Quincy, Mass. Historical and Architectural Survey

707 Adam Street (Ezra Beal House)

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
The Wollaston/Forbes Hill neighborhood of Quincy is bounded by the M.B.T.A tracks (east), Furnace Brook Parkway (south,Adams Street (west) and Beale Street (north). In 1869 the Wollaston Land Associates purchased an initial 300 acres on and near the Wollaston Hills for the purpose of developing a status residential area. This was a portion of the tract allotted in 1636 by the Town of Boston to William Hutchinson, the husband of Mistress Anne Hutchinson. Forbes Hill lies a bit to the West of Wollaston Hill and is dominated by a magnificent standpipe and the Furnace Brook Golf Course.

The last house on Adams Street before Milton, number 707 is located in the far northwest corner of the Wollaston/Forbes Hill neighborhood. The house was probably built in the late 1700's by Elisha Turner who died in 1806. It was then sold by his executor and father-in-law Peter Boylston Adams 'to Boylston Adams who sold it to Henry Vose. His daughter Catherine Baxter sold it in 1835 to Ezra Beals (1778-1853). no relation of the prominent Beale family of Quincy. His son Nathaniel Henry Beals sold it about 1900 to Joseph Vogel who altered it extensively. At his death it was sold to a Mr. Allstran who made it a two family. In 1935 it was owned by the Quincy Savings Bank and under the direction of local architect E. H. Sears, the house was converted to a four family residence at a cost of $4000. With the addition of aluminum siding in 1986. the house is in the process of being further changed.

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Assessors Records.
Building Permit. 1935 alteration.
William Churchill Edwards. Historic Quincy
William Churchill Edwards. Historic Quincy, Massachusetts, 1957, p. 297.
Hobart Holly, ed. Quincy: 350 Years, 1974, p. 51.
Quincy Historical Records.
D. Foster Taylor, "Wollaston As It Was In the 1870's" (written in 1946). Quincy History, Quincy
Historical Society, January 1985.

ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE:
When first built, the Ezra Beale house was a beautiful Federal residence with a balustrade at the roof, shutters at the windows and a columnar balustraded portico in the center facade. It was archetypal elegant residence of the end of the 18th century. Many additions and alterations have changed it radically. In 1900, Queen Anne elements were pasted to it namely the projecting pedimented front pavillion over a porch with turned posts, an angular corner tower with a bay window at its base and a side porch. The roof balustrade and the shutters were removed. In 1935, the house was recycled into four apartments and in 1986 it was in the process of being resided with vinyl. It is an interesting element on Adams Street but it has lost its architecturally integrity and original identity. It was listed in the previous Quincy inventory.

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