Quincy, Mass. Historical and Architectural Survey

40 Butler Road (Dorothy Q. Apartments)

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
The "Dorothy Q" apartment house at 40 Butler Road and "The Georgian" apartment house at 100 Washington Street were both designed by Boston architects Graves & Epps (Harold S. Graves and Thomas Byrd Epps) in 1929. Remarkably similar in plan, the "Dorothy Q" is quite a bit larger and cost $150,000 to build as opposed to the $60,000 spent on the construction of "The Georgian". The "Dorothy Q" also utilized builder John M. Hartwell while "The Georgian's" builder was the popular local architect/contractor William R. Lofgren. Both wear their half century of use with grace and contribute positively to their respective streetscapes.

Directly adjacent to the Quincy Center Local Historic District, the "Dorothy Q" takes its name from the Quincy Homestead or Dorothy Quincy House (National Register) next door at 34 Butler Road. The three-story 34-unit apartment building was built by William G. Shaw, owner of the prosperous W. G. Shaw Furniture Co., located in 1922 at 2 Washington Street in the Hancock Building in Quincy Square.

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Assessors Records.
Building Permit.
MASS COPAR. Directory of Boston Architects, 1846-1970, 1984.
Quincy City Directories, 1904, 1922.

ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE:
Quincy has numerous fine traditionally designed, residentially scaled apartment buildings. The "Dorothy Q" is one of them. Built in 1929, in full force of the late Colonial Revival period, the four story brick apartment building has elegant Georgian details which detracts from the boxiness of the form. The central entrance is particularly well embellished with a door capped by door hood supported by scrolled brackets which in tUrn becomes the base for the finely detailed mitered panel. framed with baroque scrolls at the side,and capped with a Greek pediment. The words "-to Dorothy Q" are in raised letters on the panel. Above there is a window with a constrasting keystone and a oculus window within a baroque frame. The planar quality of the facade is relieved with the projecting architectural ornamentation and the constrasting quoins which separates the area into three planes. The fenestration is regular composed of a large sash windows framed by two smaller ones. The architects, Graves and Epps, who also designed "The Georgian" at 100 Washington Street were familiar with historicism and employed it creatively to create a fine apartment building which is an attractive component of the Butler Road streetscape, adjacent to the Quincy Center Local HistOric District.

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