[MassHistPres] Examples of clusters of workmans cottages in Massachusetts

[WN Hill Preservation]

Another area with worker housing is in Newton Upper Falls, a Local Historic
District which includes 19th c housing for mill workers.
The LHD study (see attached link) may be another useful reference point,
although done in the 1970s.


https://www.newtonma.gov/government/planning/historic-preservation/local-historic-districts-commissions/upper-falls-historic-district-commission


On Thu, May 27, 2021 at 4:05 PM Joyce Anderson <jabanderson at gmail.com>
wrote:

> PRINCETON has three Greek Revival workers cottages on Main Street! A
> lovely NHR District.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On May 26, 2021, at 2:52 PM, Lee Caras <lee.caras at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I am also having a hard time describing the large numbers of homes built
> here in Maynard for woolen millworkers by the mill owners as “cottages”.
> There are only two, small salt box-type homes built for workers at the
> local powdermill that could be called “cottages”.  All the others are
> either modest homes (built in the area called “the Presidentals” with its
> streets named for presidents), tenement row houses, or modest bungalows.
> These are millworker housing, but definitely not cottages.  -Lee Caras,
> Maynard Historical Commission
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On May 26, 2021, at 8:59 AM, Richard Casella <rcasella at historicdoc.com>
> wrote:
>
> 
>
> Agreed that when using the term "Cottage" one needs to define its
> characteristics in each case. Worker housing is just that: housing built
> for workers, typically by the employer of the workers such as 19th c. mill
> housing or 20th c. military housing, usually of one or just a few differing
> designs. I have not seen Cottage used in conjunction with worker housing,
> or worker housing that I would call cottage style, but that's not to say
> the property type is not out there and that one could not make such an
> argument. Levittown for example, one might say are cottages built for the
> working class, but most architectural historians would not use the terms
> cottage or worker housing to describe them - the mass-produced or
> factory-built property type is more accurate.
>
>
>
> Below is 1902 definition of cottage from Stugis' Dictionary of
> Architecture...
>
>
>
> <image002.jpg>
>
>
>
> Sturgis of course does not take into account all the mid-20th c.
> waterfront, forest and mountain cottages we are all familiar with.
>
> For the characteristics of that property type see Camps and Cottages... by
> Charles D. White, 1937/1946, available here:
>
> https://archive.org/details/CharlesDWhiteCampsandCottagesHowtoBuildThem0001
>
>
>
> Richard Casella
>
> Portsmouth RI
>
>
>
> *From:* MassHistPres [mailto:masshistpres-bounces at cs.umb.edu] *On Behalf
> Of *Henry Cooke
> *Sent:* Tuesday, May 25, 2021 8:16 AM
> *To:* annelusk at gmail.com; masshistpres at cs.umb.edu
> *Subject:* Re: [MassHistPres] Examples of clusters of workmans cottages
> in Massachusetts
>
>
>
> Anne, it sounds like and interesting study
>
>
>
> Please define the term "cottages".  To me, it creates the image of small
> one room summer homes, intended for temporary or seasonal use, especially
> those built in the bungalow style at the turn of the 20th century.
>
>
> Randolph has a number of homes of workers in the boot and shoe industry,
> built in the 1850s and 1860s. Most were built to accommodate the influx of
> Irish immigrants who came to Randolph during that time. Some are scattered
> singly, but most were built "cookie cutter" style, in clusters, especially
> in the more densely populated West Village (downtown Randolph), which is
> where many of our surviving examples still stand, and can often be found in
> proximity to the locations of central shops where leather was cut and
> bundled for distributions to boot makers and finished products were
> received and packed for shipping.
>
>
>
> These houses are built in a vernacular style, 1 1/2 stories high, 2-3 bays
> wide, by 3-4 window bays deep, gable end to the street, with asymmetric
> floorplans usually consisting of an offset entry hall with stairway to the
> second story, a formal front room and fireplace, a back room at the rear of
> the main building, and a kitchen addition at the rear. Most of ours have a
> "ten footer" ell projecting at right angles to the axis of the principal
> block of the house, that was in most instances used in the production of
> shoes for the local central shop. These houses are nearly identical to
> larger houses of the same style, only with the rooms scaled down in size.
> These workers homes are small, often on narrow lots, with the houses about
> 30-40 feet apart, compared to much wider spacing outside the downtown area.
>
>
>
> MHC has area surveys of some of these properties, compiled by Katleen
> Kelly Broomer that discuss this housing in greater detail.
>
>
>
> Henry Cooke, Chair
>
> Randolph Historical Commission
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Anne Lusk <annelusk at gmail.com>
> To: Masshistpres <masshistpres at cs.umb.edu>
> Sent: Mon, May 24, 2021 1:04 pm
> Subject: [MassHistPres] Examples of clusters of workmans cottages in
> Massachusetts
>
> Dear All,
>
>    I'm working on a Study Report for a Local Historic District submission
> in Brookline that concerns a cluster of workman's cottages that were built,
> starting around 1820.  There are 11 cottages really close together on Hart
> Street and 5 cottages really close together on Franklin Court.
>
>      Are there any other clusters of workman's cottages in Massachusetts?
> I gather there are some cottages near the old glass factory in Sandwich.
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jarvesville_Historic_District   Could
> someone give me a street name for these cottages?  Those cottages would
> have been built by the glass company to house their workers.
>
>       The houses on Hart and Franklin were moved in 1870 to these streets
> to be owned by Irish Catholic workers or rented to them. Eventually, all
> the houses were owned.  Many single women owned the houses, widows remained
> in the cottages for a long time, and houses were passed down from family to
> family.
>
>      With so many wealthy mansions already being listed and the threat of
> smaller homes being demolished to build McMansions, saving the humble
> cottages and telling the stories about the owners is worth the effort.
>
> Thanks so much for your help,
>
> Anne Lusk, Ph.D. 617-879-4887
>
> _______________________________________________
> MassHistPres mailing list
> MassHistPres at cs.umb.edu
> https://mailman.cs.umb.edu/listinfo/masshistpres
> _______________________________________________
> MassHistPres mailing list
> MassHistPres at cs.umb.edu
> https://mailman.cs.umb.edu/listinfo/masshistpres
>
> _______________________________________________
> MassHistPres mailing list
> MassHistPres at cs.umb.edu
> https://mailman.cs.umb.edu/listinfo/masshistpres
>
> _______________________________________________
> MassHistPres mailing list
> MassHistPres at cs.umb.edu
> https://mailman.cs.umb.edu/listinfo/masshistpres
>


-- 

wnhpreservation at gmail.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.cs.umb.edu/pipermail/masshistpres/attachments/20210604/252fa575/attachment.html>