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In 1890 Winchester resident RobertCoit opened an architectural office inBoston. His career would span more

than forty years, during which time hewould design both small-scale publicbuildings and many residences in the area.In Winchester, Coit (figure 1) is bestknown as the architect of the WinchesterBoat Club, the 1926 addition to the FirstCongregational Church, the WinchesterPublic Library, and several mansions onMyopia Hill. According to Coit’s obituary,he designed at least fifty residences in thetown, but that number appears to be sig-nificantly higher.1 Most of his buildingswere erected between 1895 and 1915when Winchester experienced its greatestgrowth as a commuter suburb. By fortu-nate coincidence of timing and talent, Coitwas positioned to become one of the mostimportant architects in Winchester’s his-tory, along with George Rand, Frank Pat-terson Smith, and the landscape architectHerbert Kellaway, whose many contribu-tions remain visible to this day.2

Coit was born on June 29, 1861, inBrookfield, Massachusetts. His father,Joshua Coit, was a Congregational minis-ter, Yale graduate, and member of aprominent Connecticut family. In 1860Joshua married Mary Lyman Chandler ofConcord, New Hampshire, and Robertwas their first child. In 1872 ReverendCoit became pastor of the Lawrence StreetCongregational Church in Lawrence,Massachusetts, where Robert attendedLawrence High School.3 From there, hewent on to attend Harvard College as amember of the class of 1883. He thenspent a year in Tehran as secretary to theUnited States minister to Persia, SamuelG. W. Benjamin, and traveled in Europe

and England.4 When Coit returned to theUnited States, it was to Winchester, wherehis father had moved the family afteraccepting a position as treasurer of theMassachusetts Home Missionary Society.5

Robert subsequently enrolled in theDepartment of Architecture at the Massa-chusetts Institute of Technology for oneyear, where he is listed as a member of theclass of 1886.6

For the next four years, Coit wasemployed by two prominent Boston archi-tectural firms, Hartwell and Richardson in1886 and Longfellow, Alden and Harlowfrom 1887–90.7 Both offices were greatlyinfluenced by H. H. Richardson, the mostfamous architect in the United States at

the time.8 After these formative experi-ences, Coit opened his own practice.9

In 1888 he married Eliza RichmondAtwood, and they had four children:Dorothy, Elisabeth, Mary, and Robert,Jr.10 In 1905, Eliza died, and ten yearslater, Coit married Lucetta FrancesAbbott. For the greater part of his profes-sional life, he resided at 15 HillsideAvenue in Winchester, moving intoBoston in 1924.11

Most of Coit’s practice lay in residentialdesign, while occasionally he worked oninstitutional and civic buildings. Hisapproach was not innovative, but ratherwas consistent with the direction taken byhis Boston colleagues. During the 1890s,Coit designed houses that were QueenAnne in style. By the turn of the century,he adopted the eclectic approach that wasembraced throughout the region, favoringrevival styles that were influenced by theEnglish Arts and Crafts movement. Hisbuildings were Tudor Revival, ColonialRevival, and simplified interpretations ofhistorical styles, clad in shingles andstucco, that today are generally identifiedas Arts and Crafts. Coit’s success devel-oped from the quality, rather than theoriginality, of his designs, and they wereselected on many occasions for publicationin the architectural press.

The earliest documented residence byCoit in Winchester is 92 Church Street(figure 2), built for Phineas Nickerson in1892 and prominently located at the cor-ner of Church and Bacon Streets.12 Withits three-story tower and wrap-aroundporch, the house could be considered aparadigm of the Queen Anne style.13 As istypical of Queen Anne architecture, it

Robert CoitHouses and Public Buildings in an Age of Suburban Growth

Ellen Spencer

T H E A R C H I T E C T S O F W I N C H E S T E R , M A S S A C H U S E T T S

FIGURE 1. Robert Coit. FromPictorial History of Winchester, 1914.

brackets draw upon the English Arts andCrafts movement, which was beginning toinfluence Boston architects. In 1897 aSociety of Arts and Crafts was organized inthe city, and among its founders was Coit’sformer employer, Alexander WadsworthLongfellow, Jr.14 Brackets, derived frommedieval domestic architecture, are usedin various ways on Coit’s houses from1900 on.

The house at 92 Church Street was oneof many in the area built on land thatNickerson purchased and developed. Nextdoor, the residence at 94 Church Streetwas also built on Nickerson land, andalthough undocumented, it appears tohave been designed by Coit.15 Nickersondeveloped much of the land nearby alongEverett Avenue, Sheffield Road, SheffieldWest, and Stratford Road. Several houseson these streets are documented Coithouses, and more may be attributed to him based on styl ist ic af f init ies and their association with Nickerson.16

Moreover, Coit’s obituary mentions hiswork on Stratford Road. Although theobituary does not identify the individualhouses, it may be assumed that they were the ones developed by Nickerson inthe mid-1890s.17

These and many other houses inWinchester have been described as“Blaikie/Nickerson” houses. DexterBlaikie was a local builder who frequentlyworked for Nickerson, but this monikerhas led to the erroneous assumption thatBlaikie was an architect. In fact, Blaikie,the son of a builder, had two brothers whowere architects, but he was not trained inthe discipline himself. In all records includ-ing census reports, building permits, andhis obituary, Blaikie is described as a“builder,” “carpenter,” or “mechanic.”18

Coit has been credited with designinghouses for one other developer besidesNickerson early in his career. Between1896 and 1899, he is said to have beenhired by William and Isabella Firth todesign ten houses on Glengarry and Grass-mere Roads and Dix Street.19 Althoughthe lots are small, the houses on them arebuilt with variety and appeal. If thesehouses were indeed Coit projects, theyillustrate his skill in designing residencesthat were both modest and expansive.

In the early 1900s, Coit began toreceive commissions for custom designsfrom specific clients, as opposed to

features elements that were carried intothe revival designs at the turn of the twen-tieth century. The Palladian window onthe third-story gable end is characteristic

of the emerging Colonial Revival style.More significantly, Coit included a seriesof substantial decorative brackets under-neath the overhanging third story. These

FIGURE 3. Hermann Dudley Murphy house, 1903, designed with a separatestudio for the artist. The buildings are located at 314–316 Highland Avenue.

(Courtesy of Historic New England)

FIGURE 2. House at 92 Church Street, built for Phineas Nickerson, 1892. (Courtesy of Ellen Spencer)

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dedicated and opened in May of 1901 andcontinues in existence today.24

The clubhouse is modest in scale com-pared to the private residences Coit was

designing at the time, but like thosehouses, it was inspired by English architec-ture. The first story is clad in wood,whereas the second is clad in stucco and

developers. On the east side of Winchester,Hermann Dudley Murphy, a well-knownpainter and Arts and Crafts frame-maker,hired Coit in 1903 to design a house andan adjoining studio at 314–316 HighlandAvenue (figure 3).20 At or around thesame time, Coit designed large houses onMyopia Hill for two other prominentWinchester citizens, Samuel McCall andSamuel J. Elder. The McCall house (figure4), built between 1902 and 1904, islocated at 4 McCall Road, while the Elderhouse, called “Grey Rocks,” was located at4 Fernway and built in 1905, subsequentlydestroyed by fire in 1978.21 McCall was aBoston lawyer and publisher, elected tothe Massachusetts House of Representa-tives in 1887. He went on to serve tenterms in the United States Congress andthree terms as governor of Massachusetts,from 1916 to 1918. Elder was an attorneywho specialized in international law inBoston, and he was active in Winchestertown affairs.22

The three houses were sited imposinglyon top of steep hills, affording their occu-pants pleasing views. The Murphy houseoverlooks the town of Winchester, and theMcCall and Elder houses were built abovethe Mystic Lakes. For all three designs,Coit was influenced by both the EnglishTudor Revival and Arts and Crafts ideas.The houses were clad in stucco with largebrick or stone porches along their frontsand sides. They also were designed withportions of their second stories overhang-ing the first. Coit incorporated half-tim-bering and wood trim to break up anddefine the large areas of stucco. Finerdetails include purlins that were cham-fered to create pyramidal ends and fasciaboards that rise to a gentle peak foremphasis. Coit’s frequent use of diamond-paned windows is also based on theEnglish model.

Murphy, McCall, and Elder were notonly Coit’s clients; they all moved in thesame social circles in Winchester. In thelate 1880s, Coit, Murphy, and severalother residents formed the Shu-shu-gaCanoe Club, the better to enjoy theirshared enthusiasm for boating on theAberjona River and the Mystic Lakes.23 By1900 the group had renamed itself theWinchester Boat Club and bought land onCambridge Street above Upper MysticLake. Coit then designed the clubhouse(figure 5). The Winchester Boat Club was

FIGURE 4. Samuel McCall house, 1902–1904, located at 4 McCall Road.(Courtesy of the Winchester Archival Center)

FIGURE 5. The Winchester Boat Club, 1900–1901, located at 65 CambridgeStreet, overlooking Upper Mystic Lake.

(Courtesy of Historic New England)

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overhangs the first. Seen from the lake, thebuilding’s façade is composed of a series ofgables. Twin gables connected by a cov-ered porch sit just below a larger thirdgable behind them. Coit would use twingables repeatedly in his work, includingthe McCall mansion and other residencesin town.25 The Boat Club’s gabledentrance porch, with its open-framed tim-bering and decorative brackets, referred tocurrent English Arts and Crafts architec-ture, particularly the Tudor Revival. Onefeature of the clubhouse, however, isdistinctly American. The large chimney iscomposed of pasture stone, a rustic alter-native to cut stone or brick. This featurederives from the distinctly American Shin-gle Style of the 1880s and Richardson inparticular. Richardson’s Ames Gate Lodgeof 1880–81 in North Easton, Massachu-setts, built entirely of rough stone, wasboth highly original and greatly admiredfrom the time of its construction.26 Theuse of undressed stone intentionally evokesthe idea of the “country,” regardless of thebuilding’s actual site. To Coit, it must haveseemed a natural choice for a structuredevoted to pastoral pursuits.27

Just as he was starting to work on theWinchester Boat Club, Coit completedthe Cobb Library (figure 6) in Pembroke,Massachusetts. Similar in scale if not inpurpose to the Boat Club, the library has

many corresponding features. Chiefamong them is the entrance porch; in bothcases Coit designed the porches withopen-framed gable timbering, chamferedpurlin ends, and decorative brackets. Forthe library, Coit included additional detailin the form of decorative finials to markthe peaks of the front gables.28 Funds toestablish the library were given by life-longPembroke resident Rozilla Cobb in mem-ory of her late husband.29 The libraryopened on December 15, 1900, and theceremony was covered in the BostonSunday Herald the next day.30

Coit’s interest in the English Arts andCrafts movement and the related TudorRevival is consistent with the prevailingaesthetic interests of Boston architects atthe turn of the twentieth century. As aHarvard undergraduate in the 1880s, Coitundoubtedly was aware of the popular lec-tures of Professor Charles Eliot Norton.31

Norton spoke passionately about themoral excellence of the middle ages, chal-lenging his students to reject the excessesof the late Victorian era and to placerenewed value on the aesthetics of craft.Boston interest in the English Arts andCrafts movement increased throughoutthe 1890s. The first major Arts and Craftsexhibition in the country was held inBoston in 1897, and the Society of Artsand Crafts was organized later that year.32

Norton was the society’s first president,and many founders had their Harvardeducation in common. In addition toCoit, other emerging architects in Bostonsuch as Ralph Adams Cram were inspiredby Norton’s aesthetic philosophy. Cram,born two years after Coit, favored similarstyles and design elements in his work.33

In Winchester, Coit’s most fully devel-oped Tudor Revival residence is his last Myopia Hill mansion, located at 1 Arlington Street (figure 7). It was com-pleted in 1914, considerably later than theMcCall and Elder houses. The client wasJere Downs, a prominent businessman withthe Boston investment firm of Hayden,Stone and Company.34 The Downs housewas one of the largest and most complex ofCoit’s designs, later augmented by addi-tions at either end. Like an English estatehouse, the building spreads horizontallyacross its hilltop site. Most of the structureconsists of two stories, with a third dormerlevel in selected areas. Multiple gables andseveral protruding and receding bays breakup the façade, which includes a dramaticchimney wall on the driveway elevation.Alternating areas of brick and stucco withvarying widths of half-timbering add to thecomplexity of the exterior. By contrast,Coit’s earlier commissions from Murphy,McCall, and Elder were simpler designs inboth massing and detail. Additionally, thesehouses had three full stories, making themmore compact and less sprawling than theDowns residence.

The interior of the Downs house fea-tures a paneled hall with a shallow barrel-vaulted ceiling (figure 8). Occasionally Coitdesigned individual rooms with curved trayceilings, most often for the library or study,while his halls generally combined wide,wood-trimmed doorways and untrimmedpointed archways. The hall of the Downshouse represents a departure from thearchitect’s usual repertoire, due to a gener-ous budget. In other respects, the inside ofthe Downs house contains many detailscommon to Coit’s interiors, although on agrander scale. The dining room is paneledto three quarters the height of the walls,with an elaborate built-in sideboard and animpressive tiled fireplace and mantel. Alarge butler’s pantry connects the room tothe adjacent kitchen. The study, also pan-eled, has a simpler fireplace mantel andbuilt-in bookshelves on either side. Thefront-to-back living room is more formal,

FIGURE 6. The Cobb Library, Pembroke, Mass., 1900.(Courtesy of the Pembroke Historical Society)

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with a large fireplace but with only chair-rail paneling and without the built-ins ofthe other rooms. In selected locations ofthe house, Coit used leaded glass in deco-rative patterns, such as the window on thestairwell landing and the doors on thedining room sideboard.

While Coit was linked closely by educa-tion and practice to the Arts and Craftsmovement in Boston, his designs for manyWinchester residences also reflect hisknowledge of the work of contemporaryEnglish architects. For example, the EdwinC. Starr house (figure 9), from 1907,located at 17 Everett Avenue, demon-strates Coit’s familiarity with the work ofEnglish architect C. F. A. Voysey, who wasabout four years older than his Winchestercounterpart.35 It is possible that Coit sawVoysey’s early work while traveling inEngland in 1884, although Voysey’s mostrelevant designs were not produced untilthe next decade.36 Coit certainly wouldhave known of the work through architec-tural journals; Voysey’s designs were well-published during his lifetime. In addition,the Boston Society of Architects had anexhibition of Voysey’s work in 1891.37 TheStarr house is a twin-gabled, stucco-cladstructure with horizontal massing and sim-plified exterior detail.38 Voysey’s numerouscountry houses share these characteristics,as well as the use of shallow arches. InCoit’s work, these arches are most oftenfound in doorways and porches. Thearched opening at the front of 17 EverettAvenue is echoed by the curve of the frontdoor. Starr, the original owner of thehouse, was the manager of a packingcompany in Somerville. Coit’s houses, likeVoysey’s, were generally designed for thecomfortably well-off members of thegrowing middle class in their respectivecountries.39 Inside the Starr house, severaldetails are characteristic of Coit. Thedining room has a box bay window with atiled sill that serves as a plant shelf. In theden, the brick fireplace is enlivened with

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FIGURE 7. (top images) Jere Downshouse, 1914, located at 1 ArlingtonStreet. From the Brickbuilder, June1916.

FIGURE 8. (bottom) Downs househall and stairway. From theBrickbuilder.

Mercer tiles centered over the fireplaceopening and below the wood mantel.

On several occasions Coit adaptedanother distinctive element from Voysey’srepertoire: the use of battered stuccocolumns or buttresses. In houses such asLowicks, in Frensham, Surrey, of 1894,

Voysey placed square, battered columns atthe corners of the building. Combinedwith a deeply overhanging roof and deco-rative brackets, Lowicks appears strikinglymodern. In Winchester, Coit’s design forPhineas Nickerson at 3 Sheffield West,from 1914, uses similar columns as sup-

ports for its large front porch (figure 10).The unusual forms give the porch weightand prominence on a street of distin-guished homes.40 Coit experimented withthis design element as early as 1902 whenhe began work on the McCall mansion.Supporting its entrance porch are massivesquare, battered columns, constructed instone to correspond with the stone of thehouse’s first story.

Three Sheffield West exhibits other Coithallmarks such as the chamfered purlinends on the central gable. Two unusualdecorative details add to the house’s dis-tinctive exterior. Five matching tiles turnedon the diagonal form a larger diagonaldecorative element below the apex of thefront gable. This applied detail is repeatedon the driveway-side chimney wall. Alsounusual for Coit, the design in the leadedglass sidelight windows around the frontdoor is almost Art Deco in appearance,composed of thin vertical and chevronforms. More typical of Coit, the house fol-lows a basic rectangular plan that is brokenup by multiple protruding and recedingsections, a combination of cross-gables,bays, and porches. The house was pub-lished in American Architect and BuildingNews in April of 1914.41

The plans of Coit’s houses further anunderstanding of his architecture.42 Plansfor 3 Sheffield West, also published in theAmerican Architect (figure 11), are repre-sentative of many of Coit’s larger houses.There are essentially four rooms on eachfloor, not including hall and porch space.By the 1890s, the ubiquitous double par-lor of the Victorian era had given way to asingle, large living room, formal diningroom, kitchen with pantries, and a den orstudy. This four-over-four plan owes a debtto the influence of the increasingly popularColonial Revival style. Coit’s houses virtu-ally always include a den, often paneled.Another frequent feature in his plans is afirst-floor lavatory tucked under the mainstairway. The stairways themselves consistmost often of two perpendicular or reverseparallel flights of steps with a landingbetween them. Upstairs at 3 SheffieldWest, there are four bedrooms, the masterbedroom situated over the living roombelow. The hall contains a built-in linencloset and a back stairwell to the kitchen.Coit seems to have anticipated modernhygiene requirements by including twofull bathrooms on this floor.

FIGURE 10. House at 3 Sheffield West, built for Phineas Nickerson, 1914.From the American Architect and Building News, April 22, 1914.

FIGURE 9. Edwin C. Starr house, 1907, located at 17 Everett Avenue.(Courtesy of Ellen Spencer)

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Coit’s houses were built to accommo-date domestic help as well as family living,as his architectural plans make clear. Thehouses always contain two staircases, withthe front stairs intended for family use.Servants, whether live-in or day, weremeant to use the back staircase exclusively.This stairwell typically ran from the thirdfloor directly down to the kitchen, with adoor to the second floor for linen closetand bedroom access. Servants were liter-ally kept behind closed doors.

Other house plans show variations on thescheme that Coit used at 3 Sheffield West.Nearby, at the slightly smaller 7 SheffieldWest, the den has been moved to the sec-ond floor. This house also was published inthe American Architect and BuildingNews.43 Four other rooms complete thesecond floor, three of which are bedroomsand the fourth and smallest designated as asewing room. One bathroom serves allinhabitants. At 19 Cabot Street, a small denis located on the first floor, while a sewingroom is also included upstairs. A survey ofCoit’s interiors reveals that he was adept atrearranging types of rooms and plans.

By the turn of the century, Coit waswell-established as an architect, yet he con-tinued to design houses that were built onspeculation by Winchester’s developers. Inaddition to his work for Nickerson, Coitwas hired by George Woods and GeorgeWhitehorne. Both men were involved inthe Wedgemere Syndicate, which laid outland for development between Wildwood,Church, and Cambridge Streets from1890 to 1916.44 For Woods, Coit designedhouse numbers 11–19 on Cabot Street.His plans for 19 Cabot are extant, and theother addresses can be attributed to himon stylistic grounds. So too can attribu-tions be made for the adjacent houses at10 Warren Street and 6 and 8 CopleyStreet. A map of the neighborhood fromcirca 1902 shows that 11 Cabot and 15Cabot were built first.45 By 1906, numbers13 and 19 had followed.46 The remainingCoit houses were completed by 1910.47

Although sited on adjacent lots of almostidentical size, the exteriors of these eighthouses present varied interpretations ofthe popular English Arts and Crafts andColonial Revival styles and are clad in

different materials. Two houses are shin-gled, two are clapboard, one is entirelystucco, and three are a combination ofshingle and stucco. Inside, all the houseshave jigsaw-cut stairwell balusters, with notwo designs alike. This group of housesdemonstrates how creative Coit could be.Whitehorne also is listed as the first ownerof many other houses in this area, and itseems likely that Coit designed them.48

Across town, George Woods’ wife Emmais listed in tax records as the original ownerof houses on Wolcott Road and WolcottTerrace. Complete architectural drawingsand building specifications exist for 3 Wol-cott Road, which identify Coit as the archi-tect. Messrs. A. W. Starratt and G. A.Woods are named as the owners of the lot.49

In his specifications, Coit frequently calledfor the use of “first” or “best” quality mate-rials. Whether working for individual clientsor developers, he sought to maintain highconstruction standards.

Coit’s residential work often reflected aninterest in the Colonial Revival. Duringthe last quarter of the nineteenth century,the enthusiasm for colonial and federal

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FIGURE 11. Plans of 3 Sheffield West. From the American Architect and Building News.

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architecture gained momentum in Boston,mainly in response to the English Arts andCrafts movement and the ideas of theauthor John Ruskin. The American theo-rists shared the English interest in thearchitecture and craftsmanship of the mid-dle ages, and they found New England’sarchitecture and craft products of the sev-enteenth and eighteenth centuries similarlyappealing.50 By the turn of the century, theColonial Revival, the medieval revivalincluding the Tudor Revival, and the Artsand Crafts movement all were intertwinedin terms of theory. As for the related build-ing designs, they were sometimes acade-mic and relatively pure in style andsometimes entirely original amalgamationsof these favored historical sources.

Coit’s design for the Herman S. Under-wood house (figure 12), located at 289Main Street and dating from around 1895,was built only a few years after the house at92 Church Street and represents a shiftaway from Queen Anne design to theColonial Revival.51 The main elevation fea-tures a center entrance surrounded bysymmetrically placed windows and a gam-brel roof. Originally sided in clapboard,the house has a prominent semi-circularentrance porch that is supported by Tus-

can columns. Further details such as thecrown molding on the tops of most of thewindows and the dentils underneath thecrown molding of the porch allude toeighteenth-century sources. It is interest-ing to note that Coit added one feature tothe façade that is something of an anomalyto the prevailing aesthetic. Short, denselypacked brackets also run the length of thehouse’s front. These brackets look likeover-sized dentils from the street; a sideview, however, reveals them to have adistinctly Arts and Crafts-inspired profile.

Other houses designed by Coit display amore conventional Colonial Revival look.They are basically rectangular and clad inclapboard that was probably painted white.Examples include the William F. Smithhouse at 161 Clinton Road, Brookline,from 1913,52 and the John R. Foster housein Winchester, 1915, illustrated in theAmerican Architect and Building News.53

On both houses, however, Coit includedArts and Crafts brackets and an Arts andCrafts style covered front porch — a modi-fied version of the triangular, open-tim-bered porches of the Winchester Boat Cluband the Cobb Library. As was common forthe period, Coit synthesized the prevailingarchitectural styles of the time.

After 1915 Coit increasingly producedColonial Revival designs that drew onGeorgian models. For the most part, thehouses of this type that have been identi-fied are located in Brookline and New-ton.54 They are predominantly brick withdetails such as entrance porches with bro-ken pediments and dentil moldings insteadof brackets. Yet the architect never com-pletely abandoned his interest in Arts andCrafts designs.

The years between 1915 and 1923 con-tinued to be busy for Coit. Tax recordsfrom this period show that he was theowner of many building lots in Winches-ter.55 Most of these are on Lakeview Road,but Coit was also the owner of lots onLakeview Terrace, Sheffield West, MysticValley Parkway, and Highland Avenue.One may assume that he purchased theselots to develop himself or with partners.The lots did not remain in Coit’s posses-sion for more than a few years, which sup-ports this view. Other owners of adjacentlots on Lakeview Road included DexterBlaikie, Edwin and William Blaikie, andLouisville Niles. Besides Coit, only Edwinand William Blaikie were architects. Theroles of developer, architect and builderbecome almost indistinguishable in thisdevelopment, with participants involved inseveral phases of work. It is noteworthyalso that by 1915, Coit was in a financialposition to take on the role of developer.

While Coit was mainly a residentialarchitect, from time to time he was hiredfor non-domestic projects, in addition tothe Cobb Library and the Winchester Boat Club.56 In 1915 he designed a townhall in Burlington, Massachusetts, and in1925 he designed the Atlantic Heights Ele-mentary School in Portsmouth, NewHampshire.57 Late in his career, Coit wasinvolved in two important non-residentialprojects in Winchester — one for the FirstCongregational Church and the second fora new library.

The Congregational Church commis-sion came in 1925 (figure 13), its scopeincluding the construction of a new chan-cel and the building of a parish house.Coit, a long-time member of the congre-gation, was the appointed architect in col-laboration with Allen and Collens,associated architects.58 The plans for thesestructures bear Coit’s name and officeaddress in Boston, indicating that he wasthe lead architect on the project.59

FIGURE 12. Herman S. Underwood house, 1895, located at 289 Main Street.(Courtesy of Marvin and Elizabeth Gould)

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The church Building Committee gavetop priority to the chancel alterations,which were necessary to house a neworgan.60 The arch over the pulpit waswidened to accommodate the organ thatwould be installed at the right of the chan-cel and a minister’s room at the left. Thiswork proceeded according to plan, butfunds were insufficient for the construc-tion of the parish house. The churchissued bonds to raise the needed revenue,and by 1926 the entire project was com-pleted. The parish house, which connectsto the church, was designed to comple-ment the existing architecture, its wallsclad in stucco and rusticated stone. Thesmall-paned windows and the pointed archof the main door hew closely to theEnglish church model. Half-timbering inselected areas further emphasizes theEnglish tradition.

The remodeled chancel interior is a mix-ture of features borrowed from bothRomanesque architecture and EnglishGothic sources. To harmonize with theexisting Romanesque Revival nave, Coitdesigned the chancel with a barrel vaultand rounded stained glass windows, whilethe reredos and two symmetrically-placedclergy seats are topped with Gothic traceryof carved oak. Each rib of the vault is car-ried by a carved and polychromed angel,Gothic in inspiration. The chancel wallsare covered in oak paneling approximatelyten feet high, with sanded and paintedstucco above, and the floor tiles are by theMercer Tile Company. Oak choir stalls linethe sides of the chancel, and both pulpitand lectern are of oak as well.61 The altar isa simple rectangular block made of caststone with inset panels of marble veneer.62

The interior of the parish house containsa number of architectural details that by thistime were recognizable features of Coit’scanon. The two principal stairways bothhave jigsaw-cut balusters whose profiles donot match but rather complement eachother. They are united, however, by the useof the same newel post finials for both stairs.All doors are trimmed with fascia boardsthat rise to a gentle peak, a feature seen pri-marily on Coit’s exteriors. What is now theClara H. Palmer room is a larger version ofCoit’s residential living rooms. A large fire-place and mantelpiece form a focal point onthe wall opposite the entrance. The windowspanning the rear end of the room containsa built-in window seat that is set within a

large arch whose shape appears throughoutthe building. Coit used the same arch pro-file frequently in his residential interiors,although on a smaller scale. The room alsohas substantial crown molding, whichincludes a series of closely spaced forms thatcan best be described as bracket-dentils.Purely decorative, they are an amalgam ofthese two architectural elements and recallthe dentils Coit used on the Herman S.Underwood house many years earlier.

By the l a te 1920s , the Town ofWinchester decided the time had come togive the public library its own building(figure 14). Since the 1880s, the libraryhad occupied space in Town Hall. In 1929Town Meeting voted to establish a LibraryPlan Committee that would undertake thetask of hiring an architect to produce pre-liminary plans and a cost estimate.63 Thecommittee sought advice on the selectionof an architect from William Emerson,professor of architecture at the Massachu-setts Institute of Technology, who recom-mended the firm of Kilham, Hopkins andGreeley for their experience in designinglibraries.64 The committee followed Emer-son’s advice but added Coit’s name to theproject. In addition to being highlyregarded locally, Coit had served as atrustee of the library from 1902–22.Conveniently, both firms had their offices

at 9 Park Street, Boston, where subse-quent planning sessions took place. Meet-ing minutes from these sessions show thatboth Coit and Walter Kilham submittedplans, which were revised at least once.The entire process was completed in aboutsix weeks, with final plans and a perspectivedrawing submitted on January 13, 1930.The specific contributions of the twoarchitects to the ultimate design of thelibrary are unclear, but one may surmisethat Coit took the lead on the building’sdesign and Kilham focused on libraryfunctions in the plan.65

Despite its late date, the exterior of theWinchester Public Library owes much tothe English architectural tradition. Its hor-izontal massing and double-height baywindows are reminiscent of Voysey’s workin England from the turn of the century.So too is the placement of a single curvi-linear element on the façade in the form ofan arch over the entrance. The outsidewalls of the building are West Townsend,Massachusetts, granite, with white, sand-lime brick backing supplied by theWinchester Brick Company.66 The rough-hewn surface of the granite exterior owessomething to both English church archi-tecture and the work of H. H. Richardsonand his successors.67

Inside, the library spaces naturally had

FIGURE 13. First Congregational Church, parish house and new chancel,1925–1926, located at 21 Church Street.

(Courtesy of the First Congregational Church)

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to address a number of functional require-ments. Perhaps for this reason, the inte-rior did not particularly reflect Coit’sarchitectural interests. What was typicalfor Coit, however, was the specification ofhigh quality finishes and furniture.68 Thefirm of W. C. Vaughn provided hardware,including andirons. Lighting came fromBigelow and Kennard, another well-known Boston manufacturer. Furniturewas purchased from a variety of suppliers,but the greatest cash outlay went to theFrancis H. Bacon Company. Bacon had animportant design career with the Bostonfirm of A. H. Davenport before establish-ing his own firm.69

By 1930, Coit was entering the fourthdecade of his practice, and his outputslowed considerably. Most of his projectswere small, as he was hired to erectgarages and make alterations to existingproperties. His last known dated project isfrom 1934 and consists of an addition to21 Sheffield West for Clifford Roberts.70

Coit continued to be listed as an architectin Boston through 1940, just two yearsbefore he died.71

While Coit designed buildings through-out the Boston area, most of his work isfound in Winchester. In 1890, the year Coitopened his solo practice, the population of

Winchester was 4,861.72 By 1910 thenumber had almost doubled, reaching9,309. This rapid growth was found inmany suburbs of Boston during theseyears, a time when the idea of the countryhouse was adapted for suburban living.73

Not surprisingly, as the demand for thesehouses soared, so too did the demand forarchitects to design them. Unlike archi-tects of a generation before him, Coit wasable to support himself mainly with resi-dential design in one town. There wasbusiness to spare; in 1919 Winchester washome to sixteen architects.74 Althoughnone of these men had a client base in thecommunity that was equal to that of Coit,there was clearly much work available inthe Greater Boston area. Coit had thegood fortune to open his practice near thebeginning of a lengthy period of residen-tial expansion and to be easing towardsretirement by the time of the GreatDepression in the 1930s. For his prolificwork in Winchester, Coit deserves to berecognized as a major contributor to thetown’s architectural heritage.

(Ellen Spencer has a master’s degree inart history from Brown University and is apast chairman of the Winchester HistoricalCommission.)

NOTES

1. Robert Coit obituary, Winchester Star, Aug.14, 1942. For the first comprehensive study ofCoit, see Shantia Anderheggen, “Robert Coit:Colonial Revival Architect of Winchester,Massachusetts,” M.A. Thesis, Boston University,1993. A copy of the thesis is available at the Winchester Archival Center, Winchester Town Hall.

2. For more information on Rand, see MaureenMeister, “George Rand’s Winchester,” a series ofarticles in the Winchester Star, May–Oct. 1991.On Smith, see Meister, “Patterson Smith’sWinchester,” a series of articles in the WinchesterStar, May–Sept. 1994. On Kellaway, see JulieKhuen, “Herbert J. Kellaway,” The Architects ofWinchester, Massachusetts, ed. Maureen Meister,Winchester Historical Society, no. 2, 1995.

3. Winchester Star, Dec. 20, 1907

4. Harvard College, Class of 1883, Secretary’sReport, no. 3, July 1890, Harvard Archives.

5. Coit obituary, Winchester Star.

6. Registrar’s Records, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

7. Harvard College, Records of the Class,1883–1908, Harvard Archives.

8. See Susan Maycock Vogel, “Hartwell andRichardson: An Introduction to Their Work,”Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians,vol. 32, no. 2 (May 1973), pp. 132–146, andMargaret Henderson Floyd, Architecture AfterRichardson: Regionalism Before Modernism —Longfellow, Alden and Harlow in Boston andPittsburgh, Chicago and London: University ofChicago Press, 1994.

9. No evidence exists to indicate which projectsCoit worked on during these years. Among thebuildings completed during his tenure atLongfellow, Alden and Harlow were the Edwin H.Abbot house (now the Longy School of Music) inCambridge, 1888, and Cambridge City Hall,1888. The firm also worked on many residentialprojects. See Floyd, pp. 61–125.

10. Elisabeth Coit (1892–1987) became an archi-tect. Like her father, she was educated at Harvard(Radcliffe) and MIT, as well as at the Sorbonne inParis. She practiced in New York City, specializingin low-cost housing. See Macmillan Encyclopediaof Architects, ed. Adolf K. Placzek, New York: TheFree Press, 1982. Elisabeth Coit’s papers arehoused in the Schlesinger Library on the Historyof Women in America, Radcliffe Institute forAdvanced Study, Harvard University.

11. The Winchester Directory of 1925 lists Coit’saddress as 22 Temple Street, Boston.

12. The owners have the original plans. Accordingto Coit’s descendants, the houses at 15 and 19

FIGURE 14. The Winchester Public Library, 1929–1931, located at 80 Washington Street.

(Courtesy of the Winchester Archival Center)

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Hillside Ave., which date from 1889 and 1890respectively, were designed by him as well. Variousmembers of the Coit family were the first owners,and in his Harvard College class report of 1890,Coit states that he built a house for himself inWinchester. Coit would have designed thesehouses while still working at Longfellow, Aldenand Harlow.

13. It is interesting to compare the Nickersonhouse with Hartwell and Richardson’s Yerxa houseof 1887–88 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Twincircular turrets bookend the façade of the Yerxahouse, which otherwise is composed primarily ofShingle Style elements. On the interior, the halland stairway areas of both houses show remarkablesimilarities, with their variety of richly applied pan-eling, beamed ceilings and two-story stairwellswhich contain large stained glass windows begin-ning on the landings and continuing up to the fullheight of the second story.

14. Floyd, p. 64.

15. Coit almost certainly was the architect forNickerson’s own house across the street at 93Church St. Built in 1904, it is relatively large in scalebut consistent with Coit’s Tudor Revival designs.

16. Coit’s buildings are documented in a varietyof ways — by surviving architectural plans, build-ing permits, and publication.

17. The houses are most likely numbers 3, 5, 6,and 7 Stratford Road. Winchester tax records indi-cate that Nickerson purchased lots on StratfordRoad, among other locations. For example, seeWinchester Annual Report for 1896, WinchesterArchival Center.

18. The Winchester Directory for 1897, 1899,and 1901 (one bound volume) lists Dexter Blaikieas a carpenter and builder, while his brother Edwinis listed as an architect. Dexter Blaikie is listed as a“mechanic” on building permits for 5 and 23Sheffield West, Building Department, WinchesterTown Hall. See also Dexter Blaikie obituary,Winchester Star, Aug. 19, 1932.

19. See Winchester, Massachusetts: The Architec-tural Heritage of a Victorian Town, Winchester,Mass.: Winchester Historical Society, 1988,pp. 63–65. The Massachusetts Historical Commis-sion survey forms of the late 1970s list Coit as thearchitect. Several of the houses are indeed compat-ible with Coit’s known work; however, there is nodocumentation available that confirms this claim.

20. The studio was illustrated and described in theBoston Globe, May 5, 1909. See also Murphy’sobituary in the Winchester Star, Apr. 20, 1945.

21. The Elder house is illustrated in Lilacs in theWood, a book of poetry by Lilla T. Elder, located inthe Winchester Archival Center. In Coit’s obituary,the Elder house is also mentioned.

22. For Elder, see the Winchester Star, Jan. 25,1918. For McCall, see the Winchester Star, Nov.19, 1923.

23. See the papers of the Shu-shu-ga CanoeClub and the Winchester Boat Club, WinchesterArchival Center.

24. Winchester Star, May 31, 1901.

25. For example, see 15 Cabot St. and 17Everett Ave.

26. See Vincent Scully, The Shingle Style and theStick Style, New Haven and London: Yale UP, rev.ed., 1971 (orig. pub. 1955), Chapter Six.

27. Gustav Stickley continued the pursuit of therustic with his Craftsman houses and furniture adecade or so later. His philosophy of architecturespecified the use of natural materials, preferablyindigenous to the site. His 1912 clubhouse atCraftsman Farms in Parsippany, N.J., sports twomassive rough stone chimneys. See Mark AlanHewitt, Gustav Stickley’s Craftsman Farms: TheQuest for an Arts and Crafts Utopia, Syracuse:Syracuse UP, 1991.

28. See also the porch of 566 South Border Road.Now a residence, the structure was built as a fishhatchery, c. 1897, on the instruction of EdwardBrackett. Brackett, a well-known local artist, wasalso the Fish Commissioner of Winchester.According to Brackett’s obituary in the WinchesterStar, March 20, 1908, the commission was re-organized in 1894, in the middle of Brackett’s longchairmanship. The Fish Hatchery was likely builtshortly thereafter. There is no architect of recordfor this property, but it appears to have beendesigned by Coit.

29. Ed Quill, Pembroke 2000, Pembroke, Mass.:Pembroke Historical Society, 2000, pp. 4–5. Mrs.Cobb also donated one thousand books from herpersonal library and included a fund for thelibrary’s upkeep in her will.

30. Boston Sunday Herald, Dec. 16, 1900.

31. Undergraduate course records in the HarvardArchives do not indicate that Coit took Norton’sFine Arts course.

32. Coit’s office address in Boston was 113Devonshire St. until 1905 and 85 Water St. from1905–1915. Both locations were very near 9 ParkSt., the home of the Society of Arts and Crafts,Boston. Although Coit was never a member of theSociety of Arts and Crafts, he moved his office to 9Park St. in 1926. See the architect’s file on Coit inthe Fine Arts Department, Boston Public Library.The information was gathered from the BostonCity Directories.

33. Cram was born in 1863 and died in 1942.To better understand how Coit’s work was typi-cal, one may compare it with buildings designedby Cram, Wentworth and Goodhue, such as All

Saints Church and Rectory, Brookline, 1894.Both Coit and Cram favored the Tudor orGothic Revival version of the Arts and Craftsmovement, with its use of half-timbering, orielwindows, and pointed arches. Both men alsoemployed decorative details such as brackets,finials, and shield shapes.

34. Jere Downs obituary, Winchester Star, Jan. 3,1936. Downs’ house in Winchester was publishedin the Brickbuilder, June 1916.

35. Voysey was born in 1857 and died just a yearbefore Coit, in 1941. See Stuart Durant, C.F.A.Voysey, Architectural Monographs, No. 19,London: Academy, 1992.

36. For Coit’s travels after leaving Harvard, seethe Harvard College, Class of 1883, Secretary’sReport, no. 3, July 1890.

37. See David Gebhard, “C.F.A. Voysey — Toand From America,” Journal of the Society ofArchitectural Historians, vol. 3, no. 4 (Dec. 1971),pp. 304–12, n. 2.

38. The owners have the original floor plans andelevation drawings for the house.

39. Names and often the professions of homeowners are listed in the Town of Winchester’sAnnual Reports. Coit’s clients identified them-selves as businessmen, inventors, manufactoryowners, merchants, publishers, and civil engineers.

40. Two other houses, 5 and 7 Sheffield West, aredocumented Coit designs. See American Architectand Building News, Apr. 22, 1914. Many morehouses on this street and Sheffield Road appear tohave been designed by Coit, based on exterior andinterior stylistic affinities. This area, just around thecorner from Church Street, was also developed byPhineas Nickerson.

41. American Architect and Building News, Apr.22, 1914.

42. In addition to several published floor plans, anumber of original plans still exist. Remarkably,they have stayed with the houses through manychanges of ownership.

43. American Architect and Building News, Jan.27, 1915.

44. Winchester, Massachusetts: The ArchitecturalHeritage of a Victorian Town, p. 63.

45. Plans and maps show the order of street layoutand development from around 1902 to 1910. Seethe Plan Book, Index of Streets (no date),Winchester Archival Center.

46. Atlas of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, vol.2, 1906, Winchester Archival Center.

47. Insurance Maps of Winchester, Massachusetts,Sanborn Map Company, New York, 1910,Winchester Archival Center.

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48. See Town of Winchester Annual Report,1909, p. 109, and Annual Report, 1915, p. 96, forproperty taxes paid by Whitehorne. Houses thatwere built by Whitehorne and appear to be by Coitinclude 7 Wedgemere Ave., 111 Cambridge St.,and 12 Foxcroft Road.

49. Although undocumented, 1 Wolcott Roadalmost certainly was designed by Coit as well. Thetax records in the Winchester Annual Report of1907 list Emma Woods as the owner of 5 WolcottTerrace. It seems likely that Coit was also the archi-tect for this house. Exterior and interior elementsare all consistent with known Coit designs.

50. For example, see Maureen Meister, Architec-ture and the Arts and Crafts Movement in Boston:Harvard’s H. Langford Warren, Hanover andLondon: University Press of New England, 2003,pp. 10, 48–52, and 118–20.

51. The owners of the house own the originalplans, signed by Coit. His design clearly wasinspired by the Thorp house, 1886–87, by A. W.Longfellow, on Brattle Street, Cambridge.

52. See American Architect and Building News,Apr. 23, 1912.

53. American Architect and Building News, Jan.27, 1915. In addition to the unknown location ofthis house, there is no listing of John R. Foster inthe tax records or lists of residents of Winchester inthe Town Reports, 1905–1915. A John R. Fosteris listed in the Town of Arlington census reports of1910 and 1920.

54. Four of these brick colonials are close toeach other at 295, 311, 319, and 327 ClintonRoad in Brookline. They were all built between1919 and 1921.

55. See the Report of the Assessors, Town ofWinchester Annual Reports, 1915–1923.

56. The Winchester Town Stable on Linden Street(now part of the Department of Public Works), hasbeen attributed to Coit, but no documentationcurrently exists. See Henry Simonds’ typed historyof the building, attached to the survey form on thestable in the Winchester Archival Center.

57. Burlington Image Collection, BurlingtonMunicipal Archives and Record Center, TownHall, Burlington, Massachusetts. The building wastorn down in 1969. Richard M. Candee, AtlanticHeights, Portsmouth, N.H.: Portsmouth MarineSociety, 1985, p. 108. Coit is named as the archi-tect in the Annual Reports of Portsmouth, N.H.,of 1925 and 1926. See Candee, Chapter 3, foot-note 42. The school was part of a larger projectcalled Atlantic Heights, a shipbuilder’s housingdevelopment for the Atlantic Corporation ofPortsmouth, N.H. This industrial community waslargely designed by Walter Kilham, who workedwith Coit again on the Winchester Public Library.

58. “Reports of the Finance Committee of theParish House and of the Building Committee,”Apr. 15, 1925, Library, First CongregationalChurch, Winchester.

59. Plans are also located in the library of the FirstCongregational Church.

60. “Report of the Building Committee,” Apr.1925, p. 3. This document is a typed report in athree-ring binder labeled “Parish Hse (sic)and Chancel Building Committee Records,(1922–26),” located in the library of the FirstCongregational Church.

61. Interestingly, arched openings on both thepulpit and lectern are rounded, not pointed, per-haps to complement the shapes of the windows.

62. Some individual suppliers are listed in a memofrom Coit to the Building Committee itemizingcosts. The chancel rail, reredos, lectern, pulpit, andchoir stalls were provided by Henderson andNolan. Alexander Thomson supplied the altar.Hardware, which could have included lighting,came from the well-known Boston firm of W. C.Vaughn Company.

63. “Report of the Library Plan Committee,”Town of Winchester Annual Report, 1929,pp. 280–85, Winchester Archival Center.

64. “Minutes of the Meeting of the Library PlanCommittee,” Oct. 16, 1929. The minutes are pre-served in a bound notebook with an unmarkedcover that is located in the Winchester Room ofthe Winchester Public Library. Previously Kilhamhad been consulted by the committee about theprocedures to follow should the project be put outto bid. Shortly thereafter, Kilham and Coit sent ajoint letter to the committee requesting to be con-sidered for the project.

65. The only mention of a specific contribution byeither architect is found in the “Report of thePublic Library Building Committee,” Town ofWinchester Annual Report, 1931, p. 283,Winchester Archival Center. The custom-madechairs in the Reading Room were designed withespecially high backs “according to a suggestion byMr. Coit.”

66. “Report of the Building Committee,” Town ofWinchester Annual Report, 1931, p. 277. See alsoCora A. Quimby, “The New Winchester Library,”The Library Journal, July 1932, pp. 616–19.

67. For a possible source for the colorful geomet-ric tiles that line the entrance arch, see SusanKeats’ article “In Search of Robert Coit,”Winchester Star, Apr. 29, 1993. Keats suggeststhat the tile designs are based on examples thatCoit had seen during his time in Persia many yearsbefore. Family members report that Coit broughtback tiles from Persia.

68. See the Town of Winchester Annual Report,1931, p. 270, for an itemized list of suppliers.

69. A. H. Davenport was a major producer ofColonial Revival furniture. The firm received com-missions from many prominent architects of theday, including H. H. Richardson and McKim,Mead and White.

70. Town of Winchester Building Permit,Building Department, Winchester Town Hall.

71. Boston City Directories list Coit as an archi-tect in the city between 1892 and 1940. See NancySchrock, Architectural Records in Boston: A Guideto Architectural Research in Boston, Cambridgeand Vicinity, Massachusetts Committee for thePreservation of Architectural Records, New York:Garland Publishing, 1983.

72. Henry Smith Chapman, History of Winchester,Massachusetts, vol. 1, Winchester, Mass.: Town ofWinchester, 1975, p. 297.

73. Mark Alan Hewitt, The Architect and theAmerican Country House, New Haven, Conn.:Yale UP, 1990, pp. 261–62. Many architects ofCoit’s time were interested in exploring the idea ofthe country house. Cram published his AmericanCountry Houses of Today in 1913. Also, the popu-larity and proliferation of house and garden maga-zines from the 1890s on meant that there was alarge forum for articles on the subject.

74. Town of Winchester Assessment of a Poll Taxas of Apr. 1, 1919, Winchester Archival Center.This observation was made by Anderheggen. Thearchitects are: Allen E. Boone, Robert C. Boone,Robert Coit, Richard B. Derby, Charles H.Eastwick, Arthur E. French, George H. Gerrish,Harry Haven, Edward E. Murphy, F. PattersonSmith, Philip T. Redfern, George M. Stone,Edward A. Tucker, Ralph S. Vinal, Edward R.Waite, and Clinton J. Warren.

Number 8, 2007

THE ARCHITECTS OF WINCHESTER,MASSACHUSETTS

Published by the

WINCHESTER HISTORICAL SOCIETY

15 High StreetP.O. Box 127Winchester, MA 01890

www.winchesterhistoricalsociety.org

EDITORMaureen Meister

GRAPHICSLMY Studio, Inc.