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Atherton Stevens House

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1827–1828. 59 Thorndike St.
  • Atherton Stevens House (Peter Vanderwarker or Antonina Smith)
  • Atherton Stevens House (Peter Vanderwarker or Antonina Smith)

Perhaps the earliest Greek Revival brick town house in this neighborhood, the house displays a recessed entrance with etched glass sidelights and a transom. At the second-floor level, tall parlor windows and a cast-iron balcony provide the principal decorative features. Brick dentils below the cornice and a polygonal dormer characterize Greek Revival town houses and commercial blocks. Atherton H. Stevens served on the building committee for the church erected next door at the same time, and he arranged to share a party wall. On the other side of the house he reserved for himself an open lot for a side yard. The Third Congregational Church (103 3rd Street) is the oldest surviving church in East Cambridge. Except for the Greek Revival portico, the exterior remains a Federal structure similar to Asher Benjamin's Charles Street Meeting House (BH44) in Boston of 1806–1807. The church was adapted for condominiums in 2003.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Keith N. Morgan
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Data

What's Nearby

Quality Row
Middlesex County Buildings
56–61 Otis Street
East Cambridge Savings Bank
James Green House

Citation

Keith N. Morgan, "Atherton Stevens House", [Cambridge, Massachusetts], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MA-01-EC15.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Massachusetts

Buildings of Massachusetts: Metropolitan Boston, Keith N. Morgan, with Richard M. Candee, Naomi Miller, Roger G. Reed, and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009, 287-287.

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