Area less than one acre MPS Somerville MPS Opened 1885 | Built 1885 (1885) NRHP Reference # 89001244 Added to NRHP 18 September 1989 | |
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Location 27 Chester St., Somerville, Massachusetts Architectural styles Queen Anne style architecture, Shingle style architecture Similar Rosebud Diner, Somerville Theatre, Wellfleet Drive‑In Theater, Stone Zoo, Museum of Science | ||
The Clifton Bacon House is a historic house at 27 Chester Street in Somerville, Massachusetts. Built about 1885, it is one of the city's finest examples of high-style Queen Anne Victorian architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
Description and history
The Clifton Bacon House stands in a residential area south of Davis Square, at the northwest corner of Chester and Orchard Streets. It is a 2-1/2 story wood frame structure, with a hip roof and mostly clapboarded exterior. It has complex massing, with a large projecting gable section on the right side of the front facade, and a corner polygonal bay on the left that is capped by a steep conical turret. Beneath the right-side gable is a rounded bay on the second floor, below which is an elaborately decorated front porch. The first floor of the house is clad in clapboards, while the upper floors are clad in shingles, including many bands of fish-scale shingles and otherwise decoratively cut shingles. The chimney is topped by decorative brickwork.
The house was built about 1885, on land platted for development in 1855 by Chester Kingsley. The lot was not sold by Kingsley's estate until this house was built, and was one of the last houses built in the neighborhood. It is one of the most high-style Queen Anne Victorians. Early occupants were the family of Clifton Bacon, a Boston coal dealer.