Asa Gray House | |
 Asa Gray House. | |
| Location | 88 Garden St.,Cambridge, Massachusetts |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 42°22′58.7″N71°7′40.8″W / 42.382972°N 71.128000°W /42.382972; -71.128000 |
| Area | less than one acre |
| Built | 1810 |
| Architect | Ithiel Town |
| NRHP reference No. | 66000655 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966[1] |
| Designated NHL | January 12, 1965[2] |
TheAsa Gray House, recorded in anHABS survey as theGarden House, is a historic house at 88 Garden Street,Cambridge, Massachusetts. ANational Historic Landmark, it is notable architecturally as the earliest known work of the designer and architectIthiel Town, and historically as the residence of severalHarvard College luminaries. Its most notable occupant wasAsa Gray (1810–88), a leadingbotanist who published the first complete work on American flora, and was a vigorous defender of theDarwiniantheory of evolution.
The Gray House was designed in 1810 by architectIthiel Town, whose earliest known work it is. It was built for the zoologistWilliam Dandridge Peck, and originally stood at the corner of Garden and Linnaean Streets inCambridge, Massachusetts, on the grounds of theHarvard College Botanical Garden. Subsequent occupants included botanistThomas Nuttall and Harvard presidentsJames Walker andJared Sparks.Asa Gray purchased the house in 1842 and moved in during the summer of 1844,[3] after receiving an appointment to a professorship at Harvard that he would hold for 45 years. Already a rising star in the world ofbotany, Gray in 1848 publishedThe General of the Plants of the United States, which was not only groundbreaking for the content, but also in its presentation. His discovery of relationships between plants ofNorth America and East Asia was influential in the growth of the field ofplant geography. His highly public defense ofCharles Darwin'sOn the Origin of Species gained him widespread attention in the public sphere.[4]
The Gray House was purchased in 1910 by Allen Cox, who moved it to its present address the same year. Gardner Cox (one of Allen's children and a well known artist in Boston, converted the attached carriage house into an art studio). Benjamin (an executive) & Liz Shepherd (a sculptor and printmaker) bought the house in 1999 and restored it. They were awarded a Restoration Award for their work by the Cambridge Historical Commission in 2001. They restored the art studio in 2006. It is still a private residence, and was declared aNational Historic Landmark in 1965.[2][4]
The house has a rectangular main block, measuring 40 by 36 feet (12 m × 11 m), with a side ell that is about 24 feet (7.3 m) square. When first built, it was attached to a plant conservatory that was also designed by Town. The house is two stories tall and five bays wide, with a hip roof surrounded by a low balustrade. The main facade is flushboarded, with pilasters at the corners; the other sides of the house are sheathed in clapboards. The cornice on the main block is dentillated; that on the ell is plain. The main entrance is centered on the front facade, with sidelight windows on either side and a fanlight window above. The entry is sheltered by a portico supported by clustered square columns; this portico is a replacement to the original, made when the house was moved. There is a secondary entrance in the ell, which is sheltered by a closed-in porch dating to c. 1920. At the rear of the house is an addition, roughly dating to the move but extended later, which incorporates a formerly-external shed into the house.[4]
The interior of the house follows a typical Federal-period center hall plan, with the central hall divided into front and rear sections (each with a staircase) by a doorway with a fanlight. There are two rooms on either side of the central hall. The woodwork in the public spaces is not particularly elaborate, with simple cornice moldings and fireplace surrounds, and flared moldings around the windows. The downstairs room of the ell served as Asa Gray's study, and includes a number of wood-framedisplay cases lining one wall.[4]
{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help) andAccompanying two photos, exterior, from 1867 and 1963 (32 KB)
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