Mary Fisk Stoughton House

The Mary Fiske Stoughton House at 90 Brattle Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a National Historic Landmark and an icon of American architecture. Henry Hobson Richardson designed the house in 1882 in what is now called the Shingle Style, with a minimum of ornament and shingles stretching over the building's irregular volumes like a skin. Soon after its completion, art critic George William Sheldon wrote, "few cottages of equal dimensions wer... More

The Mary Fiske Stoughton House at 90 Brattle Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a National Historic Landmark and an icon of American architecture. Henry Hobson Richardson designed the house in 1882 in what is now called the Shingle Style, with a minimum of ornament and shingles stretching over the building's irregular volumes like a skin. Soon after its completion, art critic George William Sheldon wrote, "few cottages of equal dimensions were ever planned, in this country or abroad, which show better results in point of convenience, spaciousness, and architectural purity." In the 20th century, architectural historian Henry-Russell Hitchcock wrote, "This is one of his [Richardson's] most successful works and is, perhaps, the best suburban wooden house in America. It is comparable only to the finest of Frank Lloyd Wright's." Mrs. Stoughton's son, the philosopher John Fiske, made major alterations in 1900: expanding the kitchen wing westward, and the whole rear of the house...

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