Quincy, Mass. Historical and Architectural Survey

416 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.

This interesting eclectic style $10,500 residence at 416 Adams Street was built for Francesco DiRico, a box manufacturer. in 1933. The architect, Vincent E. Squiers of Newton, designed another house in Quincy, the Tudor revival number 77 Reservoir Road, the very same year. The land on which 416 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 a pleasant variety of architectural styles, Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival and others which endows the streetscape with great interest. The residence 416 Adams Street built in an eclectic style is one of the most picturesque and unusual. Built in 1933 to the designs of the architect, Vincent E Squiers, it evokes the same type of response as a does a Tudor Revival house, but here, the influence is French rather than English. Particularly gallic is the round turret like tower with a conical roof at the corner where the front projection meets the facade. The entrance is topped with a flared copper hood. The relatively smooth brick walls are pierced by large casement windows which have small panes. The steepness of the hip roof resembles a typical French roof, almost mansardic; its polychromatic slate further reinforces the eclectic picturesque look. On the right is a terrace with granite wall with decorative urns and iron railings. Varied materials, foreign influence, fine detailing all make this house an important and interesting contributing factor in the Adams Street streetscape.

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