Quincy, Mass. Historical and Architectural Survey

269 Beale 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. McCellan cut it into street and house lots in 1883 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.

Beale Street is the dividing line between the Wollaston Hill neighborbood to the south and the Montclair neighborhood to the north. The mansardic cottage at 269 Beale Street falls on the Montclair fide of the street. Its early ownership history is very unclear has neither "M. Trafford" (1897) or "John W. Tratton" (1907) could be found in city directories, perhaps indicating a rental property. Beginning in 1915. Number 269 Beale street was owned for at least ten years by Edward Hoxie. a machinist, and his family.

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 1934111 . Typed manuscript at Quincy
Historical Society.
Daniel Munro Wilson. Three Hundred Years of Quincy 1625-1925. 1925, p. 280-281.

ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE:
The most characteristic element of the Mansardic Style or Second Empire, is the French mansardic roof which is a double-pitched hipped roof with 'dormer windows on the steep, lower slope. Here, at 269 Beale Street, the lower half of the concave roof is composed of beautiful scalloped slate shingles while the rest is made up of asphalt shingles. In spite of the aluminum siding, there still remains some ornamental details such as the double brackets at the cornice line, the peaked window hoods on the dormers and the brackets with pendant supporting the- door hood. The window enframements were removed in the process of residing the house. It is set on a brick foundation while the unfelicitously placed porch addition is set on a concrete foundation. The asymmetric facade has a prominent angular bay window on the left and the entrance on the right. The door is original, with two arched panes of glass inset on the top. Such doors (usually in more elaborate forms) were illustrated in A.J. Bicknell'$ 1873 Detail, Cottage and Constructive Architecture. Were it not for the loss of the original walling material and porch, this house would be an excellent example of a mansardic cottage of the 1870s. It was listed in the previous Quincy inventory. With its picket fence fronting the house, it is a pleasant component of Beale Street.

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