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Charles W. Ellis House

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1869–1870, Hammatt Billings. 170 Otis St.

The Charles W. Ellis House is one of only a few known examples of a residential design by Hammatt Billings, an architect and illustrator very highly regarded during the mid-nineteenth century. His illustrations for important works of fiction, such as Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) and Little Women (1869), and popular periodicals, such as Ballou's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion, made him a household name. Billings maintained his own architectural practice, but also hired out as a designer for other Boston architects. Massachusetts governor William Claflin, one of his patrons, engaged Billings to design a house for his daughter and son-in-law, Charles Ellis. The Ellis House is a Mansard-style dwelling with a tower and multiple verandas on a hillside site overlooking the Claflin Estate.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Keith N. Morgan
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Data

What's Nearby

West Newton Hill District
Commonwealth Avenue Historic District
Nathaniel Allen House
Nonatum Office Park (Silver Lake Cordage Company)
Myrtle Baptist Church Neighborhood

Citation

Keith N. Morgan, "Charles W. Ellis House", [Newton, Massachusetts], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MA-01-NW23.

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, 490-490.

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