Boardinghouse Blues

“A home with a hernia.” – Ken Ellis

Don’t…(1) intrude on the public sidewalk; (2) use dissimilar and cheap materials; (3) paint your accretion bright white; (4) change the fenestration; (5) cast a shadow onyour neighbor.

Both of these 19th-century brick structures, shown above and below, were built as multiple row-house residences in an old mill town in northern Massachusetts. Both were long ago converted into boardinghouses. The city is filled with such buildings—“some have become museums, some offices—and some have fallen victim to commercial expansion, like this one,” says our correspondent.

Maybe the most notable thing about the white shoebox extension is that it survived its own remodeling—as evidenced by the former display window that has been filled in. No, never mind, that’s not actually the first thing we noticed.


Tags: 19th-century brick structures Boardinghouse OHJ May 2016

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