Quincy, Mass. Historical and Architectural Survey

32 Bayview Avenue

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
Houghs Neck, which has had as many spellings as changes in residents, is a mile square peninsula surrounded by Quincy Bay, Hingham Bay. and Rock Island Cove. It has four distinct neighborhoods known as "The Willows", "Rock Island Head", "Rock Island Cove" and "Great Hill". Houghs Neck was predominantly a farming community from 1636, when Atherton Hough was granted the 700-acre "farm" which is now Houghs Neck, until the Civil War. Some Quincy residents and others had built summer homes but by the late 1800s, the area's gentle shoreline, beaches, boating and natural beauty attracted numerous summer visitors and Houghs Neck became a busy tourist attraction. The area was also made easily accessible by improved bicycles, a new street car line, and the advent of the Boston & Houghs Neck Steamboat Co. Soon the few year-round homes and farms were outnumbered by summer cottages, summer mansions and summer hotels, very few of which survive. A less welcome addition to the Neck was the Nut Island sewerage station. The resort activity declined after 1900 and now Houghs Neck is a settled residential community, many of the homes being winterized summer cottages.

Bay View Avenue was developed shortly after 1870 and Number Thirty-Two was probably built by James S. Murray of the Great Hill House ("A Splendid Place To Pass the Summer") in the 1880's. The next owner of the property, in 1907, was a summer resident, Pastor Peter Ronan. By 1923, the property was acquired by a James P. Quinn.

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Assessors Records.
H. Hobart Holly, Quincy Historical Society.
H. Hobart Holly, ed. Quincy: 350 Years. 1974. p. 51-52.
Dorothy T. Laing and Ruth A. Wainwright. "The Houghs Neck Story and Atherton Hough, A Puritan's Progress", 1981.
Quincy City Directories, 1868. 1896, 1915, 1927.
Richard T. LaBrecque. "Houghs Neck of Gay Nineties Era Colorful Resort for Summer Fun".
Quincy Patriot Ledger, c. 1930.

ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: 32 Bay View Avenue
Beautifully sited so as to take full advantage of the water view, this simple Queen Anne house was built in the 1880s as a summer residence. Although the house does not have the usual complex roof structure of the period, its projecting gables and solid bargeboards all act to give it a picturesque and comfortable look. The fenestration is almost regular, composed of a few double sash windows and the rest, single sash windows. The dominant element of the house is the large balustraded porch supported by square posts and simple brackets which wraps itself around three sides of the house to allow the residents to enjoy the sea air. It is a fine example of what William T. Comstock in 1881 called "Sea or Lake Cottage."

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