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 Click image for more information  Look below at the very bottom for descriptions of Dorchester neighborhoods. These descriptions were prepared during the 1994 survey of Dorchester by the Boston Landmarks Commission.
The Boston Landmarks Commission has designated 6 locations in Dorchester as city landmarks (the Peabody Square clock is also a Boston Landmark, included among a grouping of city clocks). All of them are listed on the National Register of Historic Properties, and you may find the National Register descriptions in the Section under Architecture entitled National Register Properties. The Boston landmarks include
1. Dorchester North Burying Ground, Columbia Road
topography, walkways, headstone, walls
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exterior and kiln
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exterior and interior
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exterior and grounds
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Historic documentation indicates that the main house on the Fowler Clark farm was built as a single family dwelling between 1786 and 1806. Outbuildings have been on the property since the late eighteenth century, though documentation indicates that the current stable dates to ca. 1860. Samuel Fowler, a Dorchester yeoman seems to have been the house?s first owner. Fowler farmed a large estate in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries on which stood a ?mantion house and barn.? This estate included what became the Clark family parcel. The house has passed through five families over the course of its roughly 200 year history. It served as a farmhouse in an agricultural setting until the 11 acre property was subdivided for residential development in 1895.
The house and stable at 487 Norfolk Street are collectively known as the Fowler-Clark farm. Once situated on just over eleven acres, the buildings now occupy six parcels at the southwest corner of Norfolk and Hosmer Streets in Mattapan, totaling just over half an acre.
The house is a wood-frame, two-and-a-half story, five bay by one bay dwelling, with a large central chimney and centered, projecting main entry. The building reads as two distinct blocks: the original single pile house, and a rear, one story, wood frame and stone ell. The main (southern) fa?ade presents five bays to the street with double-hung twelve over twelve wood sash windows.
For more information see the study report on the Boston Landmarks? webpage at http://www.cityofboston.gov/environment/reports.asp
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The George Milliken House was built in 1881 as a single family home. From 1881 to 2004 it passed through three owners, and remained a residence until the winter of 2003-2004 when it was vacated.
The George Milliken House stands as an outstanding example of a late nineteenth-century suburban dwelling that exhibits characteristics of Queen Ann and Stick Style aesthetics. Taking its cue from elements of nature and deliberately defying the constraints of the urban lot and row house form, the large, asymmetrical, wood frame dwelling sprawls on its 7,979 square foot parcel and exhibits playful details and ornament.
For more information see the study report on the Boston Landmarks? webpage at http://www.cityofboston.gov/environment/reports.asp
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Kehew-Wright House
The following comes from the study report. You may access the full study report here
Click here
The Kehew-Wright House is approximately 40 feet square and rises two stories
above a fully exposed basement level at the back. The dominant mansard roof
form is elaborated by two steep cross-gambrels, one centered on the south façade and one located at the north bay of the west elevation. Enlivening the simple rectangular volume of the main block are an assortment of three-dimensional projections: a large, square-shaped front entry porch; a linear porch wrapping around the north (back) and part of the east elevations; a small, one-story angled bay and a small projecting entrance vestibule on the east elevation; and a larger, two-story angled bay on the west elevation, which extends from the basement and first floor levels. In the late 20th century, a small angled bay window was added at the basement level of the north (back) elevation, under the porch, along with an enclosed sunroom over the front entrance porch.
Measuring approximately 50 feet long by 28 feet deep, the stable is a simple
rectangular structure. Its mansard roof is enlivened by a band of diamond-shaped shingles in the middle of the lower slope, shed-roofed dormers with scalloped slate shingles and small sawn brackets, and a rectangular center cupola with louvered sides and scalloped and diamond-shaped roof shingles. All elevations are asymmetrical. The south façade is accentuated by a center cross-gambrel with a pair of barn doors on the main floor surmounted by a diagonally-boarded hayloft door and a hoisting beam. A low stone retaining wall extends south from the southwest corner of the stable.
The first known occupant of 24 Grampian Way, John Kehew (1818-1889) bought the property in 1873 (although he seems to have moved here in 1871) and lived there until 1887. Before he occupied the Kehew-Wright House, Kehew was well known in New England for his business in manufacturing and importing mathematical and nautical instruments in New Bedford, and for his partnership for several years with a nationally-prominent instrument maker, Edward Ritchie, in Boston. By the time he lived at Grampian Way, Kehew was partner in an oil business that supplied, among others customers, numerous textile mills in Massachusetts.
Best-known today of the occupants of 24 Grampian Way is George Wright (1847-1937), who bought the Kehew-Wright House in 1887 and lived here until his death in 1937. (The Wright family continued to occupy the property until 1948.) George Wright was one of the countrys first professional baseball celebrities, who parlayed his fame and talent into a successful sporting goods business and an influential national role as a sports promoter. Wright was largely retired as an active baseball player by the time he occupied 24 Grampian Way, but his contributions to American sports history (including the popularization and organization of baseball, golf, and tennis as recreational and professional activities) were pivotal during his tenure here. Wright’s two sons, who were distinguished athletes in their own right, also occupied the house during the early parts of their careers.
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Created: May 23, 2005 Modified: August 2, 2013
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