No. 15610 18 Barrington Road, photograph April 10, 2016.
Date of construction: 1897-1898
Architect: Joseph T. Greene
The following is from Ashmont by Douglass Shand-Tucci.
The Scott-Thorndike House, 18 Barrington Road. The street’s grandest house , it is named for its first owner, Josiah Scott, the president of the New England Electrotype Company (like his friend and neighbor Thomas Goodale active at All Saints’; there is a Scott memorial stained-glass window in the Lady Chapel, on the committee to build which Scott served in 1912), and a later owner Herbert Thorndike, president of the Webb Manufacturing Company. The house is the last of the four we’ve admired by that master of the center-hall Colonial Revival mansion, Joseph Greene.
The following is from the inventory form for Carruth Street – Peabody Square, Boston Landmarks Commission
Barrington Road, off the south side of Elmer Road, was cut through the Carruth estate between 1885 and 1889 and was originally called Arundel Street. The stately Colonial Revival residence at 18 Barrington Road was built c. 1895-97 for Florence M. and Josiah Scott, president of the New England Electrotype Company. Active for many years in the affairs of All Saints’, Scott’s years of service are commemorated by the Scott Memorial window in the church’s Lady Chapel. By the 1920’s, Herbert Thorndike, president of the Webb Manufacturing Company owned this house. It was designed by “the master of the center-hall Colonial” Joseph Greene.
The following is from: Codman Square House Tour Booklet 2004
Year Built: c. 1895
Style: Colonial Revival
Architect: Joseph Greene
The symmetrical façade of this grand house displays the full panoply of Classical details: a bow-front entrance porch with Ionic columns, a Palladian window, slender corner pilasters with Ionic capitals, and a cornice with modillion brackets. The combination of deep gray siding and white trim is both authentic and effective.
The front door leads to a small vestibule. From here, one ascends to a spectacular stair hall, a room in its own right. The monumental fireplace incorporates a Roman brick surround, tall Ionic columns, a full entablature with pulvinated frieze, a boldly bracketed shelf, and a beveled mirror. Even so, the fireplace is upstaged by the astonishing openwork screen that separates the hall from the parlor. This screen, with its Ionic piers, sturdy rectangular grid, and turned balusters, can only be described as a bit of Queen Anne whimsy rendered with Georgian grandeur. The delicate parlor mantel, with its acanthus-carved brackets and floral swags, is complemented by built-in bookshelves, cupboards, and window seats. The present owners have rightly decorated these two rooms as one, with biscuit-colored walls and crisp white trim throughout.
A pair of pocket doors divides the parlor from the dining room, whose chief features are a bay window and a built-in sideboard. The sideboard’s details include miniature pilasters (Doric, for a change), an arched recess, an elegantly curved shelf, and a cupboard with glass doors. In the adjacent china pantry, the original cabinets remain, sans their original sliding doors. The kitchen has been expanded by adding the space once occupied by a second pantry and a small entryway. New woodwork, including the wainscot, plate rail, and built-in bench, was inspired by the watercolors of Carl Larsson, a Swedish painter and pioneer of the Arts and Crafts movement.
The main stairs ascend to the second floor in Neo-Georgian splendor, arriving at a spacious upper landing. An exception to the prevalent painted woodwork occurs in the parents’ bedroom, where the fireplace features a gumwood mantel and brilliant peacock-blue tiles; a header with delicate turned spindles defines a dressing alcove in one corner. The large bathroom combines period-inspired and modern elements. The children’s rooms are painted and decorated to reflect their occupants’ tastes. Clearly, the grandeur of this house does not faze the family that lives here; they are respectful yet relaxed stewards of this fine architectural legacy.
City of Boston building permit application:
July 12, 1897
owner: Josiah B. Scott
architect: Joseph T. Greene
Owners from atlases:
1894 no house on lot
1898 Florence M. Scott
1904 Florence M. Scott
1910 Florence M. Scott
1918 Herbert W. Thorndike
1933 Herbert W. Thorndike Street is now Barrington Road
Boston Directory
1897 Josiah B. Scott (Geo. C. Scott & Sons) electrotyper, 192 Summer, h. 25 Beaumont (25 in 1897 would be about 103 Beaumont Street today)
1898 Josiah B. Scott (Geo. C. Scott & Sons), electrotyper, 192 Summer, h. Arundel, Dor.