You are here

117 Commonwealth Avenue

-A A +A
1876, Cummings and Sears.

One of two surviving from an original row of three, of which the other has been altered, a more representative brownstone could hardly be found than this example by Cummings and Sears. The ashlar of its octagonally bayed facade is anchored by rustication below the water table and banded by stringcourses at every floor, while rows of recessed vertical panels below the first-floor windows suggest a blind balustrade. Stop-fluted jambs of the entrance door and window surrounds support shallow-pitched lintels incised with foliate carving. Below the deeply projecting modillion cornice meanders a fretwork frieze in answer to the equally Grecian anthemion motif of the front yard fence.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Keith N. Morgan
×

Data

What's Nearby

Citation

Keith N. Morgan, "117 Commonwealth Avenue", [Boston, Massachusetts], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MA-01-BB33.

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,