Stoneholm

On Corey Hill, the highest elevation of Beacon Street, John P. Webber, a real estate developer, constructed this eighteen-unit apartment building next to his own residence (since demolished). The granite building he erected was the most architecturally lavish structure on Beacon Street. Arthur H. Bowditch and Edward B. Stratton, two architects whose brief partnership ended by 1908, designed Stoneholm in a French Baroque style that evokes Parisian apartment houses or such buildings as the Ritz Hotel in London. Trained at MIT and in Paris, Stratton may have been the principal designer, although Bowditch may also have been the designer since he worked in a great variety of architectural styles. Abundant use of intricately carved granite—paired brackets, dormers with broken scroll pediments, and festoons—particularly in the embellishments for the mansard roof, distinguishes Stoneholm. As at Richmond Court (BR6), a central courtyard, here paved and boasting a double staircase, organizes Stoneholm's U-shaped plan.