On my real estate web page:
I’ve just started to outline the history of Lexington MA’s significant mid-century homes at the above page. This includes the Moon Hill and Five Fields neighborhoods, both started by The Architects Collaborative, and Peacock Farm, designed and developed by Walter Pierce and Danforth Compton. Techbuilt, Carl Koch, Gropius, and other subjects are covered as well. Includes photos. In the near future, I will link to articles and scans with some history.
http://billjanovitz.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
Your opening notes are spot on. Up until this morning if had seen one of those homes in a north of Boston property listing I would have assumed it to be the sore thumb on the street. Quite a contrast to the reality which would seem to put the neighborhoods on track for a historic district designation.
Mid-century in Mass is like italianate in Palm Springs 🙂 interesting, but maybe out of place…there are a couple mid-century homes here in East Greenwich…first time i saw them i did a double-take…
Bill, didn’t the craftsman movement in the US get its start in Boston? I believe so…
Hi Dan,
Actually, the areas around Boston are one of the main areas that modernism started in America, with Gropius, as I mentioned. There were similar movement at the same time in Los Angeles and then Chicago is very well known as a city planned by such modernists. After Gropius came the people I mentioned, and Acorn and Deck Homes (still are) were both in the Western suburbs of Boston. Techbuilt was founded by Koch. There are tons of these sorts of houses in Lincoln, Concord, Carlisle, Weston, Sudbury, Acton, and more. And there are three or four knock-off neighborhoods in Lexington that are not as significant as the ones I outlined.
As for Craftsman, Wikipedia (below) sums it up pretty well, without getting into the Sears and Roebuck Bungalow kits. Interestingly, Frank Lloyed Wright is a link between these two streams.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Craftsman
interesting segue – as i’m sure you’ve seen, catalog homes (ala sears) are huge as of late, as people are pushing to streamline and green up their lives – ‘cept there are a number of prefab homes now that have gone midcentury:
http://www.rocioromero.com/
http://www.prefabs.com/