Quincy, Mass. Historical and Architectural Survey

205 Adams Street

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
All of Adams Street was a section of the old Boston-Plymouth Highway and an important settlement area in the early days. Along this road were the primary 1634 land grants after the Mount Wollaston area became part of Boston. These grants were given on the basis of four acres per head in the family to encourage settlement.

Newton architect Raymond M. Stowell was the designer of this Colonial Revival/Georgian house at 205 Adams Street in 1941. The $17,000 residence was built for a Burton R. Tuxford. Number 205 Adams Street is located on land that in 1888 belonged to Caroline Miller Beale, the granddaughter of George Washington Beale. A member of the first board of directors of "The Stone Bank" in 1836 and a member of the first Board of Trustees of the Quincy Savings Bank in 1845, George W. Beale was also an original supervisor of the Adams Temple and School Fund in 1822 and a member of the Building Committee for the new Town Hall in 1844. By 1923 the property had passed into the hands of Fred. B. Rice, the son of William B. Rice, the founder of the Eventide Home in 1924.

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Assessors Records.
Building Permit.
William Churchill Edwards. Historic Quincy. Massachusetts. 1957. p. 60, 69.
H. Hobart Holly. Quincy: 350 Years. 1974. p. 57.
Quincy Historical Society Records.
Quincy Patriot Ledger. 100th Anniversary. January 7.1937. p. B-1, E-17.
Daniel Munro Wilson. Three Hundred Years of Quincy 1625-1925. 1925. p. 243-245.

ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE:
Adams Street has a pleasant variety of architectural styles, Georgian, Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, Eclectic and others which endows the streetscape with great interest. The residence at 16 Adams Street is one of the finest Colonial Revival houses in the area. Built in 1941, it evokes Quincy's colonial past in a grand manner. The most prominent element in the house is the projecting pedimented portico which rises the height of the house; this stylistic factor is more reminiscent of southern Greek Revival architecture than or the more severe New England architecture. As it often usual or Colonial Revival houses, it has a high slate hip roof whose eaves are pierced by a large exterior chimney, another southern characteristic. This large brick and white trimmed house with its large expanse of landscaped foreground is an elegant component of the Adams Street streetscape. On the same property is an ltalianate barn; gable end to the road, it has a cupola and a large entrance. It is a reminder of the once pastoral landscape or the area.

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