steel/alum.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

This four story brick structure is part of a row of similar structures that exist on
Sheafe Street. The 1888, G. W. Bromley Atlas of Boston indicates that #25 Sheafe Street
was part of a row of seven bowfronts which extended from #21 to #31 Sheafe. Today only
two remain at numbers 21 and 23 Sheafe Street.:



EXTERIOR ALTERATION minor ^deral
CONDITION good ^air^ poor_



drastic



LOT AREA 1207



sq.ft.



NOTEWORTHY SITE CHARACTERISTICS



>



(Map)



SIGNIFICANCE (con't on reverse)

John Ciardi Contemporary poet, lecturer, critic former
poetry editor of the Saturday Review and member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences was born in
Boston on June 24, 1916 and lived with his family at
#25 Sheafe Street during his formative years. John
Ciardi ' s poetric strength lies in the diversity and the
influence of his work. Few poets of his generation have
produced more. But, unlike, many prolific writers, he gives
us the feeling that to be fertile is part of his poetic



Moved; date if known



Themes Ccheck as many as applicable ) >*

Aboriginal Conservation Recreation

Agricultural Education Religion

Architectural Exploration/ Science/

The Arts settlement invention

Commerce Industry Social/

Communication Military humanitarian

Community/ Political Transporation

Development

Significance (include expanation of themes checked above )

personality; that he is always ready to attempt something new. Critics have frequently
pointed to the strongly personal note in his work; some of them indeed have criticized it
for being too personal. It is certainly difficult to envisage the poems apart from the
writer of them; they are the exuberant expression of Ciardi's delight in the world,
the interest whidh his own life affords him. It is his good fortune to have an extremelj
direct and unself conscious access to his own psyche. These virtues are to some extent
balanced by corresponding weaknesses. Ciardi is eclectic, and at moments seems not to
have entirely absorbed his influences. In particular, one catches the echoes, in his
earlier work, of British poets such as W.H. Auden and Dylan Thomas. Individual poems
often seem to go on a bit too long; the author's exuberance and delight in words outrun
the reader's patience. As a result, one seldom remembers individual poems, but rather
a personality and a tone of voice which can be found throughout Ciardi's poetry. The
command of tone is important, however, because it gives us a clue as to the reasons for
Ciardi's vast popularity as a reader of his own work. As a poet, he seems to communici
very directly to his audience. For him, more than for most poets, poetry is speech, a
means of linking one man to another. Ciardi's numerous books of verse provide us with a
singularly complete and endearing self-portrait.

John Ciardi comments that "poetry for me, finds voices, but the aim should not be an
idiosyncratic single voice immediately recognizable as the voice of a given man. (style
as signature) . Something of that sort is bound to happen as a man learns to write into

Preservation Consideration Caccessibility , re-use possibilities, capacity

for public use and enjoyment, protection, utilities, context) I



Bibliography and/or references (such as local histories, deeds, assessor's
records, early maps, etc.)

1. City of Boston, Building Department.

2. City of Boston, Assessor's Office.

3. Lucie-Smith, Edward, Contemporary Poets (London and New York, 1975), p. 245-247.

4. Hopkins, GM. Atlas of The County of Suffolk, Massachusetts . (Philadelphia, Penn.
G.M. Hopkins & Company, 1874) .

5. Suffolk County Courthouse, Registry of Deeds



significance (cont'd) John Ciardi ' s Birthplace

_jKLinself; there will be some of the lub-dub of his own heart if the writing lives at all.
It takes that personalization to be essential and inevitable but secondary. The ideal
accomplishment of a poem may be put as homo fecit. A man did it, and any man may say it
of himself as one of the voices of his h\imanity, or his humanity quickened to itself."^

Biographical Information

Ciardi, John (Anthony)

— Born Boston, Mass., 24 June, 1916

— Bates College 1934-1936

— Tufts College, MA 1938

— University of Michigan, 1939 (Hopwood Award)

— Married Myra Judiah Hosfetter, 1946

— 3 children

— Instructor, University of Kansas City, Missouri, 1940-1942

—Briggs Copeland instructor in English, 1946-48, and assistant professor, 1948-53. Harvard

— Lecturer, 1953-1954, associate professor, 1954-56 and profess or English,

1956-61, Rutgers University
—Lecturer, 1947-73, and director, 1956-72, Bread Loaf Writers Conference, Vermont
— Editor, Twazne P\iblications, New York, 1949
— Poetry Editor, Saturday Review 1956-73
— World Magazine , Contributing Editor

itany awards and honorary degrees. Tufts, Ohio Wesleyan University, Wayne University,
^rsinus College, Kalamazoo College, Bates College

Verse ;

Homeward to America , New York, Holt & Rhinehart 1940

Other Skies , Boston: Little Brown, 1947

Live Another Day; Poems New York; Twazne, 1949

From Time to Time , New York: Twazne, 1949

As If, Poems New and Selected , New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 1955.

In the Stoneworks , New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 1961.

How Does A Poem Mean Boston; Houghton, Mifflin, 1975.

Children ' s Verse

You Know Who , New York: J.B. Lippincott Publishing Company, 1964.

You Read to Me, I'll Read to You , New York: J.B. Lippincott Publishing Company, 1965.

I Met a Man , Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1961.

Someone Could Win a Polar Bear New York: J.B. Lippincott Publishing Company, 1964.

The Man Who Sang The Sillies , New York; J.B. Lippincott Publishing Company, 1966.

— Many other books of verse for children.

— Translator of Dante ' s The Inferno , The Purgatorio, The Paradiso



d



€



Ci




g' Building Information Form Form No. Are a North ^nd

ADDRESS 21 Unity Street COR.



NAME Clough-Brown-Pierce House



present
IImap no. 27N-13E



original



SUB AREA N/W



DATE 1711-1715


1










sovirce




ARCHITECT Ebenezer Clough




1








source




BUILDER Ebenezer Clough




1








source




OWNER Ebenezer Clough




Christ


Church in Boston


original






present


PHOTOGRAPHS









19/330155/4692125



Ward 3, Parcel 2151



TYPE Cxesidential) single double row 2-fam. 3-deck ten apt.
Cnon-residential)



NO. OF STORIES Clst to cornice)



three



plus



ROOF



gambrel



cupola



dormers



MATERIALS (Frame) clapb oards shingles stucco asphalt asbestos alum/vinyl
(other) < ^ric^ stone ^concrete iron/steel/alum.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

The early date of this structiore is illustrated in the symmetrical five bay facade, the

rough textured brickwork laid in flemish bond, and the gambrel roof. Panels shaped by

the bricks themselves and protruding below the second-story windows are unique for

this century and show the very strong influence exerted by the precendentifor :;this form

of detailed treatment i n br ick masonry from the motherland. This influence is further

EXTERIOR ALTERATION Cnlno^ moderate drastic the buildings were restored in the early

1960's.
CONDITION ( good) fair poor LOT ARE A 1772 ^sq.ft.

NOTEWORTHY SITE CHARACTERISTICS Next to Christ Church and makes up part of thP. vi p.w nne^.

gets from the St. Stephen's end of the Paul Revere Mall.

SIGNIFICANCE (con't on reverse)

The Ebenezer Clough House was one of several brick
dwellings erected immediately after "Bennet ' s pasture,"
\lc)i,ou&'^ which lay between XHanover and Salem Streets in the

North End of Boston, was subdivided and begun to be
A (Map) developed by enterprising real estate builders. In

" November, 1710, Ebenezer Clough, an outstanding brick-

layer and mason of the town, and his associates, Solomon
Townsend, a blacksmith, and Matthew Butler, a shipwright
bought the part of the pasture north of Love's Lane, now



Moved; date if known



Themes Ccheck as many as applicable ) >

Aboriginal Conservation Recreation

Agricultural Education Religion

Architectural XX Exploration/ Science/

The Arts settlement invention

Commerce Industry Social/

Communication Military hximanitarian

Community/ Political Transporation

Development

Significance (include expanation of themes checked above )

Tileston Street, from the widow Susannah and by the next year were either conveying lots;
for new buildings by others or taking part in new construction,-, themselves. Clough and
his associates laid out a new way running north from Love's Lane to Charter Street and on
the west side of it, some 40 feet north of Love's Lane, Clough built the basic part of
the house that remains as an extraordinary specimen of brickwork of that day. The new
way came to be known as Clough Street, a name that lingered on past the middle of the |
eighteenth century but was eventually replaced for good by the current name of Unity Str«

It is of particular interest to relate Clough 's name to the surviving house and street,
for which his partner, James Varney, this notable builder in brick later set the stone
foundation and laid the 513,654 bricks in the walls of the neighboring Christ Church ,
built in 1723. Before this, Clough had engaged in important work as mason and
bricklayer for the Old Brick Meeting House , erected at the same time as the Old State I» '|
or Second Boston Town House following the great fire that swept through the center of #J
town in October, 1711. The house at the present 21 Unity Street may have been started
before the fire. In any case, it was completed not long after Clough had finished his
work on the Old Brick Meeting House , for by July 1, 1715, the house and the lot on which
it was .

As Boston grew during the last century and a flood of newcomers from the countries of bot
Northern and Southern Europe had to find shelter under living conditions increasingly
Preservation Consideration Caccessibility , re-use possibilities, capacity
for public use and enjoyment, protection, utilities, context)

Individual National Register Nomination



Bibliography and/or references (such as local histories, deeds, assessor's
records, early maps, etc.)

1. Final Report of the Boston National Historic Sites Commission of the
Congress of the U.S. with Particular Emphasis on Major Problems of
Historic Preservation in the Municipality of Boston , June 16, 1960.

2. City of Boston Assessor's Records.

3. City of Boston Building Department.

4. Brady, Fred "Clough House North End's Pride", The Boston Sunday Herald ,
July 10, 1960, p. 76.



Description Clough House



t



amplified in the bricks cut to design for the broad lintel over the front door and the
rick lintels shaped for the front windows.



Significance

congested and squalid, many of the old homes in the North End that were not completely
displaced by new and drab piles of flat-roofed tenements were made just as depressing by
taking off their often picturesque and oddly-pitched roofs and adding one or more stories.
In this age of rapidly upward-rising tenements, the attic in the ancient house built by
Ebenezer Clough was converted into a full third story and its original gambrel roof
disappeared as the exterior walls were carried up another floor.

The remaining house at 21 Unity Street, which is of the most concern for the purpose

I of this inventory, has in error received emphasis in connection with the family of

I Langdon instead of Clough since attempts were first made to recapture its identity some

I three decades ago. Actually, the only member of the numerous Langdon family in

i eighteenth- century Boston to have any relationship to the house was the merchant Edward

, Langdon, who bought it from Jonathan Brown, a brazier, in September, 1756, and sold it

' the next December to Joseph Pierce, a mariner, for a gain of some 66 pounds. A

. speculative venture of barely three months duration on the part of the merchant Langdon

. hardly justifies the permanent and principal application of his family name to the

j house. After Pierce acquired the property, it remained in his family for at least two

1 generations until his daughters' heirs conveyed it to William Dillaway in 1835.

fche ties of the Clough family with the house at No. 21 existed from the date of its
construction, 1711-1715, until 1741-1742, when John Clough, the third son of Ebenezer,
I Boston's pre-eminent builder in brick, and his sister Susanna*., "Singlewoman, " sold
their halves of the house from their father's estate to Johnathan Brown, the brazier.
Neither the son nor daughter are reported as living in the house at the time it was left
to them, a situation not unusual for a family that had owned and developed a number of
Boston properties. Residing in the whole house when title was passed to Jonathan Brown
was "Mrs. Elizabeth White, widow. "

The brickwork in the Ebenezer Clough House is an especially important feature, the
bricks being of a rough texture and laid in Flemish bond, which made its initial
appearance in the Colonies not long before this dwelling was built. Panels shaped by the
bricks themselves and protruding below the second-story windows are unique for this
century and show the very strong influence exerted by the precedent for this form of
detailed treatment in brick masonry from the motherland. This influence is
further exemplified in the bricks cut to design for the broad lintel over the front door
and the brick lintels shaped for the front windows.

Inside, the house retains much of its original finish, including a notable stairway up
three flights in heavy English oak, with acorn pendants distinctly reminiscent of the
Jacobean style of the seventeenth' century. The rooms on the first floor have been
stripped of some of their original paneling. The heavy cornices and mouldings throughout
the house are typical of the very earliest Georgian architecture introduced into the
Colonies. The original colors they and the rest of the interior woodwork received are
found under later applications of paint.



i



I



significance Clough House



I



"esides the luck 'of being overlooked by ambitious tenement builders of five or more
decades ago, the Ebenezer Clough House owes its survival today to the durable materials
and excellent workmanship that went into its construction nearly two and a half centuries
ago. Beyond the first floor, the original house has suffered less from alterations than
additions. The brick ell across the rear of the house was added toward the close of the
last century. The full third story built up to a flat roof replaced the original
gambrel roof and attic probably at an earlier date, but was no less a part of the
prevailing movement for tenement expansion that marked the day and age. The outline
of the original gambrel roof has stood revealed on the north exterior wall ever
since the melancholy successor to the half house that once belonged to Benjamin Franklin
next door was torn down in 1939 by the White fund as a belated part of the project
creating the Paul Revere Mall .



f



I



I




diag liiar^atiaa. lora "ora ^To.



Arsa



North End



.4I3DEZ2S 190 Salem St.



COR.



N'AaS Dodd House



same



:iAP Ho. .^M-1.P



_3ir3 AH£A . u/w



DAIZ 1804





sourca


.iSUi-UiCT Jonathan Merry


(5)


,


3oarc2


aUIISEH






3oarc2


OWcTER Dodd Family


Adeline Mirabelli


or^S^jiaj.


prsseac


rEQTCGRAPHS


""â– 



TUZ (r-sidaiCiaL) sii^J
(ioa-rs3idas.t:ial)



1 9/1101 50/4fiq?1 40 Ward .1. Parcel 2172
daub La r-3w. 2- fain. 3-d4ck taa a-oc.



iiC. CI STCRHS (Lac -j cjrzic*) Three s one half
RCCr gable cu?o la



oU



Mi^rTT5Tvr_£ (Trace) clapbo ards sg-.r.glas szucca aapoali asbestis ai'-ia/^-^yl

(Ocifir) C^ricS^ acotia ccacrsc^ Lrca/ s::3-l/alua.

rlSWish bond

A gift shop occupies the front portion of the first floor of this buildingo T'^o

bays face on Salem St. and five bays face the small courtyard on the south side

of the structure. The upper stories of the building are reached by round-arched

doorway on the courtyard side of the building. Simple brick corbelling is found

at the roof line. The size of some of t he _wind ow openings have been changed and new (con 'tl

ZZZ?JCR .•illlPJ.nCK aiior aGderata (grastic::^tnrP ^H^Pd nn first floor- in 1920,



CCIQITICN ^ad C^airS ccor



ICT ASIA 2150



SOTZVCRTZI Sin CZAsLkCZlRlSTZZS There is an open space on the south side of this

building.

3I'2fn"'C.-JfCZ (ccn-'d oa ravarsa)

This structure served as the residence of the Dodd

family until 1920. The house is built on what

was part of Sir William Phip's estate » , Phips

was the first provincial governor of the Massachusetts

Bay Colony. Tradition has it that until just a

few years before the Dodd family left the house,

all the cooking was done over an open fire by the

use of kettles and pots hung from a crane (3) .

The house has been in the Mirabelli family since

the Dodds left the North End. In 1919 the house

was left vacant and was being vandalized^ The „ ...



iiaved; da-ta Lf 'aown



â–  Ihaaes (chsck as i?.tv7 as a-pplicabla)

Ahorig±aal CaaserTation Sacreacioa

igridinrai IdTicattioa Raiigioa

Arciu.tS'C-raral Issloratiaay Sciaaca/

Tia Artj sacrlsaaac iirreacioa

Ccnaaercs laduatrj Social/

Commuaicarioa ililitary hmaaailariaa

Ccmauairj/ ?olitical Tjmasponacica

Sizaiiicaacs (iiiclada axsl.^.Tia^isa of thaaea chackad aha-yg)

Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities and the Boston Museum of
Fine Arts secured some of the wood work before it was lost. Today, one of the
fireplaces can be found in the Shirley Eustis House in Roxbury, and a room in
the Boston Museum of Fine Arts is furnished with woodwork from the house.



Description (con't)

sash has been installed (1979)



Prgsarratiaa Coasideracioa (acsassibility, r?— isa possibiiiciss , capaciry

for puaiic 'osa aad aajoymeac, pracac^ioa, aciiitiaa, caaraxc)

National Register Nomination



3i3Lio?ra-DGT aad/or rafar^acss (siici. as local oisccrlas , iaad^ , assessor 3
racsras, aarly aaas, tzz. }

CD Southworth, Michael and Susan, Boston 200 Discovery Network ; North End Survey
Boston, Mass., Boston 200 Bicentennial Commission Publication, 1975.

(2) Boston; The Official Bicentennial Guidebook (E.P. Dutton S Company, 1975). £

(3) Bulletin of SPNEA , Vol- X, Octover 1919, p. 17 ^

(4) City of Boston Assessor's Records.

(5) City of Boston Building Department Documents.

(6) Phone conversation with Robert Severy, descendent of the Dodd Family, May 21,
1980.




Building Information Form Form No. Are a ^^^yt-v, T^-n^

ADDRESS 4 Garden Court Street COR.



NAME



birthplace of Rose Kennedy



present
M^ NO- 26N-13E



original



DATE c 1853-1880



SUB ARE A N/W
1





source


ARCHITECT






source


BUILDER


_.. —




source


OWNER


NichoTac; MsT-inrl


original


present


PHOTOGRAPHS





19/3301 7n /4fiq?1 ss



W^rfi 3, Parrpi 3704



TYPE Cresidential) single double row 2-fam. 3-deck ten apt.
Cnon-residential)



iO. OF STORIES Cist to cornice)



plus



ROOF



flat



cupola



dormers



MATERIALS (Frame)
(other)



cla pboards



shingles stucco asphalt asbestos alum/vinyl
stone ^concrete iron/steel/alum.



BRIEF DESCRIPTION

This five story red brick townhouse has currently vacant commercial space on the first floor.
Do\ible wooden paneled doors ^ with one large window, a metal cornice separates the first and
second floors, stone window trim becomes progressively less ornate in the upper stories of
the structure. The second floor contains variegated stone lintels which become simplier
in design on the third floor and plainer yet, on the fourth and fifth floors. An unpainted
EXTERIOR ALTERATION minor moderate drastic



CONDITION good < Xair) poor



LOT AREA



20R0



sq.ft.



NOTEWORTHY SITE CHARACTERISTICS



CMap)



SIGNIFICANCE (con't on reverse)
In 1853, a large piece of land which currently embodies
4 Garden Court Street was sold by David McLeron to
George W. Gerrish for $7,500. There were buildings on the
site but a deed search is not specific about this informa-
tion^. By 1880, #4 Garden Court Street with a bowfront
is sold to Ann Collins by John Diver, Jr. Mr. Diver
was the arandson of David McLernon who owned the property
in 1853. In 1888, G.W. Bromley Atlas of Boston
indicates that #4 and #6 Garden Court Street were both
bowf rents. #6 Garden Court Street still remains as a
bowfront structure .



Moved; date if known

Themes Ccheck as many as applicable ) /k-?i

Aboriginal Conservation Recreation

Agricultiiral Education Religion

Architectural Exploration/ Science/

The Arts settlement invention

Commerce Industry Social/

Communication Military humanitarian

Community/ Political Transporation



Development



hilJ



Significance (include expanation of themes checked above )

At no. 4, opposite the site of Governor Hutchinson's mansion, lived on of Boston's "Irish
Governors," John J. ("Honey Fitz") Fitzgerald, Ward Boss, Congressman and Mayor. His
daugther. Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, beloved Bostonian and mother of President Kennedy,
was born here. Unlike most men who harbor a deep and instinctive- hope that their firstt
will be a son, John F. Fitzgerald was unabashedly euphoric when his wife, Josie, gave
birth to a baby girl just two months before their first wedding anniversary. He was by
nature a bubbling and extravangantly high spirited man but on that steaming summer night
of July 22, 1890, when his daughter Rose Elizabeth was born in the kitchen of the
Fitzgeralds ' flat at 4 Garden Court Street in the North End of Boston, his exuberance
knew no bounds. The birth of a healthy child was cause enough for celebration,
especially in 1890, but for Johnny Fitz, who had grown up with nine brothers, the birth
of a female Fitzgerald was not only a novelty but something akin to a miracle. In all hi
twenty seven years, he had never known anything but a household of males. The fourth
ten sons born to Thomas and Rosanna Fitzgerald, he had only the cloudiest memory of
younger sisters: The first, Ellen Rosanna, had died at the age of eight months, when he