William L. Church House

Last updated
William L. Church House
NewtonMA WilliamLChurchHouse.jpg
USA Massachusetts location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location145 Warren St., Newton, Massachusetts
Coordinates 42°19′47.0″N71°11′18.7″W / 42.329722°N 71.188528°W / 42.329722; -71.188528 Coordinates: 42°19′47.0″N71°11′18.7″W / 42.329722°N 71.188528°W / 42.329722; -71.188528
Built1916
Architectural style Bungalow/Craftsman
MPS Newton MRA
NRHP reference No. 90000112 [1]
Added to NRHPFebruary 21, 1990

The William L. Church House is a historic house at 145 Warren Street in Newton, Massachusetts. The 1+12-story wood-frame house was built in 1916, and is one of Newton's finest Bungalow-style homes. It has a tiled hip roof with wide eaves supported by brackets, and there are projecting window bays. The entrance porch also features large brackets, and its posts are set on brick piers. Some of the windows have colored glass panes in the transoms. The house's owner, William Church, was a hydraulic and mechanical engineer. [2] The house was custom built for his niece, pianist Dai Buell and was known as the "Aloha Bungalow". [3] The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.

Contents

Acoustic design of the Aloha Bungalow

The house was built with a soundproof music studio and a small art gallery. [4] The walls, floors and ceilings were insulated with seaweed for sound acoustics and insulation. It featured a music studio which was "so ingeniously constructed that one can play on the piano and still not be heard in other portions of the house". [5] It was called the "soundless music room" in several articles. The center of the house featured a music room with a sunken floor giving it a height of 27 feet, forming a covered gallery 14 feet above the floor which was used during the weekly musical concerts at the Aloha Bungalow (approx from 1916 until the death of Dai Buell in 1939). [6]

The house was well known in music circles and was featured in advertisements for Steinway Pianos' including in the Boston Symphony Orchestra concert programs, Season 57,1937-1938. The advert stated "Steinway, the instrument of the immortals used exclusively by Dai Buell at Aloha Bungalow in a Schumann Programme March 15 and 16 and in a programme of Bach and some other moderns on April 12 and 13, at Aloha Bungalow."

May Days

Dai Buell famously held annual May Day celebrations at the "Aloha Bungalow" at 145 Warren Street, Newton Centre, which according to a local newspaper [7] she would keep open house and arrange a program of dancing and music lasting well into the evening. The May Day event included "traditional folk dances, and a Maypole dance followed by several musical selections by artists of distinction" [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

Steinway & Sons American piano company

Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway, is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in Manhattan by German piano builder Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg. The company's growth led to the opening of a factory in New York City, United States, and later a factory in Hamburg, Germany. The factory in the Queens borough of New York City supplies the Americas, and the factory in Hamburg supplies the rest of the world.

Terrace Hill Historic house in Iowa, United States

Terrace Hill, also known as Hubbell Mansion, Benjamin F. Allen House or the Iowa Governor's Mansion, is the official residence of the governor of Iowa, United States. Located at 2300 Grand Avenue in Des Moines, it is an example of Second Empire architecture. The home measures 18,000 square feet. It sits on a hill overlooking downtown Des Moines, and has a 90-foot (27 m) tower that offers a commanding view of the city. The building's steeply pitched mansard roof, open verandas, long and narrow and frequently paired windows, and bracketed eaves give this house an irreplaceable design. The house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2003.

Central Square, Cambridge United States historic place

Central Square is an area in Cambridge, Massachusetts centered on the junction of Massachusetts Avenue, Prospect Street and Western Avenue. Lafayette Square, formed by the junction of Massachusetts Avenue, Columbia Street, Sidney Street and Main Street, is also considered a part of the Central Square area. Harvard Square is to the northwest along Massachusetts Avenue, Inman Square is to the north along Prospect Street and Kendall Square is to the east along Main Street. The section of Central Square along Massachusetts Avenue between Clinton Street and Main Street is designated the Central Square Historic District, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.

Massachusetts State House State capitol building of the U.S. state of Massachusetts

The Massachusetts State House, also known as the Massachusetts Statehouse or the New State House, is the state capitol and seat of government for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, located in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston. The building houses the Massachusetts General Court and the offices of the Governor of Massachusetts. The building, designed by architect Charles Bulfinch, was completed in January 1798 at a cost of $133,333, and has repeatedly been enlarged since. It is one of the oldest state capitols in current use. It is considered a masterpiece of Federal architecture and among Bulfinch's finest works, and was designated a National Historic Landmark for its architectural significance.

Auburndale, Massachusetts Village in Massachusetts, United States

Auburndale is one of the thirteen villages within the city of Newton in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It lies at the western end of Newton near the intersection of interstate highways 90 and 95. It is bisected by the Massachusetts Turnpike. Auburndale is surrounded by three other Newton villages as well as the city of Waltham and the Charles River. Auburndale is the home of Williams and Burr elementary schools, as well as Lasell College. Auburndale Square is the location of the Plummer Memorial Library, which is run by the Auburndale Community Library and no longer affiliated with the Newton Free Library, the Turtle Lane Playhouse, and many small businesses.

Allen T. Treadway American politician

Allen Towner Treadway was a Massachusetts Republican politician.

Newtonville, Massachusetts Village in Newton, Massachusetts

Newtonville is one of the thirteen villages within the city of Newton in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States.

James J. Hill House Historic house in Minnesota, United States

The James J. Hill House in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States, was built by railroad magnate James J. Hill. The house, completed in 1891, is near the eastern end of Summit Avenue near the Cathedral of Saint Paul. The house, for its time, was very large and was the "showcase of St. Paul" until James J. Hill's death in 1916. It is listed as a U.S. National Historic Landmark, operated by the Minnesota Historical Society. It is also a contributing property to the Historic Hill District.

Warkentin House Historic house in Kansas, United States

The Warkentin House is a house in Newton, Kansas, United States. The home of Bernhard Warkentin and Wilhelmina Eisenmayer Warkentin, it was built between 1886 and 1887. It is listed on the Kansas Register of Historic Places and National Register of Historic Places as a splendid example of the Victorian period in American architecture and furnishings. The Victorian house offers a glimpse into the way the Warkentins lived, with 80 percent of the original furnishings remaining.

Steinway Hall

Steinway Hall is the name of buildings housing concert halls, showrooms and sales departments for Steinway & Sons pianos. The first Steinway Hall was opened in 1866 in New York City. Today, Steinway Halls and Steinway-Häuser are located in cities such as New York City, London, Berlin, and Vienna.

St. Marys Episcopal Church (Newton Lower Falls, Massachusetts) Historic church in Massachusetts, United States

St. Mary's Episcopal Church and Cemetery is a historic church and cemetery at 258 Concord Street, in the village of Newton Lower Falls, Newton, Massachusetts. St. Mary's Parish was formed in 1811. The church, built in 1813–14 and restyled in 1838, is the oldest church in Newton, and is a fine example of Gothic Revival/Federal style architecture. The cemetery, which dates from 1812, is the oldest non-government-owned cemetery in Newton. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

Carl Baermann

Carl Baermann was a clarinetist and composer from Munich, Germany.

Endicott Estate Historic house in Massachusetts, United States

The Endicott Estate is a mansion built in the early twentieth century, located at 656 East Street in Dedham, Massachusetts “situated on a 15-acre panorama of lush green lawn that is punctuated by stately elm, spruce and weeping willow trees.” It was built by Henry Bradford Endicott, founder of the Endicott Johnson Corporation, and donated to the Town by his adopted stepdaughter, Katherine. After she died it was briefly owned by the state and intended to be used as the official residence of the governor, but was quickly returned to the Town. Today it is used for a variety of civic events and is rented out for private parties.

Staples-Crafts-Wiswall Farm United States historic place

The Deacon John Staples House is a historic house at 1615 Beacon Street in the village of Waban in Newton, Massachusetts.

George F. Meacham American architect

George Frederick Meacham was an architect in the Boston, Massachusetts, area in the 19th century. He is notable for designing Boston's Public Garden, the Massachusetts Bicycle Club, and churches, homes, and monuments in greater Boston and elsewhere in New England.

William G. Preston American architect

William Gibbons Preston was an American architect who practiced during the last third of the nineteenth century and in the first decade of the twentieth. Educated at Harvard University and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris., he was active in Boston, New York, Rhode Island, Ohio, New Brunswick and Savannah, Georgia, where he was brought by George Johnson Baldwin to design the Chatham County courthouse. Preston stayed in Savannah for several years during which time designed the original Desoto Hotel, the Savannah Volunteer Guards Armory and 20 other distinguished public buildings and private homes. He began his professional career working for his father, the builder and architect Jonathan Preston (1801–1888), upon his return to the United States from the École in 1861, and was the sole practitioner in the office from the time his father retired c. 1875 until he took John Kahlmeyer as a partner in about 1885.

Joshua Foster Ober American architect

Joshua Foster Ober (1839-1896), usually known as J. Foster Ober, was an American architect. His work included the design of the Odd Fellows' Hall in Beverly, Massachusetts and an 1881 expansion to the Hotel Vendome in Boston. He died on August 12, 1896.

Dai Buell Musical artist

Dai Buell was an American pianist and teacher. In 1921 she gave the first piano concerts heard by radio audiences and in 1931, gave the first concert on TV.

Antoinette Szumowska

Antoinette Szumowska, originally Antonina Szumowska, later Antoinette Szumowska-Adamowska, was a Polish pianist and piano teacher.

References

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  2. "NRHP nomination for William L. Church House". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved 2014-04-10.
  3. [Homes and Garden 1918: "A bungalow with a real salon.” The home of Miss Dai Buell, Pianist, At Newton Center, Massachusetts, Designed by William L Church Esq".]https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=j1HjFUIVBEwC&hl=en&pg=GBS.RA10-PA41
  4. ["Double Walls of Studio to Make 'Soundless Music Room'"] Boston Post (January 9, 1921): 41. via Newspapers.com Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  5. [Boston Post article (1921, Jan 9th Sunday): "Double walls of studio make soundless music room". ]via Newspapers.com Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  6. [Homes and Garden 1918: "A bungalow with a real salon.” The home of Miss Dai Buell, Pianist, At Newton Center, Massachusetts, Designed by William L Church Esq". ]https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=j1HjFUIVBEwC&hl=en&pg=GBS.RA10-PA41
  7. The Newton Graphic . Vol. LIX— No. 35 .THE NEWTON GRAPHIC (Newton, Mata.) FRIDAY, MAY 1, 1931
  8. The Newton Graphic . VOL. LIII. — NO 34 . NEWTON. MASS.. FRIDAY. MAY 1, 1925 (The Newton Graphic 1931)