Quincy, Mass. Historical and Architectural Survey

207-209 Arlington Street

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
The Montclair neighborhood in North Quincy is bordered by the Neponset River to the north, Beale Street to the south, Newport Avenue to the west and the Town of Milton to the east. It was once part of Dorchester and became part of the Town of Quincy in 1792. Like its neighbors, Atlantic and Wollaston, most of the community of Montclair was built in the first third of the 20th century. From earliest colonial times until the Civil War, North Quincy was referred to as "The Farms" and it was to the farmlands of Montclair that real estate entrepreneurs beckoned the nearby inhabitants of Boston and its suburbs. The Micaih Pope farm was one of the largest to be subdivided; Arthur D. McCellati cut it into street and house lots in 1893 calling it "Montclair". Other active real estate developers were Maurice E. Kilpatrick. Edward L. Parlee and Henry J. Grass. The development process was greatly accelerated by the Old Colony Railroad which began operations in 1845 as well as by the advent of Quincy's extensive street railway system.

The land on which the double residence at 207-209 Arlington Street is located was owned by carpet salesman C. R. Sherman in 1876. The house itself was probably erected by William S. Washburn, a plumber, in the 1860's. Washburn sold to C. Eaton Pierce, a clerk in Boston, about 1903 and the Pierces remained in residence until at least 1927. This house history is somewhat unusual in this area as many of the houses were rented and the owners lived elsewhere.

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Assessors Records.
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:
The double residence at 207-209 is in interesting example of a transitional house. Its original massing indicates a house begun in the Gothic Revival period as seen in the steep pitch, two front and side gables and the projecting roof. These elements endow the house with a picturesque quality. Soon after, Italianate characteristics appear; they include the round headed windows in the gables, the angular one story bay windows on the facade and the side elevations and the two doors with two narrow panes at the top. Continuing this architectural nomenclature, in the 1890s a Queen Anne portico supported by decorated brackets was added to the house front. It is a delightful component of the Arlington Street streetscape.

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