No. 6112 88 Alban Street, photograph April 18, 2005.
Date of construction: 1888
Architect: Walter and Best; remodeled in 1891 Edwin J. Lewis, Jr.
The following is from Ashmont by Douglass Shand-Tucci, p. 92-93.
Such adroit artistic license no doubt pleased Edward Reynolds Kingsbury, the Boston artist who lived and worked across the street at 88 Alban, the Kingsbury-Evans House. The second name derives from a later owner, the Reverend Miner H.A. Evans, and H. A. Evans, Jr. a physician, who lived here with the family in the 1930s. The bold gambrel profile is a form Edwin J. Lewis used often and well and may date from an 1891 remodeling by Lewis, but this house was originally designed by Walter and Best in 1888 for Kingsbury, who certainly owned 88 Alban in 1889 and by 1890 was resident there. Kingsbury, a native Bostonian, studied at the Museum of Fine Arts School and also in Paris, and was active in Boston through the 1920s; he taught art at English High School and was a member of the Boston Art Club. According to the present owner of the house, he left behind at Ashmont in his old house a plaster relief built into the hall as a record of his work.
The following is from: Codman Square House Tour Booklet 2002
Year Built: 1888, remodeled 1891
Architect: Walker and Best; Edwin J. Lewis (remodeling)
Style: Single Style
By 1888, when 88 Alban Street was built for Boston artist Edward Reynolds Kingsbury, progressive taste was turning away from picturesque Victorian complexity but wavered between rustic simplicity and classical grandeur. The architect of this house clearly opted for simplicity: the exterior is virtually unornamented, and windows are arranged for utility rather than symmetry.
The entrance hall, with its moss-green walls and oak woodwork, is not just a passageway but a room, with space for a piano and comfortable chairs. The real eye-catcher is the fireplace, an essay in Arts and Crafts style. The shelf is supported by elongated wooden brackets; a relief panel, cast in plaster, is the work of the original owner. Large doorways connect the hall, the parlor, and the dining room. The rich wall colors of the parlor (Sienna) and dining room (Pompeian red) provide an excellent background for a changing array of paintings by the artist/owner. Although much of the furniture in these rooms dates from around the time the house was built, it is arranged in accordance with a more modern sensibility, avoiding the density of Victorian or Edwardian interiors.
The original kitchen having been made into a family room by a previous owner, with kitchen activities shoehorned into the former pantries, the current owners put a new kitchen in the original location. The warm wood tones of new cherry cabinets (inspired by an antique cherry cupboard) stand out against white walls with sea-green trim and floor tiles. The pantry spaces now accommodate a laundry and a powder room.
An unusual stained-glass window illuminates the front stair landing: a classical scene is framed by crown-glass roundels. On the second floor, a spacious central hall leads to the bedrooms, which demonstrate the creative pairings of wallpaper patterns and colors. The bathroom plumbing fixtures date from the 1940s.
A narrow stair leads to the most distinctive original feature of this house: a spacious studio, complete with a huge north-facing window and a sturdy plank floor. An alcove with a low window and a couch provides comfortable quarters for the family dog, who enjoys one of the nicest views in the neighborhood.
The following comes from: www.askart.com
Edward Reynolds Kingsbury. Painter. Born in Boston, MA in 1855. Kingsbury studied at the Massachusetts Normal Art School, Boston Museum School, and Académie Julian in Paris. A resident of Carmel, CA in the 1920s, his last years were spent in Ogunquit, ME and Cambridge, MA, He died in the latter on May 1, 1940.
Dorchester Atlases show owners:
1889 Mary Kingsbury—the house first appears in the 1889 atlas
1894 Anne E. Baker
1898 Annie E. Baker
1904 Annie E. Baker
1910 Mary L. Dillaway
1918 Elsie D. Evans
1933 Elsie D. Evans
Deed
June 21, 1888 from George Derby Welles to Mary A. Kingsbury, wife of Edward R. Kingsbury of Malden 1827.548 lot 211 and 212
Parcel of land
June 28, 1892 from Edward R. Kingsbury and Mary C. Kingsbury to Annie E. Baker, wife of Edward L. Baker 2068.634 lot 212 and part 211
Boston Directory
1888 no entry for Edward Kingsbury
1889 Edward R. Kingsbury, artist, h. Alban
Dorchester Blue Books
1894 Residents were Mr. & Mrs. Edward L. Baker
1896 Residents were Mr. & Mrs. Edward L. Baker
1900 Residents were Mr. & Mrs. Edward L. Baker
1902 Residents were Mr. & Mrs. Edward L. Baker
1904 Residents were Mr. & Mrs. Edward L. Baker
1906 Residents were Mr. & Mrs. Edward L. Baker
1908 Residents were Mr. & Mrs. Edward L. Baker
1910 Residents were Mr. & Mrs. Charles T. W. Dillaway
1913 Residents were Dr. & Mrs. Miner H. A. Evans
1915 Resident were Dr. & Mrs. Miner H A Evans
Census 1910
Edward L. Baker, 47, printer
Annie E. Baker, 48
Doris Olson, 21, servant