You are here

Metropolitan Boston » Core Boston » Back Bay » Back Bay West » Albert Burrage House

Albert Burrage House

-A A +A
1899, Charles Brigham. 314 Commonwealth Ave.
  • Albert Burrage House (Peter Vanderwarker or Antonina Smith)

A peacock among sparrows, the Albert Burrage House is the sole incursion of Fifth Avenue flamboyance into the Back Bay. It is significant chiefly as an illustration of what Commonwealth Avenue might have been but for the self-imposed restraint that animated most Back Bay architects and clients. Bristling with turrets, bay windows, gargoyles, crockets, and putti, the exterior is indebted to the sixteenth-century chateaux of the Loire valley, particularly Chenonceaux, as well as such New York reflections as R. M. Hunt's William K. Vanderbilt house of 1882. If the overall effect is one of grandiosity rather than true grandeur, it is redeemed from mere ostentation by the quality of its materials and workmanship, and its relationship to the context improved by the general symmetry of its elevations.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Keith N. Morgan
×

Data

What's Nearby

John Andrew House
Boston Architectural College (BAC)
Nickerson-Pickman House
Sears House
Boston Architectural College (Institute of Contemporary Art) and Engine and Hose House No. 33

Citation

Keith N. Morgan, "Albert Burrage House", [Boston, Massachusetts], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MA-01-BB67.

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, 174-174.

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.

,