FORM A - AREA - Wenham, Massachusetts Rail Vacation Home...and an octagonal wood upper ... A large rectangular brick chimney is attached to the east ... constructed in two sections

Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form. 4/11

FORM A - AREA

MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION

MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING

220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125

Photograph

Photo 1. Gymnasium (left) and barn (right). View

looking north.

Assessor’s Sheets USGS Quad Area Letter Form Numbers in Area

031-0001 Marblehead

North G See Data

Sheet

Town/City: Wenham

Place (neighborhood or village):

Name of Area: Iron Rail Vacation Home

Present Use: Recreation; Community House; Water Tower; Maintenance Facility; Burial Ground

Construction Dates or Period: ca. 1880-2009

Overall Condition: Poor to Very Good

Major Intrusions and Alterations: see continuation sheet

Acreage: 79.6 acres

Recorded by: Stacy Spies

Organization: Wenham Historical Commission

Date: June 2017

Locus Map

see continuation sheet

INVENTORY FORM A CONTINUATION SHEET WENHAM IRON RAIL VACATION HOME

MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area Letter Form Nos.

220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125

Continuation sheet 1

G See Data Sheet

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, structural and landscape features and evaluate in terms of other areas within the community. The Iron Rail Vacation Home property at 91 Grapevine Road is comprised of buildings and landscape features dating from the multiple owners and uses of the property over the 150 years. The extensive property contains shallow rises surrounded by wetlands. Woodlands are located at the north half of the property and wetlands are located at the northwest and central portions of the property. Buildings are located in two groupings on the property. The Wenham Department of Public Works uses the four utilitarian masonry buildings, gasoline pumps, and water tower located at the southwest corner of the property, all of which were constructed after 1978. A large brick gymnasium, a frame barn, and a frame garage, all of which date from the Iron Rail Vacation Home period, are located at the center of the property. Stone walls and stone landscape features dating from the 19th century are located along Grapevine Road. A cemetery is located in the northeast corner of the property. Soccer fields are located in the southeastern corner of the property. A low, mortared stone wall extends the length of the south property line from Rubbly Road west to the property entrance near Essex Street. (Photo 2) Three square stone posts with crenellated tops are located near the entrance. These posts stand near the approximate location of an 18th-century house, known colloquially as the “Iron Rail House,” that previously stood on the property. (The house is said to have been named for the iron railing once located atop the stone wall along the property’s edge at Grapevine Road.) The entrance to the property is located on Grapevine Road approximately 150 feet west of the Essex Street intersection. A parking area is located on the east side of the drive at the entrance; it is bounded to the north by a wall of upright stones that once marked the driveway area to the iron rail house.1 (Photo 3.) An asphalt-paved drive leads north from the entrance and circles around to the barn and the rear of the gymnasium where another parking area is located. A second asphalt-paved drive leads northwest from the entrance to the gasoline pumps and the public works buildings. The main block of the Iron Rail Vacation Home Gymnasium (1939) (WNH.209) rises two stories in height and measures 110 feet wide by 52 feet deep. (Photo 4.) The building is banked into a hill; the south elevation is only one story in height. A large, 2-story appendage centered on the north elevation measures 50 feet wide by 25 feet deep. The building is constructed of common bond brick with a Flemish header course. A projecting header course is located at cornice height. Molded brick forms a projecting water table. The hipped roof is covered with asphalt shingles above a dentil course. The roof is capped by a wood cupola. (Photo 5.) The cupola has two stages: a square base sheathed with wood flushboards and an octagonal wood upper section. The north and south elevations of the upper section contain arched openings with wood keystone details above louvered panels. The remaining six elevations of the cupola feature pilasters flanking blank panels. A ball finial surmounts the metal-clad bell roof. A large rectangular brick chimney is attached to the east elevation of the gymnasium. The south elevation contains six bays of segmental arch 12/12/12 triple-hung wood sash windows with cast stone sills and two doors with fanlights. The block contains two bays at the east and west elevations.

1 The wall of upright stones is visible in a photograph of the Iron Rail House in Sanger, Helen Clay Frick: Bittersweet Heiress: 73.





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The substantial north entry appendage is five bays wide and two bays deep. (Photo 6) This volume has a shallow hipped roof above a dentil course at the eave. Windows are 6/9 double-hung wood sash at the first floor and 9/9 double-hung wood sash at the second floor with cast stone sills throughout. The entrance is centered on the first floor within a projecting brick surround with a semicircular pediment; a large metal lantern-style light is centered over the door. (Photo 7.) The building has a high level of integrity but is in fair condition as a result of water damage to the brick. The Iron Rail Vacation Home Barn (ca. 1910) (WNH.210) is sited on a northeast-southwest axis at the northeast edge of the drive. (Photos 8 and 9.) Currently used by the Boy Scouts as a meeting area, the wood-shingled building is constructed in two sections and rests on a fieldstone foundation. The roof is covered with asphalt shingles and an interior brick chimney rises from the east roof slope. The main (south) block is 2 stories in height and measures 40 feet by 40 feet. The south elevation contains double-leaf, vertical-board sliding doors suspended on an overhead track. Three personnel doors are located on the first floor of the south elevation. Windows on the second floor are 6/6 wood sash with flat surrounds. The west elevation of the main block features an additional 2/2 double-hung wood sash window and paired 8-light windows. Double-leaf vertical board doors are located at the basement level. A four-bay ell extension attached to the north elevation measures 35 feet by 35 feet and features 6/6 double-hung wood sash. The building is in fair condition with missing shingles yet retains a high level of integrity. The Iron Rail Vacation Home Garage (ca. 1910) (WNH.211) is located at the northeast corner of the parking area north of the gymnasium. (Photo 10.) The Craftsman-style building is sheathed with clapboards and cornerboards and rests on a poured concrete foundation. The hipped roof is covered with asphalt shingles and features exposed rafter tails. The building contains three automobile bays with doors on the south elevation; the center bay is slightly taller than the other two and is capped with a cross-gabled dormer. The two east bays have wood overhead doors; the west bay has been boarded-up. The building contains two window bays each on the east and west elevations that contain 6/6 wood sash windows and simple drip moldings. A shed-roof ell at the rear is sheathed with novelty siding. The building is in poor condition with separation of the walls from one another at the northwest corner. The building has also begun to shift off its foundation at the northwest corner. The building retains a moderate level of integrity.

HISTORICAL NARRATIVE Explain historical development of the area. Discuss how this relates to the historical development of the community. In the eighteenth century, much of the Iron Rail property was owned by Captain Richard Dodge (b.1738) and passed through the Dodge family. In 1851, Dodge’s grandson, also named Richard Dodge, sold a 50-acre parcel along Grapevine Road to Henry Dodge and Benjamin Hawkins.2 The 1855 Massachusetts census includes three households on the property. One of the three households included farmer Henry Dodge and cordwainer Benjamin Hawkins and their families. “H. Dodge” appears as owner of the property on the 1856 map. One of these three dwellings became known as the “Iron Rail House.” (See below.) In 1856, Henry Dodge and Benjamin Hawkins sold the property to Knott Martin of Marblehead. (Essex South Deed Book 538, Page 171) Knott Martin’s widow, Martha, sold the property in 1875 to William J. Goldthwaite, who quickly sold it to Thomas Thompson, also of Marblehead.3 It appears that Martha Martin remained on the property through at least 1884, as indicated by the 1884 map. In 1899, the property was sold to real estate investor Oscar Willard, who in turn, sold it to Henry H. Melville and his wife, Marcia Lord Melville, of Boston. The Melvilles purchased the property for use as their summer home, thereby becoming one of the many Boston residents purchasing property along “Gold Coast” that developed on the North Shore at the turn of the 20th century.4

2 Essex South Deed Book 447, Page 37. 3 Essex South Deed Book 950, Page 153. 4 Essex South Deed Book 1658, Page 202 and Essex South Deed Book 1674, Page 392.





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In 1909, the property caught the attention of another Gold Coast resident: steel magnate Henry Clay Frick. Frick had recently built himself an opulent estate, Eagle Rock, in nearby Pride’s Crossing in Beverly, now demolished. (See BEV.X.) Henry Clay Frick purchased the Iron Rail property for his 20-year-old daughter, Helen Clay Frick, so that she could establish the Iron Rail Vacation Home.5 Helen Clay Frick established the retreat for girls and young women who worked in the mills in Lowell, Lawrence, Haverhill and elsewhere in northeastern Massachusetts. Helen Clay Frick (1888-1984) was accustomed to the life of high society and while she made substantial contributions to the art world with the establishment of the Frick Collection art museums and the Frick Art Reference Library in New York and Pittsburgh, Helen Frick was also drawn to progressive causes such as the conditions under which girls and young women worked in the mills of northeastern Massachusetts. Helen Frick also traveled to France during World War I, where her unit worked with refugee women and children. Ms. Frick never married, and, upon her father’s death in 1919, she inherited $38 million dollars. This sum made 31-year-old Helen Frick the wealthiest unmarried woman in the United States, and allowed her to devote large sums to her philanthropic causes. In 1910, Helen Frick hired social worker Ellen B. R. Boyd from the City Missionary Society of Boston to serve as director of the Iron Rail retreat. The first girls and young women, some of them as young as 14 years old, arrived at Iron Rail in that year. The Iron Rail Vacation Home was part of a social movement led by upper-class women beginning in the 1880s to provide recreation for working women in a morally-uplifting setting. In the early years, the visitors lived in the Iron Rail farm house with the staff. Later, small cabins were constructed on the property to accommodate the growing number of visitors. With time, as many as 80 young women at a time would visit for two-week stays. In the summer of 1925, 500 women visited the Iron Rail Vacation Home. In 1938, 2,256 guests visited Iron Rail.6 In 1929, Ms. Frick had a house constructed for Ms. Boyd and Ms. Boyd’s elderly mother, and named it “Fairhaven House.” Fairhaven House, located at 25 Rubbly Road, has been privately owned since 1974. The gymnasium was designed by the architecture firm of Milliken and Bevin in 1939 and dedicated in 1941. Milliken and Bevin had previously worked for Helen Frick at Eagle Rock.7 Henry O. Milliken (1884-1945), described as “interested mainly in planning homes of distinguished character,”8 was educated at the Ecole de Beaux Arts in Paris. Milliken established his own firm around 1919; in 1927 he formed a partnership with Newton P. Bevin (1895-1976) in New York City. Bevin was educated at Princeton University and received his architectural degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Milliken retired in 1942. Bevin continued working under the firm name until 1944. The gymnasium included “a stage, a basketball court, a fireplace with a hand-forged spit, locker space and double-decker beds with curtains for forty to fifty girls, six shower basins and toilets, and a kitchen large enough to serve five to six hundred.”9 [Iron Rail Vacation Home papers and records are held at the Frick Collection archives in New York City. The collection also includes correspondence, bills, specifications, and architectural drawings by Milliken & Bevin and contractor Stephen D. Edwards of Beverly.] Ms. Frick incorporated the Iron Rail Vacation Home organization as a not-for-profit in 1931. In 1954, the property was transferred to the Girls’ Clubs of America and the property was used as a summer camp, among other uses. Helen Frick made financial contributions until the early 1970s. Unable to afford the property without Ms. Frick’s support, the Girls’ Clubs of America sold the property to the town of Wenham in 1974. The Iron Rail House was sold in 1976 and moved to Hamilton. The cabins and other smaller buildings were removed from the property prior to the 1974 sale.

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES

5 Essex South Deed Book 1996, Page 259. 6 Sanger, 212. 7 Sanger, 216. 8 Withey, 420. 9 Sanger, 216.





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Beers, D.G. & Co. Atlas of Essex County, Massachusetts. 1872. Boston City Directory. 1900. Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Public Safety, Division of Inspection. Massachusetts State Archives.

Inspection card for Iron Rail Vacation Home Recreation Hall. December 1, 1939. “Helen C. Frick to Iron Rail Vacation Home.” Essex South Plan Book 62, Page 31. 1933. Janes, Annette V. with the Wenham Museum. Images of America: Wenham. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia

Publishing, 2011. Obituary for Newton B. Bevin. New York Times. October 11, 1976. “Property of Iron Rail Fund of Girls’ Clubs of America, Inc.” Essex South Plan Book 1974, plan 485. 1974. Sanger, Martha Francis Symington. Helen Clay Frick: Bittersweet Heiress. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.

2008. Walling, Henry Francis. A Topographical Map of Essex County, Massachusetts... Smith & Worley, 1856. Walker, George H. & Co., Atlas of Essex County. Boston: George H. Walker & Co., 1884. Walker Lithography and Publishing Company. Atlas of the Towns of Topsfield, Ipswich, Essex, Hamilton and Wenham,

Essex County, Massachusetts. Boston: Walker Lithography & Co., 1910. Wenham Historical Association & Museum, Inc. Wenham in Pictures and Prose. Wenham: Wenham Historical

Association & Museum. 1992. Wenham Tax Assessor records. Withey, Henry F. and Elsie Rathburn Withey. Biographical Dictionary of Architects (deceased). Los Angeles: Hennessey

& Ingalls. 1956.





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AREA DATA SHEET

Assessor’s #

MHC # Street Address

Building Construction

Date

Style

031-0001 WNH.209 91 Grapevine Road Iron Rail Vacation Home Gymnasium

1939 Colonial Revival

031-0001 WNH.210 91 Grapevine Road Iron Rail Vacation Home Barn Ca. 1910 No style

031-0001 WNH.211 91 Grapevine Road Iron Rail Vacation Home Garage Ca. 1910 Craftsman





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AERIAL VIEW

SKETCH MAP

Cemetery

Soccer

fields

Iron Rail House

location

Water

Tank

Fairhaven House





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Fairhaven house (Constructed 1929.

Sold to private owner in 1974.)

Iron Rail house (moved to Hamilton

in 1976)

Barn (extant)

1933 -- Plan Book 62, Page 31. Filed with deed Helen C. Frick to Iron Rail Vacation Home. Essex Deed Book 2944, page 526.





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SUPPLEMENTARY IMAGES

Photo 2. Stone wall along Grapevine Road. View looking northeast from Essex Street.

Photo 3. Stone wall feature at former driveway. View looking west.

Photo 4. Gymnasium, south elevation (facing Grapevine Road).

Photo 5. Gymnasium cupola.





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Photo 6. Gymnasium north block.

Photo 7. Gymnasium entrance, north elevation.

Photo 8. Barn, south elevation.

Photo 9. Barn, west elevation.





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Photo 10. Garage.





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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____Stacy Spies ___________________________

The criteria that are checked in the above sections must be justified here.

The Iron Rail Vacation Home is potentially eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A for its role in the progressive movement of the early 20th century. The Iron Rail Vacation Home was part of this social movement by upper-class women to provide recreation for working women in a morally-uplifting setting through settlement houses or respite homes. In 1909, steel magnate Henry Clay Frick, owner of the palatial Eagle Rock estate in nearby Pride’s Crossing, purchased the Iron Rail property for his 20-year-old daughter, Helen Clay Frick, so that she could establish the Iron Rail Vacation Home. Helen Clay Frick established the retreat for girls and young women who worked in the mills in Lowell, Lawrence, and elsewhere in northeastern Massachusetts. Working women visited for two weeks each summer. In 1954, the property was transferred to the Girls’ Clubs of America and the property was used as a summer camp, among other uses. Helen Frick was associated with the Iron Rail property and made financial contributions until the early 1970s. It is recommended that Fairhaven House at 25 Rubbly Road, Wenham, formerly the home of the Iron Rail Vacation Home director and now privately owned, be considered as part of this potential historic district.

Documents

FORM A - AREA - Wenham, Massachusetts Rail Vacation Home...and an octagonal wood upper ... A large rectangular brick chimney is attached to the east ... constructed in two sections