Quincy, Mass. Historical and Architectural Survey

29 Beach Street

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
The Wollaston/East neighborhood of Quincy is bounded by Quincy Shore Drive (east). Furnace Brook Parkway (south). the MBTA tracks (west) and Hayward Street-Hancock Street-Albion RoadVassall Street (north) . An outstanding feature of this area is the Josiah Quincy House (1770) mansion house of the Quincy estate which derived from the original 1635 several thousand acre grant to Edmund Quincy of some of the best farmland in New England. A sizeable portion of the estate was not subdivided for the development of late 19th and 20th century housing until the last Quincy sister died in 1893. Other important features in this area are the 83-acre Merrymount Park (1885); historic Blacks Creek, the site of Edmund Quincy's tidal grist mill; and the National Sailors Home Cemetery, the only evidence of the 80-acre National Sailors Home (1865, now demolished) of which 50 acres have become Conservation Commission land. The development process of Wollaston East was greatly accelerated by the Old Colony Railroad which began operations in 1845 as well as by the advent of Quincy's extensive street railway system.

Beach Street was accepted by the Town of Quincy from Hancock Street to Willow Street in 1886. Number 29 Beach Street, which was built on land included in the former Quincy Estate, is located on this stretch of road. The house was built for William Atkins, a bookkeeper in Boston, and his wife Isabella. In a good record of longevity of ownership, the Atkins remained in residence at 29 Beach Street until after 1935.

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Assessors Records.
Building Permits, alterations.
H. Hobart Holly, ed. Quincy: 350 Years, 1974.
Robert A. McCaughey. Josiah Quincy, 1772-1864 : The Last Federalist. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974.
.William S. Pattee. A History of-Old Braintree and Quincy, 1878, p. 310.
D. Foster Taylor. "Wollaston As It Was in the 1870's". Quincy History. Quincy Historical Society, no. 11, January 1985, p. 5.

ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE:
The Shingle Style which followed the exuberant Queen Anne Style was favored for sea side and suburban homes. The trend began with the grandiose shingled summer horses of McKim, Mead and White in the 1880's and continued with the fine Shingle Style house's Of William Ralph Emerson in Massachusetts and John Calvin Stevens in Maine. They were often characterized by quiet compact massing, enveloping roofs which were often gambreled, simple classic details and the use of weathered shingles to wrap" the house. It was considered an American derived architecture which was influenced by the early weathered clapboarded and shingled 17th century houses then being studied with great avidity. The continued interest in the architectural past of the East Coast led soon after to the Colonial Revival Style.

The Shingle Style residence at 29 Beach Street is a fine example of the style, Compactly massed under a cross gabled roof, it is totally sheathed in shingles which seems to envelop the house completely. The projections are subtle, such as the bracketed rounded oriel windows and the rounded two story bay windows under the side gable emphasizing further the tightness of the massing. Of particular interest, and very characteristic of the style is the treatment of the shingles at the side gable window where they move inward to create a recessed window opening of curved shingles and at the oriel windows of the facade where their convexity (see photograph) seem to eliminate angularity and corners. An eclectic array of delicate details embellish the walls of the house. They include a baroque cartouche with a fleur de lis set a panel over the porch, a cornice of Federal like bows and, bell drop flowers swags (see photograph) below the eaves and atop the porch and leaded windows with diamond shaped panes. The-house has retained its architectural identity and integrity. It is one of the finest Shingle Style residences in Quincy and an elegant component of the Beach Street streetscape.

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