Abbotsford | |
Location | 300 Walnut Ave., Boston, Massachusetts |
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Coordinates | 42°18′58.9″N71°5′32.5″W / 42.316361°N 71.092361°W |
Area | 1.1 acres (0.45 ha) |
Built | 1872 |
Architect | Alden Frink |
Architectural style | High Victorian Gothic |
NRHP reference No. | 87000885 [1] |
Added to NRHP | September 16, 1987 |
Abbotsford, now the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, is a historic house at 300 Walnut Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The museum is dedicated to black visual arts heritage worldwide, and presents historical and contemporary exhibitions in many media, including painting, sculpture, graphics, photography and decorative arts. The museum is operated by the National Center of Afro-American Artists.
The pointed arches on Abbotsford's windows and main entrance are characteristics of the High Victorian Gothic style, inspired by the architecture of the Middle Ages.
Designed by Boston architect Alden Frink for the prominent industrialist Aaron Davis Williams, Abbotsford was built in 1872 in the High Victorian Gothic style. [2] Just as the American economy was becoming industrialized, many people looked with nostalgia to times before machines and factories. Ironically, Aaron Davis Williams, Jr., used his profits from industry to build a house that could remind him of a medieval castle.
Following setbacks in his business, Williams was forced to sell Abbotsford to James M. Smith, who was born in Scotland in 1811, came to Boston in 1854, and was treasurer of the Suffolk Brewery in South Boston. Smith died at his home in Roxbury February 8, 1894.
By 1923, the mansion was too large for private use, and the City of Boston purchased it as a disciplinary school for boys. In 1976, the National Center for Afro-American Artists bought the property and turned it into a museum. This new use has made it possible for community residents to enjoy Abbotsford today.
This building is significant to Roxbury for several reasons. The most obvious is its beauty. It is a stately mansion that commands its site, and continues to be important to the community as the setting for the museum. In addition, it is built entirely of Roxbury puddingstone, a local building material. Finally, this building tells much about how people thought about their houses and their lives.
The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.
Roxbury is a neighborhood within the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
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The National Center of Afro-American Artists (NCAAA) is a center in Roxbury, Boston, Massachusetts founded in 1968 by Elma Lewis to "preserv[e] and foster the cultural arts heritage of black peoples worldwide through arts teaching, and the presentation of professional works in all fine arts disciplines." Although the organization's name specifies African American artists, the organizational mandate includes all African diasporic art. The NCAAA is the largest independent black cultural arts institution in New England, United States. Its alumni have distinguished themselves in the performing arts internationally.
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The William C. Nell House, now a private residence, was a boarding home located in 3 Smith Court in the Beacon Hill neighbourhood of Boston, Massachusetts, opposite the former African Meeting House, now the Museum of African American History.
Charles Street African Methodist Episcopal Church is an historic African Methodist Episcopal Church at 551 Warren Street in Boston, Massachusetts. The current church building was built in 1888 by J. Williams Beal and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
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The District 13 Police Station is a historic former police station at 28 Seaverns Avenue in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The Gothic Revival station was designed in 1873 by George Ropes and built for the town of West Roxbury, as one of its last public works before its annexation by Boston. An addition was designed in 1892 by Edmund M. Wheelwright, architect for the City of Boston. The building is one of the only high-style Victorian municipal buildings in the city.
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