Eustis Estate, Milton, Massachusetts |
William Ralph Emerson (1833 – 1917) was an American
architect best known for his Shingle Style homes and buildings. He lived in Massachusetts and was a friend
and colleague of many important figures of this time period, including
Frederick Law Olmsted, William Morris Hunt, and Carl Fehmer. He was a cousin to
Ralph Waldo Emerson, and a distant cousin to me. I’ll outline his genealogy below.
Emerson came from along line of ministers and Harvard
educated men. He never attended college
but trained himself and worked alongside other architects in Boston. First, he partnered with Jonathan Preston,
and later Carl Fehmer, before starting his own architecture firm. Only half of the buildings he ever built are
still standing, but they are considered very important examples of classic Queen
Anne Victorian architecture, and the Shingle Style which he developed in the
1880s. He also worked with Olmstead to
design the first buildings for the National Zoo in Washington, DC.
The wealthy newlyweds William Ellery Channing Eustis
and Edith Hemenway, with their twin sons, inherited land in 1876 from Edith’s
mother to build a family home. They
hired the young architect William Ralph Emerson to design the house and
estate. He designed the house to serve
the hobbies of the Eustis family, including a laboratory and photo studio for William, and day
and night nurseries for the twin boys. Several generations of the Eustis family
resided here.
The day nursery fireplace featured tiles with nursery rhymes |
Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie There was a little man and he had a little gun Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet |
Mistress Mary quite contrary Hickory Dickory Dock the mouse ran up the clock V for the victuals including the drink |
In 2012 the Eustis family sold their estate in Milton,
Massachusetts to Historic New England, previously known as the Society for the
Preservation of New England Antiquities.
The house was able to be renovated back to most of its original state
due to the enormous amount of William Ralph Emerson paperwork and plans found. The building was opened to the public in 2017
and is the only Emerson house open to the public. There are over 100 acres of
land adjacent to the Blue Hills Reservation (conservation land), with fields,
gardens and four buildings including a lovely gatehouse on the main road.
We visited the Eustis Estate in July and had a
wonderful time. The estate is open to
both guided and self-guided tours. In
each room there are mobile devices (tablets) with links explaining what you are
seeing, and background information including many of Emerson’s plans and
blueprints. You can also access these
pages at home via the Historic New England website. I studied these plans and
webpages many times both during the tour and later at home. The self-guided tour was fun, and we took
advantage of a lift for the disabled up to the second floor. The furniture is not off limits, so take a
seat and try out the comfortable furnishings. There were docents conveniently
placed around the house to answer questions.
Since I'm a mother, I decided to try out Mrs. Emerson's chair she used to read stories to her twin sons. |
Above the middle chair are carved the words "Once Upon a Time". Each of the side chairs has a son's initials. |
The estate can be rented for functions and weddings,
so check the calendar on the website or call ahead to make sure that it is open
for tours.
We made ourselves comfortable on the front porch and enjoyed the view of the estate |
Some of William Ralph Emerson’s most famous homes:
1876 The Eustis Estate, Milton, Massachusetts for William
Ellery Channing Eustis
1881 The Boston Art Club, Boston, Massachusetts
1887 St. Jude’s Episcopal Church, Seal Harbor, Maine
1887 St. Margaret’s Roman Catholic Church, Beverly,
Massachusetts
1896 Felsted, Deer Isle, Maine for Frederick Law
Olmsted
The Emerson Genealogy down to William Ralph Emerson:
Generation 1:
Thomas Emerson, born 26 July 1584 in Sedgefield Parish, Durham, England,
died 1 May 1666 in Ipswich, Massachusetts; married on 1 July 1611 in Bishop’s
Stortford, Hertfordshire, England to Elizabeth Brewster. Ten children.
Generation 2: Joseph Emerson, born about 1620 in
England, died 3 January 1680 in Concord, Massachusetts; married second to
Elizabeth Bulkeley, daughter of Reverend Edward Bulkeley and Lucyann Coy. Seven
children.
Generation 3:
Peter Emerson, born 1673 in Mendon, Massachusetts, died 19 January 1751
in Reading, Massachusetts; married on 11 November 1696 in Reading to Mary
Brown, daughter of John Brown and Anna Fiske. Ten children.
Generation 4: Reverend Daniel Emerson, born 20 May 1716
in Reading, Massachusetts, died 30 September 1801 in Hollis, New Hampshire;
married on 17 October 1744 to his third cousin Hannah Emerson, daughter of
Joseph Emerson and Mary Moody. Thirteen
children.
Generation 5: Samuel Emerson, born 6 September 1764 in
Hollis, New Hampshire, died 7 August 1851 in Kennebunk, Maine; married first on
6 July 1791 to Olive Barrel. Three
children.
Generation 6: William Samuel Emerson, born 12 February
1801 in Kennebunk, Maine, died 28 September 1837 in Alton, Illinois; married on
8 December 1828 to Olive Leighton Bourne.
Generation 7: The
architect William Ralph Emerson, born 11 March 1833 in Alton, Illinois, died 23
November 1917; married first on 24 December 1863 to Catharine M. Mears; married
second on 15 September 1873 to Sylvia Hathaway Watson. He had one child with
each wife. He is buried in Forest Hill
Cemetery in Jamaica Plain in plot 14/1497 on Brook path. There is no memorial stone.
-----------------------------
William Ralph Emerson is my third cousin, five
generations removed. Our common ancestor
is Peter Emerson, born in 1673 in Mendon, Massachusetts (see above in the third
generation). William descends from the
Rev. Daniel Emerson (1716 – 1801), who I have blogged about HERE, and I descend
from Daniel’s brother Brown Emerson (1704 – 1774).
My lineage:
Generation 4: Brown Emerson, born 16 April 1704 in
Reading, died 16 March 1774 in Reading; married on 17 June 1725 in Reading to
Sarah Townsend, daughter of John Townsend and Sarah Boutwell. She was born 25 March 1705 in Lynn,
Massachusetts. Ten children.
Generation 5: John Emerson, baptized 5 April 1739 in
South Reading, Massachusetts, died 14 November 1809 in Hancock, New Hampshire;
married on 20 December 1764 in Reading to Katherine Eaton, daughter of Noah
Eaton and Phebe Lilley. She was born 19
December 1744 in Reading, and died 21 January 1809 in Hancock, New
Hampshire. Eleven Children.
Generation 6: Romanus Emerson, born 1 September 1782
in Townsend, Massachusetts, died 10 October 1852 in South Boston,
Massachusetts; married on 22 November 1810 to Jemima Burnham, daughter of
Joshua Burnham and Jemima Wyman. She was
born 9 May 1783 in Milford, New Hampshire, and died 5 August 1868 in South
Boston. Seven children.
Generation 7: George Emerson, born 11 July 1817 in
South Boston, died 11 January 1890 in Dorchester, Massachusetts; married on 11
August 1845 in Boston to Mary Esther Younger, daughter of Levi Younger and Catherine
Plummer Jones. She was born 17 February
1826 and died 7 January 1913 in Boston.
Eight children.
Generation 8: Mary Katharine Emerson, born 25 December
1847 in South Boston, died 23 April 1932 in Roxbury, Massachusetts; married on
28 October 1869 in Chichester, New Hampshire to George E. Batchelder, son of
George E. Batchelder and Abigail M. Locke.
He was born 8 October 1848 in Chichester, and died 28 July 1914 in
Cambridge, Massachusetts. Nine children.
Generation 9: Carrie
Maude Batchelder m. Joseph Elmer Allen
Generation 10: Stanley Elmer Allen m. Gertrude Matilda
Hitchings (my grandparents)
See these links for more information:
From the Forest Hill Cemetery website:
http://foresthillstrust.blogspot.com/2009/11/father-of-shingle-style-architecture.html
From the Forest Hill Cemetery website:
http://foresthillstrust.blogspot.com/2009/11/father-of-shingle-style-architecture.html
The Historic New England’s website for the Eustis Estate:
A blog post by Barbara Poole on her visit to the Eustis
Estate:
From the Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information
System:
http://mhc-macris.net/Details.aspx?MhcId=MLT.AO (download the inventory sheet PDF and you
can see many photos and a 24 page report on the this property, and also
download the PDF of the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form
for this property, which is very interesting at 67 pages!)
The Felsted House on Deer Isle, Maine and its
connection to many Hollywood films:
Other resources:
The
Architecture of William Ralph Emerson, catalog by
Cynthia Zaitzevsky and the photography by Myron Miller, Fogg Art Museum,
Cambridge, Mass. 1969.
Heather
Ewing, 'The Architecture of the National Zoological Park,' in New Worlds, New Animals: From Menagerie to
Zoological Park in the Nineteenth Century. Johns Hopkins University Press,
1996.
Watch a video by Historic New England about the Eustis
Estate:
----------------------------------------
Heather Wilkinson Rojo, “William Ralph Emerson, Architect”,
Nutfield Genealogy, posted August 12, 2018, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/08/william-ralph-emerson-architect.html: accessed [access date]).
Always happy to find a connection, be it ever to remote. My 3rd great-aunt, Eliza Bassett married Enos Emerson (1803-1862) in Keene, Ohio. Enos went West! His father was Jacob (b. 10 Jun 1774-D. 3 Apr 1839 in Keene, Ohio. Jacob was a brother of Romanus, so you would be related to Enos Emerson through John Emerson (1739-1809), their father. Your whatever cousin was married to my 3rd great aunt. Additionally, I have Bulkeleys in my family line, but at a glance I don't see a connection to your Rev. Edw. or to Elizabeth. Ah, those New England lines--what a tangle! [And Eliza was a descendant of the William Bassett who arrived on the Fortune.]
ReplyDeleteHello cousin Vera Marie! I found Enos Emerson, born 21 April 1803 in Hancock, New Hampshire and died 10 March 1862 in Keene, Ohio. I see he married Elizabeth Bassett on 24 November 1828 in Keene. In my notes I see that Enos and his brothers Brown (b. 1801), and George (b. 1814) all died in Keene, Ohio.
DeleteWilliam Ralph Emerson was active in Boston Back Bay area.
ReplyDelete