Quincy, Mass. Historical and Architectural Survey

85 Dixwell Avenue

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
The Hospital Hill/President's Hill/Cranch Hill neighborhood of Quincy is bounded by the MBTA tracks (east), Granite Street-Quarry Street (south), Quarry Street-Common Street (west), and Common Street-Furnace Brook Parkway (north). A key feature of this elite residential area was the extensive Charles Francis Adams Estate which was divided by the 1890's into three great real estate trust controlled properties called President's Hill, President's Hill Annex and Cranch Hill. Presidents Hill took its name from the Adams family who furnished two Presidents of the United States. Cranch Hill is located on the former homestead of Richard Cranch who together with Joseph Palmer, is credited with the early industrial development of Germantown. Other features of this area are the smaller estates that lined the south side of Adams Street, the Quincy City Hospital at the top of Cranch Hill and the stone quarries lying to the east of Quarry Street. The close proximity of the Quincy Depot (which served the Old Colony Line to Boston), the City Hall, the street railway, and the city's financial center were major factors in the successful development of this area.

This Tudor Revival house was built for Nicholas Papani, the president of the Granite City Electrical Supply Co. in 1938 and is still in the Papani family. The architect for the $12,700 structure was C. C. Crowell and the builder, Harry Richal. The house is built on the former Henry Munroe Faxon estate. The son of the fabulously successful real estate entrepreneur and temperance fanatic Henry Hardwick Faxon, Henry Munroe Faxon was president of both the Quincy Electric Light & Power Co. and the National Mount Wollaston Bank.

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
"A Brief Historical Sketch of the City of Quincy, Mass." Issued by the President's Hill, President's Hill Annex, and Cranch Hill Real Estate Trusts. c. 1903.
Assessors Records.
Robinson's Atlas of Norfolk County, Mass., 1888.
Atlas of the City of Quincy, 1897.
Atlas of the City of Quincy, 1907.
Atlas of the City of Quincy, 1923.

ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE:
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 Carolan periods (16th and early 17th century England), it has its origins in Great Britain in the 1830s 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.

This late example of the Tudor Revival Style was built in 1938 to the designs of C. C. Crowel. It is replete with characteristics of the style. Of particular note is the richly textured walls consisting of diagonally placed bricks set in areas delineated by dark wood half timbering and the dormers. The windows of these picturesque dormers pierce the eave line and not the roof slope Their gables are also filled with diagonally placed bricks framed by contrasting dark wood. Further wall articulation can be seen in the projecting front wing which has randomly placed bricks piercing the surface. The entrance is protected by a portico with a Tudor arch. The fenestration is irregular, composed of varied sized casement windows. It will be recommended that this significant residence of the 1930s be included in the proposed National Register Hospital Hill/President's Hill/Cranch Hill Historic District.

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