Quincy, Mass. Historical and Architectural Survey

87 Appleton Street

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
The Atlantic neighborhood in North Quincy is bordered by the Neponset River to the North and Quincy Bay to the East. It was once part of Dorchester and with the Old North Precinct that had split off from Braintree, it became part of the Town of Quincy in 1792. The Jockey Club of Boston set up the first mile track course in the state in 1812 in a section of Atlantic known as Billings Plains and less than one hundred years later the track was filled in with new homes. Like its neighbors, Montclair and Wollaston, most of the community of Atlantic was built in the first third of the 20th century. For nearly 200 years North Quincy was referred to as "The Farms" and it was such as the Newbury, Wilson, Billings' and Glover farms that were split up for residences by real estate developers David H. MacKay, Henry Hunt, Maurice E. Kilpatrick, John E. Poland, Henry J. Grass and Charles M. Conant, Henry Blackwell, and Walter Webb. The development process was greatly accelerated by the Old Colony Railroad which began operations in 1845, eventually establishing stations in Atlantic, Norfolk Downs (the southern section of Atlantic), and Wollaston as well as by the advent of Quincy's extensive street railway system.

It is very likely that this house at 87 Appleton Street was in one of North Quincy's earliest developments. The builder of the house was probably David H. MacKay who is listed in the 1876 Atlas. MacKay erected about a dozen houses of "the slated French roof type" including three twelve-room houses on Appleton street which eventually were sold by his bank for $2300 each. McKay brought his lumber down in sloops from Maine and Nova Scotia and unloaded it opposite Appleton Street and had it floated ashore.

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Assessors records.
Building Permits for alterations in the 1930's.
H. Hobart Holly, Quincy Historical Society.
H. Hobart Holly, ed. Quincy: 350 Years, 1974, p. 4.
William S. Pattee, A History of Old Braintree and Quincy, 1878, p. 55.
John Ramsdell."Historic North Quincy". [Written about 1934]. Typed manuscript at Quincy
Historical Society.
Daniel Munro Wilson. Three Hundred Years of Quincy 1625-1925, 1925. p. 280-281.

ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE:
This once single residence has been so altered during its change to a triple residence that it has lost its architectural integrity and identity. Built in the 1870s with a double hip roof, almost a straight mansard roof, it probably had brackets under the overhanging eaves. As the original walling material, wood, has been replaced by vinyl siding and as all the windows have also been changed, it is difficult to evaluate and identify this house. The present portico supported by square posts was built after 1973. It was listed in the previous Quincy inventory.

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