Our Buildings

From Houses of Boston’s Back Bay by Bainbridge Bunting, Belknap Press of Harvard University, ©1967.

Chapter 7

THE AUTHENTIC REVIVALS AND THE TRIUMPH OF THE GEORGIAN STYLE

The Back Bay district offers a unique opportunity in which to examine the many styles of architecture that flourished and competed for favor in nineteenth century America. In quick succession we have observed the modified Greek Revival vernacular of the 1840’s and a growing preoccupation with French forms in the late fifties and sixties. The middle eighties saw the beginning of a greater awareness of historical prototypes though the designers still delighted in the picturesque. In the present chapter we shall observe the swift dispersal of the picturesque and personal idioms before the “Authentic Revivals.”

High Georgian

Yet another stylistic family among these late nineteenth century revivals refers to British work of the eighteenth century. Houses of this group for the most part are large. It would seem that owners desiring more lavish ornamentation than could be obtained within the chaste Federal idiom chose the heavily laden High Georgian manner. The popularity of this style can also be explained as the influence of the English architect Norman Shaw who progressed from the Free Classic to a more formal Georgian manner in his later work.

In connection with Shaw’s influence in Boston, mention should be made of two medium-sized but very handsome houses designed by R. Clipston Sturgis in 1897 at 485-487 Commonwealth Avenue. These fine facades make specific reference to Shaw’s work of the eighties in the segmental window heads crowned with a single brick drip molding, and the design and attenuated proportions of the second-story windows. Specifically the two oriel windows at 485 and the entrance to 487 refer to well-known buildings by Shaw in London. Within the mingling of Medieval and Renaissance details also recalls Shaw precedent.