The Thomas Aspinwall Davis House is a historic house at 29 Linden Place in

Brookline, Massachusetts Brookline () is an affluent town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, and part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area. An exclave of Norfolk County, Brookline borders six of Boston's neighborhoods: Brighton, Boston, Brighton ...

. The house was built in 1844, by

Thomas Aspinwall Davis Thomas Aspinwall Davis (December 11, 1798 – November 22, 1845) was a silversmith and businessman who served as mayor of Boston for nine months in 1845. Early life Davis was born on December 11, 1798, in Brookline, Massachusetts, the son of Eb ...

, later a mayor of

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, and is one of the earliest buildings to survive from his Linden Park project, the first residential subdivision in Brookline. The house was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1985.

Description and history

The Thomas Aspinwall Davis House stands in Brookline's Linden Park residential neighborhood, east of

Brookline Village Brookline Village is one of the major commercial and retail centers of the town of Brookline, Massachusetts, United States. Located just north of Massachusetts Route 9 and west of the Muddy River (Massachusetts), Muddy River, it is the historic ...

, on the south side of Linden Place nearly opposite

Linden Square Linden Square is a small municipal park at Linden Place in Brookline, Massachusetts, United States. Roughly rectangular in shape with one curved side, Linden Square was laid out in 1844 by Alexander Wadsworth as part of the subdivision of the ar ...

. It is a -story wood-frame structure, with a gabled roof and clapboarded exterior. The house is predominantly Italianate in style, with three bays across, hooded front windows, and a cupola. The central front gable is decorated with Gothic bargeboard, and the building supposedly had a more ornately decorated porch before its move in 1903. The Davis family had for a long time been landowners in this area of Brookline. In 1843,

took the area surrounding what is now Linden Park and

, and worked with landscape designer Alexander Wadsworth to lay out the two small parks and house lots. The house lots, auctioned in 1843 and 1844, became Brookline's first residential subdivision. Davis built this house in 1843, originally facing Linden Park. It was moved in 1903 to its present orientation facing Linden Place.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Thomas Aspinwall, House Houses in Brookline, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Brookline, Massachusetts Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Norfolk County, Massachusetts Houses completed in 1844 Gothic Revival architecture in Massachusetts

Description and history

See also

References