Quincy, Mass. Historical and Architectural Survey

360 Adams Street

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
All of Adams Street was a section of the old Boston-Plymouth Highway and a 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.

The large Tudor revival residence at 360 Adams Street was built in 1935 for Robert 0. Gilmore, a physician that kept his office at 1159 Hancock Street. The architect for the $14,200 structure was C. C. Crowell, who received a commission to design another Tudor revival house, at 85 Dixwell Avenue, in 1938. Carl Andre, a local mason, was the builder. The land on which 360 Adams Street is located had belonged since at least 1897 to the Adams Temple and School Fund. This Fund was established by John Adams in 1822 for the benefit of the inhabitants of the Town of Quincy and included two large tracts of Adams land known as Rocky Pasture (25 acres) and Mount Ararat Pasture (54 acres). The Fund illustrates the three century-old bond of the Adams family and Quincy.

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Assessors Records.
William Churchill Edwards. Historic Quincy. Massachusetts, 1957. p. 155.
H. Hobart Holly, Quincy Historical Society.
H. Hobart Holly. Quincy: 350 Years, 1974, p. 57.
Quincy City Directory. 1935.

ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE:
Adams Street has an unusually large number of Tudor Revival residences; 360 Adams Street is one of them. The Tudor Revival was one of the popular eclectic revival styles of the first quarter of the 20th century. Loosely based on a few characteristics of Elizabethan and Carolean periods (16th and early 17th century England), it has its origins in England in the 1830's and in the United States in the 1850s through the proliferation of the books by Andrew Jackson Downing (1815-1852) who thought the style appropriate for a country residence. Characteristics of the style include half timbering detailing, a multiplicity of gables, large elaborate chimneys, varied walling material, steeply pitched ridge roofs, superimposed gables, casement windows with leaded panes, Tudor arches and at times, castellated parapets. It was the most picturesque style of the 20th century. The house at 360 Adams Street exhibits numerous characteristics of this picturesque style: the superimposed gables, varied walling material, brick, stucco, granite and wood, numerous gables which include the quaint-looking ones of the dormers piercing the eave line, the stack of three contiguous chimneys, and, the irregular fenestration. The facade's articulation is particularly fine with the projecting granite front gable dominating the front while being framed by the half timbering of the setback facade. The well tended gardens recall English prototypes and create an attractive setting for the residence. It is an important contributing factor in the Adams Street streetscape.

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