Greek Revival Cottage
- Year
- 1847
- Style
- Greek Revival
- City
- Boston, MA
Built in 1847 by local housewright Samuel J. Wright, this 1.5-story cottage at 59 Rice Street is one of the finest small-scale Greek Revival houses in northwestern Cambridge. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
the building
Temple-front gable. The house wears its Greek Revival vocabulary in miniature: a fully pedimented gable end paired with pedimented gable dormers on the left side, plus fluted columns holding up a full entablature — classical temple details scaled down to cottage size.
Side-hall entrance. The front door sits off-center in a side-hall plan, flanked by full-length sidelight windows and pilasters, a compact version of the formal doorway treatments found on larger Greek Revival houses of the period.
the style
Greek Revival dominated American domestic building in the 1840s, borrowing the columns, pediments, and entablatures of Greek temples for houses of every size. Here the vocabulary is shrunk to fit a 1.5-story cottage — fluted columns, a full entablature, and a pedimented gable end — making this one of the style's finest small examples in the neighborhood.
More on Greek Revivalsignificance
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, recognized as one of the finest examples of its type in northwestern Cambridge.
nearby
- St. John's Roman Catholic Church
- Isaac McLean House
- Chester Kingsley House
- Clifton Bacon House
- Somerville Theatre
- H. Langford Warren House