Quincy, Mass. Historical and Architectural Survey

105 Cedar Street

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. The early lots sold for about 12 cents a foot but the development accelerated after George F Pinkham, the business manager of the Associates, got the Old Colony Railroad to issue free passes good for three years to anyone purchasing a house lot from the land company. Forbes Hill lies a bit to the West of Wollaston Hill and is dominated by a magnificent standpipe and the Furnace Brook Golf Course.

Number 105 Cedar Street is one of a group of small bungalows built at the foot of Wollaston Hill off Newport Avenue. They are built on land which belonged in the 1870's to Edward H. Dewson, a Boston leather merchant, who in 1888 was president of the National Mount Wollaston Bank. By 1923, Harold Brooks, another large landowner, had acquired the property. Brooks was the president and treasurer of Brooks Skinner Co. Inc., a large building company that had erected more than 23,000 structures of wood, concrete, and steel by 1937. The house was probably built on speculation by Augustus Perry, a realtor at 673a Hancock Street, about 1925.

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Assessors Records.
William Churchill Edwards. Historic Quincy, Massachusetts, 1957, p. 297.
H. Hobart Holly, ed. Quincy: 350 Years, 1974, p. 51.
Quincy Patriot Ledger, 100th Anniversary Edition, January 7, 1937, p. 13, F-2.
Quincy Patriot Ledger, Souvenir Edition, 1899, p. 25.
D. Foster Taylor, "Wollaston As It Was In 1870's." (written in 1946). Quincy History, Quincy Historical Society, January 1985.

ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE:
The "Prairie Bungalow" Style, a Cambridge Historical Commission label, describes residences built in the early 20th century which espouse elements from both the California based Bungalow Style and the Middle West based Prairie Style. Architects of both styles sought to escape from the historicism of the past and the emphasis on classicism; they were interested in building simpler and more functional houses which also reflected the climatic conditions of their respective areas. The California Bungalow is characterized by a low pitched gable roof with a shed dormer and covered veranda while the Prairie type house has a predominantly horizontal appearance which relates to the rolling prairies. Materials used include stucco, contrasted with dark wood trim, cobblestones for foundations and chimneys and wood left in its natural state.

The house at 105 Cedar Street is one of the numerous bungalows in the area and it is a good representative of the majority of them. They are all one and one half story, usually all with one dormer in the front and the typical porch which is an integral part of the roof slope. Architectural ornamentation is at a minimum; here it is the simple brackets at the eaves of the roof and the dormer. The rail of the porch is solid, and the posts are square and chamfered. Fenestration is irregular, a triple window in the facade, a double in the dormer and a small one with diamond shaped panes right of the entrance. It is a picturesque component of the Cedar Street streetscape.

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