Quincy, Mass. Historical and Architectural Survey

64 Cross Street

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
West Quincy, in its early days, was known as the Woods District. In 1644 it was the site of the first productive iron furnace in America. But the West Quincy we know now is the result of the phenomenal expansion of the granite industry which began in the early 19th century, flourished well into the 20th, and achieved such milestones as the first commercial railway in 1826. Hiking through the now silent quarries it is hard to imagine that in 1837 fully one sixth of Quincy's 3000 persons were engaged in the quarrying industry. Historian Daniel Munro Wilson, writing in 1925, tries to capture some of flavor of the change: "Great elevations are being leveled and the very roots of the mountains are being torn out, but the supply is inexhaustible. Stone sheds for the hammering and polishing of the obdurate material have multiplied, so that within the last twenty years these and the houses of the workmen have quite altered the face of the country." (quoted in Holly, Quincy: 350 Years, p. 57.)

Number 64 Cross Street was probably built by Daniel Hayes, a stonecutter, and the Hayes stayed in residence until about 1915 at which time Henry A. Pineo acquired the property. Pineo ran a pool hall a few blocks away at 282 Copeland Street and retained the house until after 1935.

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Assessors Records.
William Churchill Edwards. Historic Quincy, Massachusetts, 1957, p. 116-123.
H. Hobart Holly, Quincy Historical Society.
H. Hobart Holly. Quincy: 350 Years, 1974, p. 51.
H. Hobart Holly. "Quincy's Granite Hills Were Golden". Quincy History. Spring, 1980.
Walter O. Nisula. "Granite Drew the Finnish to Quincy". Quincy History, Spring, 1984.

ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE:
This unusual residence at 64 Cross was listed in the previous Quincy inventory. Probably built in the 1870s with vestigial Gothic Revival bargeboards on the side elevations, its facade remains a mystery. Possibly the third floor shed dormer with its own ridge roof dormer was an interpolation of the 1880s for in the 1979 photograph it shows this element with a large nine window complex, a design of the period but one that would be more appropriate for a meeting hall rather than a residence. It has nice smooth granite posts supporting the round porch, an addition of the 20th century. The alterations and the vinyl siding have compromised the houses' architectural integrity.

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