Charles Wood House
Building Name:
Charles Wood House
Architect:
Cummings, Charles Amos, (1833-1905) &
Sears, Willard Thomas, (1837-1920)
Date:
1872
Address:
121 Commonwealth Avenue Boston, MA
Current Use:
Residential
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Notes:
Boston's Back Bay is a Victorian architectural treasure but not for the Stick Style. This house illustrates the close relationship of the Stick Style and the High Victorian Gothic in its wood detailing in the gable and over the windows as well as in its roofline. Sears was born and educated in New Bedford. He worked for Solomon K. Eaton, an architect from Mattapoisett who maintained an office in New Bedford. After moving to Boston, he was employed in the office of Gridley Bryant before the long the partnership with Cummings (1867-1890). After Cummings retired, Sears continued to design, including well-known structures such as Fenway Court (now the Gardner Museum) and the Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown.
Bibliography:
Bunting, Bainbridge. Houses of Boston's Back Bay: An Architectural History, 1840-1917. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1967.
Placzek, Adolf K. Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects. 4 vols. New York: Free Press, 1982.
Photo Source:
Bruce Barnes, October, 2003
Stick Style Architecture
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