A Unique Piece of Architecture on Albion Place

The house at 20 Albion Place is three quarters up the street on a cul de sac. The four enormous columns of this unusual house grace, not the building’s main entrance, but instead support the roof over the house’s side porch. The modest main entrance faces the street. An entrance into the house from the porch is on the side, under a window, non-ostentatious.

The columns are the most dramatic feature. Described as ‘monumental Tuscan columns’ they rise two stories, in support of a ‘heavy projecting entablature’ incorporated into the roof slope. The fluted columns seem to hold up the sloping gable.

It’s the only house like it on Albion Place. According to the Boston Landmarks Commission, 20 Albion Place is the ‘only Charlestown example of a Greek Revival house with a monumental columned side porch.’ (For contrast, see the Swallow Mansion at 33 Cordis St.)

Albion Place -- Albion is the poetic name for Britain -- was most likely laid out in the early 1830’s. The house at number 20 was one of the few on the street built then. Aaron Clark and Enos Varney, both carpenters, bought the lot from George Johnson, a trader, for $466.00, and built the detached house a few decades before row houses began to dominate the town. According to Boston Landmarks Commission, 20 Albion Place offers an ‘unspoiled glimpse of a substantial, detached early Charlestown homestead.’

Varney and Clark apparently lived in the house until 1846, when Clark sold it to Varney for $2,000.00. The house passed subsequently to Lowell Hinds, a Boston leather dealer, who sold the house in 1863 to Elizabeth Crafts, wife of Elias Crafts, Jr. Craft’s apothecary shop at the junction of Warren and Main Street was a well-known Charlestown landmark. (See flickr photo).

• Where is the house? 20 Albion Place

• When was it built? 1840-1842

• Who built it? Aaron Clark and Enos Varney

• What was it built for and who was the first occupant? Clark and Varney were the house’s first residents.

• Why was it built? As one of the first homes on Albion Place, which was originally named Albion Court.

• How was it built? Of wood, in Greek Revival with four fluted Tuscan columns. The house is in an ell-shape, with a dominant main columned porch front.

• What are the future plans for the structure? The house is privately owned and occupied.

Information for this article was compiled from various research materials, including Boston Landmarks Commission; http://www.albionurc.org.uk/albionbanner.htm; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albion; www.epa.gov/region1/npdes/.../noi/.../45FirstAvenue2011NOI.pdf.