Rufus and Emily Waterman House
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University Club (Rufus and Emily Waterman House)
1830, John Holden Greene. 1866, renovation and enlargement, Alpheus C. Morse. 1900 and later, south addition, Stone, Carpenter and Willson. 1901, dining room addition, P. O. Clarke. 219 Benefit St. (southeast corner of Waterman St.)
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(Photograph by Andrew Hope)
Across Waterman Street, the University Club began as a two-and-one-half-story Federal house designed by John Holden Greene for Rufus Waterman. The tall stair and porch are his. Rufus's daughter Emily called on Alpheus Morse to blow the house up into an Italian palazzo. Hence the full third story, the modillion cornice, and the low hipped roof. After the University Club acquired the house, in 1900, Stone, Carpenter and Willson enlarged it with a wing to the south, which is most evident in Neo-Federal touches inside. Finally, P. O. Clarke added the Neo-Federal one-story dining wing with its large bow window toward Waterman Street. Although architecturally something of a comfortably elegant mishmash after so much renovation (which is not necessarily a deficit for a club), it holds its triangular site and its front on Benefit Street with distinction.
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