Quincy, Mass. Historical and Architectural Survey

6-10 Chesnut Street (Bradford Building)

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
Mayor William A. Bradford was the owner and developer of the Bradford Building at 6-10 Chestnut, corner of Maple Street. He was also the publisher of Bradford's Price Book, a builders buyers guide, and founder of the William A. Bradford Co., a plumbing, gas fitting, beating and sheet metal working firm, both enterprises being located in the Bradford Building.

The Bradford Building was built in 1919 and carries this date on its corner parapet. It is unclear, however, whether this was a totally new building or an addition of several floors to a previous building. There is a building permit in 1909 for a one-story $3000 building, designed by A. H. Wright, a popular Boston architect, who had already designed the Gridley Bryant (1896), Massachusetts Fields (1896), and Cranch (1900) Schools in Quincy. The permit for 1919 is for an "alteration" and specifies a $20,000 three-story building. Unfortunately the architects name is illegible on the 1919 addition but the builder for both phases of the building was the well-known Quincy contractor, Edward H. Sears.

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Assessors Records.
Atlas of the City of Quincy, 1907.
Atlas of the City of Quincy, 1923.
Quincy City Directories, 1910, 1915, 1922.

ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE:
This three story 1919 commercial brick building is strategically located at a busy intersection in the business district. It is designed in a straightforward manner, without ornamentation except for the dentil moliding under the cornice and a white stringcourse over this cornice emphasizing the building's horizontality, and it has resolved its corner situation by chamfering the edge. The corner is further acknowledged with the parapet raised at that section. The fenestration is regular, composed of rectangular one over one windows with plain enframements. Over the second and third floor windows is a row of vertically placed bricks acting as a stringcourse and enlivening the plain brick surface. The ground floor was changed at an undetermined time; it does not relate to the upper floor, although it is appropriate for the use of small retail establishments. It is part of the Quincy Center Local Historic District.

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