The Dunvegan | |
 | |
   | |
| Location | Cambridge, Massachusetts |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 42°22′53.8″N71°7′12.1″W / 42.381611°N 71.120028°W Coordinates: 42°22′53.8″N71°7′12.1″W / 42.381611°N 71.120028°W |
| Built | 1898 |
| Architect | Bacon, W.M. |
| Architectural style | Renaissance, Other |
| MPS | Cambridge MRA |
| NRHP reference # | [1] |
| Added to NRHP | May 19, 1986 |
 | Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Dunvegan . |
The Dunvegan is an historic apartment building at 1654 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was built in 1898 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. [1]
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and part of the Boston metropolitan area.
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred preserving the property.
According to a promotional booklet [2] published in 1899, its name is derived from that of Scotland's Dunvegan Castle, whose coat of arms is worked into the apartment's stained glass windows. It was constructed 25 feet from its adjoining apartment block, The Montrose, with which it connects via an underground passage. Both buildings are of the same height and similar size (six stories, with a frontage of eighty-five feet), built of the same materials, and with a similar architectural appearance, although the Montrose's floorplan is roughly rectangular but the Dunvegan's is triangular.
Dunvegan Castle is located 1 mile (1.6 km) to the north of Dunvegan on the Isle of Skye, off the west coast of Scotland. It is the seat of the MacLeod of MacLeod, chief of the Clan MacLeod. Probably a fortified site from the earliest times, the castle was first built in the 13th century and developed piecemeal over the centuries. In the 19th century the whole castle was remodelled in a mock-medieval style. The castle is built on an elevated rock overlooking an inlet on the eastern shore of Loch Dunvegan, a sea loch.
The Montrose is an historic multiunit residential building at 1648 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is a six-story yellow brick building, whose Italian Renaissance details include a copper cornice with modillions, varied window treatments on each floor, belt courses of brickwork between some of the floors, and a front entry surround with fluted Doric columns. Built in 1898, it was one of the first "French flat" luxury apartment houses built in the city. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
The Dunvegan's vestibules, front hall, and stairway are finished in Siena marble, mahogany, and mosaic floors. Each of its twelve suites originally consisted of ten rooms and a bath, as follows: parlor, reception room, library, dining room, four bedrooms, kitchen and servant's room, bathroom, servant's water closet, and butler's pantry. The building also contained twelve bachelor suites of two rooms and a bath apiece.
Siena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated, although there are exceptions. In geology, the term "marble" refers to metamorphosed limestone, but its use in stonemasonry more broadly encompasses unmetamorphosed limestone. Marble is commonly used for sculpture and as a building material.
Mahogany is a kind of wood—the straight-grained, reddish-brown timber of three tropical hardwood species of the genus Swietenia, indigenous to the Americas and part of the pantropical chinaberry family, Meliaceae.
When constructed, the building was wired for doorbells and electric lights, and piped for gas and hot and cold running water. Heating was provided by low-pressure steam.
In the 1930s the buildings were reworked into one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments. The buildings are now served by Best Choice Apartments Shortill Realty. The firm is located on the first floor of the Montrose Building. The buildings have been well cared for and many original details remain.
