The home of famed architect Henry Hobson Richardson at 25 Cottage Street in Brookline is under threat of demolition. In November, Jeff Birnbaum of Pioneer Construction acquired this property and two abutting historic properties, 39 Cottage Street and 222 Warren Street. He filed for demolition of the properties, and the threat of losing such significant historical landmarks has lit a fire under national preservation groups and the Brookline community.
The three properties come from dramatically different architectural eras and histories, but all of them all contribute to Brookline’s historical landscape. H.H. Richardson’s signature is all over Greater Boston. He’s the architect behind Trinity Church in Copley Square, Sever Hall at Harvard University, and First Baptist Church on Boylston Street. The unique Romanesque style of his work has been dubbed “Richardsonian Romanesque” in his honor. The home at 25 Cottage Street in Brookline is where the architect spent his final years. It’s also an unusual West Indian style of house uncommon in New England, perhaps appealing to Richardson because of his southern roots.
It’s estimated that the home at 222 Warren Street was built in the mid-1800s; John Charles Olmsted, the adopted son of famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, occupied it from the late 1800s onward. Olmsted carried on his father’s legacy in Brookline and specifically chose the home at 222 Warren because of its proximity to Frederick Law Olmsted’s home and to Richardson’s home and studio. In fact, it was Richardson who originally suggested that Frederick Law Olmsted move to Brookline.
The neighboring 39 Cottage Street is an early example of a pre-fabricated home. It was designed by Deck House Inc. and constructed in 1971 by builder Peter Morton for Dr. Frederic Hoppin and Caroline Hoppin. Deck House drew its minimalistic, contemporary inspiration from the Bauhaus architectural tradition. The open, flexible living space would usher the way into current open-concept housing styles. The Hoppins were friendly with the Richardson descendants, a more contemporary piece of the intricate network of architectural history intertwining the three properties.
On December 29, at a public hearing held by the Brookline Preservation Committee, the homes were declared historically significant due to these and other factors. An 18-month demolition delay was passed on the properties. This buys the committee and the community some time, but the historic homes aren’t out of the woods yet.
“From here, we contact the applicant to see if they have plans, if they want to submit them and if they want to engage in the design review process,” says Tina McCarthy, the preservation planner for the Town of Brookline who’s handling the case. “The preservation commission would not like these buildings to be demolished. Adaptive reuse is always a possibility, and that can take a lot of forms.” To maintain impartiality, the Commission was not informed of Birnbaum’s plans for building on the three sites before the public hearing. It’s possible that a compromise could be found depending on Birnbaum’s proposals for the properties.
This isn’t the first time 25 Cottage Street has been in jeopardy. In fact, the property has a dramatic and sordid history worthy of a box office thriller. The home was owned by the Richardson family until 1999 when it was purchased by the owners of abutting properties 39 Cottage Street, owned at the time by Fred and Caroline Hoppin, and 225 Warren Street, owned by Mordechai Levin. The original goal was to find a buyer for the property that would keep preservation a top priority. Levin, however, refused to sign a preservation restriction for the property. The Hoppins bought out Levin and sold the property in 2007 to a preservation-minded buyer.
Then, the financial crash of 2008 hit. Michael Minkoff, who had purchased the property from the Hoppins intending to preserve it, abruptly sold it off the market to none other than Mordechai Levin. In 2013, Levin dissolved the preservation restriction on 25 Cottage Street, unbeknownst to the Brookline Preservation Committee. Neither the Town of Brookline nor the Hoppins, creators of the restriction, were notified of this change. From there, Levin sold the property to Birnbaum.
The bad news is that Birnbaum has applied to demolish all three buildings. The good news is that Levin no longer has control over the buildings, which means the Preservation Commission will be dealing with Birnbaum, a new contact who may be more open to the idea of preservation.
“This developer has contacted our office, we have spoken with him, he gave us tours of the site,” says McCarthy. “He has been cooperative so far, and he’s expressed interest in working with us, which is good. We don’t know what form that’s going to take, but at this point, all options are on the table.”
The Brookline community isn’t going to take this historical demolition lying down. The situation has provoked a national outcry not only from preservation organizations but also from town citizens. McCarthy says she received over 350 e-mails in the span of two weeks about the demolition.
Juliet Richardson, the great-granddaughter of H.H. Richardson, wrote in an e-mail to McCarthy, “It is with much sorrow that I learned of the hearing to delay possible demolition of my family home at 25 Cottage Street…When I was a child, I used to play in what were some of the old drafting studios still extant on the property…It would be a wonderful gift to see 25 Cottage Street remain standing.” Juliet Richardson is an architect; she estimates she’s the twelfth architect in the family to have followed in her great-grandfather’s footsteps, due perhaps in part to exposure to the architecture and history of the 25 Cottage Street home.
The letters of support have been crucial and empowering, but there is more work for the Brookline community to do. “[Creating] a local historic district would prevent demolition permanently. And short of purchasing these properties and raising millions of dollars, that’s the only way to do it,” says McCarthy.
Creating a local historic district required the approval of town meeting members. McCarthy encourages Brookliners to reach out to their town meeting members in favor of this solution. Meanwhile, time may be on H.H. Richardson’s side. McCarthy says, “Most times, it’s the length of the delay that saves [homes]. Eighteen months is a long time, and people’s plans change.”
