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FORM B BUILDING

MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSIONMASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARDBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125

Photograph

Locus Map (north is up)

Recorded by: Jennifer B. Doherty

Organization: Medford Historical Commission

Date (month / year): May, 2016

Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number

O – 13 – 102O – 13 – 102A

Boston North

MDF.127MDF.123

3

Town/City: Medford

Place: (neighborhood or village): East Medford

Address: 67 Magoun Avenue

Historic Name: Medford Hospital and Carriage House

Uses: Present: Multi-family Residential

Original: Single-family Residential

Date of Construction: 1893-1895

Source: Maps, deeds

Style/Form: Queen Anne

Architect/Builder: Unknown

Exterior Material:Foundation: Not visible

Wall/Trim: Vinyl/wood

Roof: Asphalt shingle

Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Large carriage house/barn and a wood, open picket border fence.

Major Alterations (with dates): Vinyl siding applied; sash replaced, both during recent decades

Condition: Fair

Moved: no yes Date:

Acreage: 0.29 acres

Setting: In a densely-settled urban residential neighborhood of single- and two-family houses constructed around the turn of the 20th century, all on small lots of less than a quarter of an acre.

Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form.

INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET MEDFORD 67 MAGOUN AVENUE

MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125

Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked, you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form.

Use as much space as necessary to complete the following entries, allowing text to flow onto additional continuation sheets.

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION: Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community.

The Medford Hospital, constructed between 1889 and 1898, is a large, formerly single-family Queen Anne-style house with complex massing that was converted to a hospital and is now back in residential use with multiple apartments. The two-and-a-half story gable-block house is two rooms wide and two rooms deep. A cross-gable ell at the rear, two stories tall, is original, but several other additions at the rear are more recent. The main body of the house has complex massing typical of the Queen Anne style. A full-height tower punctuates the left-front corner of the house. A large wall gable rises over most of the main façade, over which a two-story, gable-roofed polygonal bay is superimposed. The rear pile of the left (east) elevation is also covered by a two-story polygonal bay with an overhanging gabled roof. A single-story open porch covers the main façade of the house and wraps around to the left elevation, stopping before the polygonal bay. Although the house has been covered in vinyl siding and has lost some of its trim, the trim on the porch remains. Smooth Tuscan columns support the deep classical cornice, which has a wide frieze board, dentils, and small modillions. A pediment breaks the roofline and marks the location of the stairs and main entry, which is located in the left bay of the main façade. At the rear of the house, two-story flat-roof additions have been added to either side of the original gabled ell, which was stepped back from the side elevations of the main body. The side elevations of these ells now project beyond the side elevations of the building’s main body. The house is currently covered in vinyl clapboard siding and has an asphalt shingle roof. The windows on the house have been replaced and are vinyl one-over-one sash. There is a strong possibility that components of the main cornice, rake boards and window hoods survive under the vinyl application.

The Medford Hospital sits on the south side of Magoun Avenue, facing north across the street. The house is raised slightly above street level, and a wooden picket fence lines the front and right (west) property line. To the east of the house is a large barn or carriage house that maps indicate is original to the house. Sited to the rear of the lot, the area in front of the barn is now paved for parking and surrounded by a chain link fence. This barn is unusually large. Such a large barn is unusual in East Medford; although there are several extant carriage houses, they are generally relatively smaller. This side-gable barn is roughly two-and-a-half stories tall and is in poor condition. A wall gable centered on the front of the building breaks the cornice line and retains its solid, double leaf hayloft door and loading crane. Two 20th century garage doors are located on the main façade, to the right of center. Several windows are visible, although their sash are either broken or missing. An elaborate hipped cupola with paired, arched vents caps the roof. The barn is covered in wood clapboards with an asphalt shingle roof.

HISTORICAL NARRATIVE Discuss the history of the building. Explain its associations with local (or state) history. Include uses of the building, and the role(s) the owners/occupants played within the community.

The domestic building that would later become the Medford Hospital was constructed between 1893 and 1895 on land that had belonged to noted Medford shipbuilder Thatcher Magoun (1875-1856) during much of the 19 th century. His shipyards were located just to the south, on Riverside Avenue along the Mystic River. Magoun’s heirs owned a large amount of land in the area and subdivided and developed much of it during the 1890s. In 1893 David R. Porter purchased two lots in two separate transactions from Thatcher Magoun Adams (1837-1919) and other parties that constituted the subject property.1 David Rupert Porter (1854-1908) was the head porter at the Quincy House Hotel on Brattle Square in Boston, at the time among the largest hotels in the city. Porter and his family were residents of Somerville at 291 Summer Street and later 86 Pearson Avenue. There is no record of their having resided in Medford. When Porter lost possession of the property in 1895 through defaulting on a $7,000 mortgage, it was described as having “building’s thereon,” thereby identifying its builder and construction date. Porter’s

1 MCRD Book 2212:586, Jul. 19, 1893; 2219:107, Aug. 22, 1893, lots 39 and 40, Plan Book 50, Plan 22.Continuation sheet 1

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goal with regard to this property is not clear; the appearance and quality of its construction suggests he intended to reside here, but he may also have been engaged in speculation. At this time the property was acquired by Israella S. Angell at auction.2 Israella Angell (b. 1864) was the second wife of prominent Providence, R.I. stockbroker James E. Angell (1844 – Jan. 17, 1901). According to his obituary Angell was “the best-known sporting man and horse fancier in Rhode Island…He was at the head of a mortgage company here and was among the best-known brokers on the street. He was a large real estate owner in Medford, Mass.”3 The couple’s connection to Medford was likely through Israella, who was a native of the town and a daughter of Medford resident Israel Emerson. Grantee indexes indicate that the Angells and their heirs held the property until as late as 1950, treating the large house as an income-generating investment by converting it to use as a hospital.

The private Medford Hospital opened around 1913. Contemporary records indicate it had space for about 20 patients. Nellie J. Henderson was the long-time superintendant of the hospital, marked as such in directories as early as 1916. The 1940 census records her as 70 years old and still running the hospital. By about 1950 the hospital had been converted to a rest home, likely a result of the Lawrence Hospital opening, which would have been a much more convenient and modern hospital space. A 1977 ad in the Boston Globe advertises a nursing home liquidation sale at the address, marking the end of the building’s use as a hospital. The house has passed through several owners since then, but is back in residential use as a multi-family house.

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 [database on-line] Ancestry.com.

1889 Geo. H. Walker & Co., Atlas of Middlesex County, Massachusetts. 1898 Geo. W. Stadly & Co., Atlas of the City of Medford, Middlesex County, Mass.1900 Geo. W. Stadly & Co., Atlas of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Volume 1. 1903, 1910, 1936, 1936-1950 Sanborn Insurance Atlases

Medford City Directories: 1916, 1924 (first street index), 1926, 1928, 1930, 1938United States Federal Census: 1920, 1930, 1940

Middlesex South Registry of Deeds Book 2212/Page 586, Jul. 9, 1893; 2219/107, Aug. 22, 1893; 2359/572, Apr. 29, 1895; 6557/75; 7025/372; 7409/284; 8150/488; 13519/76; 19032/110; 44050/486Middlesex South Registry of Deeds Plan Book 50, Plan 20, Lots 39 and 40

Polk’s Medical Register and Directory of North America, R. L. Polk & Co., Publishers, 1914, pg. 780.

2 MCRD 2359:572, Apr. 29, 1895, (Affidavit of Sale).3 Boston Daily Globe, Jan. 17, 1901, p. 14, obituary.

Continuation sheet 2

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The left (east) elevation of the Medford Hospital


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The barn/carriage house to the east of the Medford Hospital


MDF.127MDF.1233



[If appropriate, cut and paste the text below into an inventory form’s last continuation sheet.]

National Register of Historic Places Criteria Statement Form

Check all that apply:

Individually eligible Eligible only in a historic district

Contributing to a potential historic district Potential historic district

Criteria: A B C D

Criteria Considerations: A B C D E F G

Statement of Significance by_______John D. Clemson___________________ The criteria that are checked in the above sections must be justified here.

The Medford Hospital and Carriage House, 1893-1895, are an integral part of a remarkable grouping of substantial, suburban single- and multi-family houses constructed during the 1890s through 1920s on the blocks surrounding Magoun Park on Bradshaw, Cushing, Pembroke and Thatcher streets and Magoun Avenue. All distinctive, but nicely keyed to each other with both modest and elaborate detailing evocative of the Queen Anne and other late-19th century styles, most houses have picturesque massing and footprints. In addition to their varied massing, the houses demonstrate a wide range of housing solutions in terms of plan, circulation, and fenestration, and serve as a remarkable document illustrating late-19 th-century housing in both Medford and the broader region. This variety contrasts to the more uniform types of suburban development common in Medford and other similar inner suburbs during a slightly later period. Although some examples documented as part of this project in this area have undergone minor alterations such as porch, siding and window replacement, many retain a substantial degree of integrity of workmanship, design, materials, association, location, setting, and feeling, especially on a collective basis; the quality and integrity of the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Also, although the examples retaining the most integrity are not directly contiguous geographically, being interspersed with buildings that have lost some aspects of integrity, all are in close proximity, and many abut each other. The development of these blocks is associated with the regionally prominent family and heirs of Thatcher Magoun (1775-1856), the most successful and prolific of Medford’s shipbuilders. National Register designation of this area could act as a catalyst for the restoration of many less-well-preserved examples within the district that, although they have lost substantial integrity, are nevertheless worthy of preservation and remain potentially restorable.


MDF.127MDF.1233

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