Chester Kingsley House
- Year
- 1866
- Style
- Queen Anne
- City
- Boston, MA
The oldest portion of the Chester Kingsley House was built in 1866 for local politician Chester W. Kingsley in the Second Empire style, by builder Stephen Stiles. In 1890 Kingsley remodeled it, adding a tower and ell and swapping the Second Empire ornament for Queen Anne and Colonial Revival trim. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
the building
Layered remodeling. Builder Wellington Fillmore carried out the 1890 makeover that added the tower and ell and replaced Kingsley's original Second Empire detailing with Queen Anne and Colonial Revival ornament, leaving a house built in one style and dressed in another.
Hospital-era addition. After Kingsley's death in 1904, sisters Mae I. and Minnie A. Copp leased the house in 1908 and ran it as the Chester Hospital. In 1919, architect William Sidebottom designed a three-story extension to the ell to accommodate the hospital's growth.
the style
Second Empire, with its mansard roof and formal massing, was the fashionable choice for an ambitious local politician's house in 1866. By 1890 tastes had shifted, and Kingsley re-clad the house in Queen Anne and Colonial Revival trim — a single building recording two successive waves of Victorian fashion.
More on Queen Annesignificance
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. After serving as the Chester Hospital and later a nursing home, the house has been converted into apartments.
nearby
- Clifton Bacon House
- Isaac McLean House
- St. John's Roman Catholic Church
- Somerville Theatre
- St. James Episcopal Church
- Greek Revival Cottage