Downer Rowhouses

The Downer Rowhouses are two sets of Second Empire row houses that are back to back at 55 Adams Street and 192-200 Central Street, Somerville, Massachusetts. Built c. 1880, they are among the first buildings of their type built in the city.[2] The two groups were separately listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 18, 1989 as Downer Rowhouses (Central Street) and Downer Rowhouses (Adams Street).[1]

Downer Rowhouses
The Adams Street building.
Location55 Adams St., 192-200 Central St., Somerville, Massachusetts
Coordinates42°23′42″N 71°5′58″W
Arealess than one acre
Built1880 (1880)
Architectural styleSecond Empire
MPSSomerville MPS
NRHP reference No.89001225[1]
Added to NRHPSeptember 18, 1989

Description and history

Both sets of rowhouses are set on residential streets just south of Broadway, the major thoroughfare through the Winter Hill neighborhood of Somerville. They each consist of five essentially identical (or mirror-image) residences, 2-1/2 stories in height, with a full third floor under their steeply-pitched mansard roofs. Each unit is two bays wide, with the left side a full-height polygonal bay, with narrow side windows and a larger center window. At the mansard level the windows are set under gables; otherwise the windows have brownstone lintels and sills. The entrances are on the right side.[3] They have patterned slate roofs.[4]

When these rowhouses were built c. 1880, Winter Hill was a fashionable residential area, populated by large two and three-family houses on generously sized lots. These buildings, among the first rowhouses built in the city, were built by Cutler Downer, a local real estate developer.[2] Similar rowhouses, not as well-preserved as these, were built in a few places elsewhere in the city, notably on Prospect Hill and Spring Hill.[3]

  • Central Street

See also

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. "NRHP nomination for Downer Rowhouses (Adams Street)". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved 2014-02-28.
  3. "NRHP nomination for Downer Rowhouses (Central Street)". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved 2015-06-20.
  4. "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Somerville Multiple Resource Area". National Park Service. 2009-10-12.
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