Frank Pierce Carpenter House, Manchester City, Hillsborough County, Manchester, NH, 03104

Frank Pierce Carpenter House

Manchester City, Hillsborough County, NH

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  • Post Office: Manchester
  • Zip Code: 03104

The Frank Pierce Carpenter House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. Portions of the content on this web page were adapted from a copy of the original nomination document. [‡]

Description

The Frank Pierce Carpenter House property, 1800 Elm Street, occupies a 63,700-square foot lot at the northwest corner of Elm and West North Streets in the North End of Manchester, New Hampshire. Situated on the lot are two contributing and one non-contributing buildings. The main building, the Frank Pierce Carpenter House, is set on a graded rise and fronts onto Elm Street. It is a large 2-1/2-story, Queen Anne style house of a modified square plan, with a corner turret, a corner angular bay, a broad rear extension, and three porches. The first story walls are constructed of sandstone; second story walls are finished with stucco and half-timbering. The roof is covered with slate, and the foundation is built of granite. The two primary porches have hipped roofs and wooden columns that rest on a sandstone parapet wall. Both the exterior and interior of the house are richly detailed with carved ornament and stained glass windows. The interior is further embellished with ornate mantelpieces and paneled walls executed in a variety of woods and decorative plaster ceilings. The Frank Pierce Carpenter House is in excellent condition and has had very few alterations since its construction in 1891. Directly behind the main house is a carriage house,. The carriage house is a 1-1/2-story building of "T" plan covered with wood shingles and, in the gable fields, stucco and half-timbering. Though built in two sections (1891 and 1910), its overall appearance is of a uniform design. The third (and non-contributing) building on the property is a small, one-story brick garage of square plan that stands at the northwest corner of the lot. Built around 1910, it has a hip roof and fronts onto Chandler Street. The North End of Manchester is an area of late nineteenth and early twentieth century residences of comparable scale to the Frank Pierce Carpenter House. Though, like this house, most have been converted to office use, the overall residential scale and character of the area has been maintained. The Frank P. Carpenter property retains integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling and association.

Frank Pierce Carpenter House

The Frank Pierce Carpenter House is a 2-1/2-story building of a modified square plan. The interior of the main block is arranged around a wide, central hall. A three-story turret is located at the southeast corner and a projecting, angular 2-1/2-story gabled bay at the southwest corner. Attached to the rear of the main block is a broad, 2-1/2-story, hipped roof rectangular extension that contains secondary spaces, including kitchen, pantries, and maids' rooms. The entire building rests on a granite block foundation and terminates in a steep, half-hipped roof that is covered with slates and copper ridge capping. Dormers pierce the east and south roof faces. The roof cornice is boxed and trimmed with modillions. Three brick chimneys rise from the roof. The two on the south face are identical: located near the eaves, they have two narrow, vertical panels in each face and terminate in two-stepped heads covered with sheet metal. The chimneys were rebuilt sometime after 1946, at which time they were reduced in height, removing the corbeling, crenelations and capstone. The third chimney, which is broader than the other two and rises from the ridge of the rear extension, remains its original height.

The first-story walls and the entire turret are clad with rough-faced, irregularly coursed, rectangular sandstone blocks of varying size with beaded, reddish mortar joints. Window and door openings in these areas have sandstone lintels and quoins with rounded, dressed inner edges; the sills are dressed sandstone blocks. The second story is rough, unpainted stucco with decorative half timbering. Windows on the upper floors have flat side casings and molded caps and sills. The building is richly ornamented with masks, fleur-de-lis and other foliate ornament executed in wood and sandstone. Porches are found on the east and west elevations, and a porte-cochere on the north.

East elevation (facade)

The focal point of the facade is a one-story, hip roof porch that extends across two bays, including that which contains the front entrance. The porch has a parapet wall of sandstone that matches that elsewhere on the building, and groups of two or three fluted Doric columns that rest on sandstone bases. The columns are replacements, installed in the early 1970s; historic photographs indicate that the originals matched those on the porte-cochere. The balustrade consists of a molded handrail and flared balusters with turned tops. The columns support a broad frieze that has scroll and fleur-de-lis carved panels. The roof of the porch is covered with slate and has copper ridge capping. The floor, once tiled, is now concrete. Access to the porch is by a short flight of granite steps edged with a curved parapet wall.

Facing out onto the porch is a pair of small windows with single lights and transoms. The main entrance, located roughly in the center of the facade, has an unpainted oak door with two broad, raised, vertical panels and a double row of bull's eye glass panels above. The northernmost facade bay has a tripartite window with single-light, double-hung sash.

The second story, also loosely divided into three bays, has a pair of small, square window openings with a large, central diamond pane at the south end, a tripartite window with single-light, double-hung sash and transoms separated by molded mullions in the center bay. The northern bay has a single window with single-light, double-hung sash.

The two dormers have gabled roofs covered with slate, carved wooden gable fields that feature a mask, stucco side walls, egg-and-dart cornice molding, and single-light, double-hung sash.

Anchoring the southeast corner of the Frank Pierce Carpenter House is a three-story turret that culminates in a conical roof covered with slate and capped with a copper finial. The lower two stories are of sandstone block. First floor windows, which rest on a sandstone string course, have single lights and transoms of stained glass. Second floor windows have single-light, double-hung sash. The third story is set off by a wider sandstone string course, above which is a broad band of carved foliate ornament executed in sandstone. Sitting on it is a continuous band of windows with double-hung, diamond pane sash.

South elevation

The south elevation is divided into three bays; the outer two break the eaveline. The westernmost bay has an angular bay window on the first story that is capped with a flat roof edged with a crenelated sandstone parapet. Windows match those on the first story of the turret, but the stained glass transoms have a perimeter of small, square panes filled with colored glass. A three-sided bay window with single-light double-hung sash and clear transoms projects from the second story. Above it is an overhanging roof gable filled with a stucco and half-timbered field and a peaked panel of wood carved with foliate ornament and shields. The gable is supported by fluted brackets that have carved wooden masks at the top.

A recessed, arched niche dominates the first story of the central bay. Within it is a single-light window with a stained glass transom and a carved hoodmold of sandstone. A crenelated sandstone band separates the first and second stories. The second story has one, centrally-positioned single-light, double-hung window.

Above this window is a roof dormer with a distinctive bell-shaped, overhanging slate roof with curved wooden gable trim pieces, slate side walls, and a window with double-hung, diamond pane sash.

The eastern bay is the already-described turret.

West (rear) elevation

Roughly divided into five bays, most of the west elevation is a projecting 2-1/2-story kitchen extension. A one-story, shed roof porch extends from the north end, sheltering the kitchen entrance. The porch has a slate roof, a beaded board ceiling, square posts, and a simple balustrade consisting of a beaded handrail and square balusters. The tongue-and-groove wooden decking appears to have been replaced at some point, and plywood sheets have been laid over the original latticework. A flight of partially dressed granite steps accesses the porch. The kitchen door is unpainted oak with five recessed panels and a square light above. Above the porch on the second story is a single-light, double-hung window to which a metal awning is attached.

The second bay has a window with single-light, double-hung sash on the first story and no openings on the second. The third bay has a window with single-light, double-hung sash on both the first and second stories. Spanning the second and third bays at the roof is a hip roof dormer with two-light, double-hung windows and stucco/half-timbered walls. The central ridge of the dormer is a direct extension of the ridgeline of the kitchen extension. The fourth bay has no openings. The southern corner of the kitchen extension is defined by a one-story, sandstone buttress. Around the corner, the south-facing portion of the kitchen extension has two small windows with single-light, double-hung sash on the first story, and a pair of windows with single-light, double-hung sash on the second.

The fifth, or southernmost bay of the west elevation is part of the main block of the house. On the first story there is a wide, single-light window; above it is a window with single-light, double-hung sash.

North elevation

The north elevation is divided into two sections. The front portion is the gable end of the main block, and its most prominent feature is a hip roof porte-cochere that projects to the north. Its design is similar to that of the front porch, but its frieze lacks ornamentation, and the columns, original to the building, are Tuscan. The roof is covered with slate and copper ridge capping. Curved granite bollards mark the driveway entrances to the porte-cochere, and granite steps lead to the side entrance of the house. That entrance door has two vertical panels and a square light above.

The first story of the main block has a single-light, double-hung window. Tucked beneath the porte-cochere is a smaller single-light, double-hung window just east of the side entrance. The second-story windows are similar to those on the first, though over the porte-cochere there is a large, tripartite stairwell window; both the double-hung sash in the lower portion and the double row of transoms above are filled with stained glass. The stucco and half-timbered gable field contains two pairs of single-light, double-hung windows that share a peaked cornice cap. A plain vergeboard trims the raking eaves.

The rear portion of the north elevation has two small windows with single-light, double-hung sash on the first story, and one small and one larger window, also with single-light, double-hung sash on the second. Affixed to the roof juncture between the gable end and rear extension is a metal snow and ice guardrail.

Post-1938 alterations to the Frank Pierce Carpenter House are summarized as follows: replacement columns and flooring on the front porch; partially dismantled chimneys on the south elevation; plywood over the latticework on the kitchen porch; and aluminum storm sash.

Interior

The interior of the Frank Pierce Carpenter House includes two floors of finished space, a third floor that is largely finished, but includes some under-the-eaves storage, and a full cellar with both unfinished and finished space. The house has undergone virtually no alterations since Frank Carpenter died in 1938.

The first floor contains three large rooms and a staircase arranged around a wide central hall that extends the length of the main block. Each of the rooms is finished in a different wood, including maple, mahogany and quarter-sawn oak. Interior finish includes ornate, carved mantelpieces with faces and hearths of imported marble in each room, as well as a massive fireplace that is the focal point of the front hall. Placed within a raised alcove and set off with carved oak columns and railing, it has a highly ornamental mantelpiece with carved panels that contain coats of arms, flanking built-in benches, and a half-barrel vaulted ceiling. Other interior finish of particular note includes a paneled wainscot in the front hall, dining room, and side hall; a built-in buffet in the dining room; library bookcases, the carved main staircase that is lit at its landing by a large, tripartite stained glass window; and elaborately treated ceilings, either coffered or with applied classical motifs executed in plaster. With the exception of the drawing room, none of the woodwork has been painted.

The second floor of the house, also largely intact, is more simply finished than the first floor, although the two primary connecting bedrooms that comprise the entire south side of the main block have ornamental ceilings and highly decorative mantelpieces made of cherry. One of the other two family bedrooms is finished in cherry; the other has painted woodwork. The third floor billiard room has beaded board wainscotting and plaster ornament on the ceiling.

Service areas in the house are mostly unaltered, including pantries, maids' rooms, bathrooms and closets.

Several pieces of Carpenter family furniture that appear to have been designed for the house remain, including tables, chairs, and fireplace andirons.

Carriage House

Located behind the Frank Pierce Carpenter House, the carriage house is reached either by an asphalt drive that continues from the porte-cochere of the main house to the front of the carriage house before curving southerly toward West North Street, or by a short drive off of Chandler Street that also accesses a paved parking area to the north of the carriage house. It is a wood frame, "T"-plan building that was built in two sections. The southern section, or the "L", was built in 1891 contemporaneously with the Carpenter House. The northern section was added around 1910, but was designed to match the original building, and there is no evident break. The building stands 1-1/2-stories high, with a lower level of granite block that is fully-exposed on the west (rear) and portions of the two side elevations. The half-hip roof is covered with slate and copper ridge capping. A tall brick chimney with a corbeled head rises from near the southeast corner. Walls are covered with wood shingles; two rows of scalloped shingles are found just above the sill. The gable end of the north elevation is finished similarly to the Carpenter House, with a stucco and half-timbered field. Window sash on the building is varied, but all openings have molded frames.

East elevation (facade)

Organized into four bays, the first story has an angular corner bay at the south end with three fifteen-light windows that have molded frames and a shared sill. The central two bays are recessed on the first story. The southernmost of the two has a vehicular opening on the first story with a fairly recent wood paneled overhead door. Above it is a pedimented dormer that contains double hay doors. The northern of the two central bays has an oval window on the first story and a roof gable with a stucco and half-timbered field. The overhanging roofline of the central two bays was originally supported by squat columns on high, square bases and capped with bracketed heads; they were removed sometime after 1949, based on photographic evidence. The northern bay, which was added around 1910, also has a vehicular opening, now partially filled in with vertical plywood panels into which a door opening has been cut. The original rolling doors, with panels similar to the hay doors, still hang on the interior.

South elevation

Three windows with six-light, double-hung sash light the first story. At the east end there is an entrance with a door of six, raised panels reached by a flight of wooden stairs set on iron posts. The pedimented gable end has a stucco and half-timbered field with a tripartite window made of nine-light sash and capped with a dentil cornice.

West (rear) elevation

Fully exposed at the lower level, the rear elevation has a pair of windows with six-light, double-hung sash in both the southernmost and northern portions of the first story wall. On the west face of the "T", there are four horse stall windows with fixed, single lights and heavily molded casings. Beneath them is a vehicular opening with a wooden overhead door. The south face of the "T" has an elevated entrance (not accessible by steps) and a window with single-light, double-hung sash. The north face contains one horse stall window. Tucked into the roof juncture of the "T" and the ca.1910 wing is a hip roof dormer with a slate side wall and two windows with nine-light sash and framed with flat trim boards.

North elevation

The north elevation has a tripartite window with six-light, double-hung sash on the first story. A broad roof gable echoes the gable end of the south elevation, and an identical tripartite window is located within the stucco and half-timbered field.

Post-1938 exterior alterations to the carriage house are limited to the two facade entrances and the removal of the columns from the facade roof overhang.

Interior

The interior of the carriage house has undergone substantial renovations over the past fifty years, reflecting the functional needs of the Red Cross. The walls and ceilings were originally finished in unpainted horizontal beaded board, still exposed on most walls, but the ceilings now have dropped acoustical tiles and new partitions have divided up some previously open spaces. The horse stalls have lost their partition walls, but the end columns and arched spandrels remain.

Garage

The garage was built around 1910, presumably to house an automobile, though the carriage house was also used to shelter an automobile(s).[1] It is a small, one-story, one-by-two bay brick building with a gable roof covered with corrugated metal. Set on grade, the only visible portion of the foundation is a concrete foundation capstone. On the west elevation, which faces onto Chandler Street, there are two metal doors on strap hinges. Each of the side elevations has two metal windows with segmentally-arched heads and granite sills that contain four-light sash with translucent glass. The rear (east) elevation has a single window of like appearance.

Significance

The Frank Pierce Carpenter House, built in 1891, is significant as a highly developed example of the Queen Anne style, a style used for many of the city's more prominent residences in the late nineteenth century. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places significant for Architecture, it is a little-altered example of that style, and it exhibits its characteristic features and details. The first period of significance, 1891, reflects the date of construction for the Carpenter House and the original portion of the carriage house. The second period of significance, circa 1910, reflects the date of construction for the addition to the carriage house. Although the construction date for the third building on the property, the garage, coincides with the second period of significance, the garage lacks significance and therefore is a non-contributing building on the property.

Architecture

The Frank Pierce Carpenter House was designed in the Queen Anne style and continues to convey the characteristics associated with that style. The accompanying carriage house contributes to the significance of the property for its Queen Anne design attributes and its design relationships with the main house. The garage on the property, built around 1910 for Frank Carpenter, is a non-contributing resource because it lacks the necessary Queen Anne characteristics or those of any style or distinctive type to render it contributing to this property.

Built in 1891 during the peak period of the style's popularity, the Frank Pierce Carpenter House is a high-style, architect-designed building that possesses the irregular shape and richly ornamented surfaces typical of the style. Its corner turret and corner angular bay break the massing of the otherwise roughly square main block. Its three porches, particularly the porte-cochere, are also features commonly found on Queen Anne houses. The varied wall surfaces sandstone block, stucco and half-timbering coupled with carved wooden and stone ornament, such as masks and foliate motifs, turned millwork, paneled and corbeled chimneys, multi-paneled doors, stained glass transoms and sash, are details common to the style and prolifically featured on the Carpenter House. The building's alterations, specifically the replaced front porch posts and the partially dismantled chimneys, do not compromise its overall integrity of design.

Although the exterior of the Frank Pierce Carpenter House possesses sufficient architectural significance to convey the style, the interior finishes also express the style by means of decorative woodwork and ceilings, elaborate mantelpieces and a broad, ornate staircase.

Though of lesser architectural significance, the carriage house echoes some of the Queen Anne features exhibited on the main house in its stucco and half-timbered gables, richly ornamented roof dormers, and the variety of window shapes and sizes. Rather than being built of masonry, the carriage house is covered with wood shingles, both plain and decorative. A portion of the facade roofline is cantilevered, another device identified with the style. When the building was enlarged around 1910, the original design was faithfully continued and, except within the attic, there is no evident break between the original and later sections. Despite some alterations to the principal entrances, the carriage house retains sufficient integrity to contribute to the architectural significance of the overall property.

Historical Background

Frank Pierce Carpenter was born on October 28,1845, the youngest of three sons born to David M. and Mary (Perkins) Carpenter of Chichester, New Hampshire. Carpenter's father was a prominent citizen who served in the state legislature and held a variety of town and county offices. His business pursuits included mercantile activities and, later, farming.

Carpenter's family moved to Concord, New Hampshire where Frank Carpenter graduated from high school. In 1864, at the age of nineteen, Carpenter moved to Manchester where he spent the rest of his life. His first employment was as a clerk with the firm of J.S. Kidder and Company, a hay and grain business. After five years, he and a partner started their own wholesale flour and grain business, Drake and Carpenter. After the 1885 dissolution of the partnership, Carpenter purchased the Amoskeag Paper Mill, which remained his primary business pursuit for the rest of his life. He served as its president and treasurer.

In 1872 Carpenter married Elenora Blood, daughter of Aretas and Lavina Kendall Blood of Manchester. Their two children, Aretas Blood, born in 1875 and Mary Elizabeth, born in 1882, were both lifelong residents of Manchester. In 1924, fourteen years after Elenora's death, Carpenter married Elbra (Story) Taggart, widow of well-known attorney David Taggart. She died four years later. On April 13,1938, Frank Carpenter died in his home. A leading citizen of Manchester, Carpenter was active in a large number of organizations, institutions, and industries. He was among the first directors of the Mechanics Savings Bank and for twenty-five years its treasurer. He also served as a director of the Amoskeag National Bank and the Amoskeag Trust Company; of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company; of the Amory Manufacturing Company, an arm of the Manchester Mills; of the New Hampshire Fire Insurance Company; of the Concord and Montreal Railroad; of the United States Cotton and Duck Company; of the Sulphite Fibre Company of Berlin, NH; of the Hanover Fire Insurance Company of New York; and, for nearly twenty-five years, of the Boston and Maine Railroad. Additionally, he was president of the Columbia (S. C.) Water Power Company. Locally, he sat on the Police and the Parks and Playgrounds Commissions.[2]

Carpenter's interests in the arts and sciences were evident in his service as chairman of the board of trustees of the Currier Gallery. He initiated the effort to recognize the childhood home of President Franklin Pierce [Franklin Pierce Homestead] in Hillsborough, which he purchased in 1917, and he served as chairman of the commission which erected Pierce's statue in front of the State House in Concord. The Carpenter Art Gallery at Dartmouth College was created largely through his generosity.[3]

Frank Carpenter is best remembered for his extensive and wide-ranging philanthropy within the City of Manchester: no fewer than nine buildings, all fine works of architecture, were erected in the city as a result of his munificence. His first act as civic benefactor was in 1888 when he donated funds for the construction of the United States Post Office Building at Hanover and Chestnut Streets (later replaced). He was the primary contributor to the Young Men's Christian Association Building, built in 1911. It was followed the next year by his most significant gift, the Carpenter Memorial Library Building, the largest building of its kind in the state. The building was given in the memory of his wife who had died in 1910.[4] In 1924, believing that Manchester needed a larger and more modern hotel than those presently available, he constructed the Carpenter Hotel. Between 1929 and 1931 he gave the land and half the funds for the Young Women's Christian Association Building; was co-donor of the parish house for the Franklin Street Congregational Church; and funded the plans for and construction of the Manchester Historic Association Building. The Boy Scouts' Camp Carpenter was established with his help in 1933. In 1935, in an attempt to diffuse sharp public criticism of the plans for a new post office building, Carpenter offered to donate the funds to hire Edward L. Tilton to design an entirely new building. Despite the irregularity of privately funding a public building, the offer was accepted by the Federal government. Tilton, though from New York City, was well-known in Manchester as the architect for the Currier Gallery of Art, and for at least two of Carpenter's other gifts, the library and historic association buildings. Because of Carpenter's largess, Manchester has a group of handsome, classically-inspired granite buildings that front onto Victory Park in the heart of the city [Victory Park Historic District]. Though all of these buildings are still standing, it is Carpenter's residence that best represents the man. It was designed for his personal use and inhabited by him for forty-seven years. His gifts, important buildings in their own right, were designed with the applicable organization or use in mind, and their historic associations are thus directed.[5]

Frank Pierce Carpenter's house stood in the North End of Manchester, a residential area developed in the late nineteenth century with large, handsome and stylish houses erected by Manchester's manufacturing and business leaders. Several of the neighboring houses were built by relatives of Carpenter.[6] In 1887 Carpenter purchased the first of several contiguous lots he assembled over a twenty-five year period. Four years later he purchased the lot directly behind it and began constructing the house and carriage house on the combined three-quarter acre parcel.[7]

The probable architect for the house and carriage house was Edgar Allen Poe Newcomb (1846-1924).[8]

In 1906 Carpenter purchased the former home of S.R. Tewksbury immediately to the north of his own and, in 1910, the lot behind it, effectively doubling his property.[10] The expanded lot enabled him to enlarge his carriage house and to construct a small brick garage at the northwest corner for an automobile. The Tewksbury House was razed, and the grounds relandscaped. Carpenter also bought tracts to the west in the early 1900s. On the lot just across Chandler Street from his carriage house, he erected a bowling alley around 1904. The scene of many parties, the bowling alley also housed a private kindergarten, the first Montessori school in New Hampshire. West of the bowling alley, on what is now West North Court, was a large garden.[11]

Following Carpenter's death in 1938 the land on the west side of Chandler Street was gradually sold. The bowling alley was converted to a residence in 1941, and the land west of it was developed into houses between 1952 and 1954.

The Frank Pierce Carpenter House and its accompanying lot on which stood the carriage house and garage passed to Carpenter's granddaughter, Priscilla Manning Sullivan, but was never again occupied as a residence. In 1942 the house was offered to the Manchester Chapter of the American Red Cross to serve as their headquarters during World War II. The Red Cross had actually been in the premises since late 1941 and, though the initial understanding was that this arrangement would be short term, it never left.[12] In 1952 the Blood Center opened in the carriage house; since that time, the Red Cross has moved its training programs into the building, and the lower level houses some of its emergency vehicles.

In 1993 the house, carriage house and garage were formally transferred from Carpenter's heir, Priscilla Sullivan, to the American National Red Cross with an historic preservation easement on the property that is administered by the Manchester Historic Association.

Endnotes

[1] At Carpenter's death, he owned two automobiles. His family at that time referred to the Carriage House as a "stable and garage combined," suggesting at least one automobile was stored there.

[2] The Leader, 4/14/1938, New York Times, 4/14/1938 (obituaries from Sullivan family files).

[3] George Waldo Browne, The History of Hillsborough, New Hampshire, 1735-1921. Manchester, NH, 1921, Vol.I, pp.401-03. Undated/unreferenced article on Carpenter written shortly after his death in April 1938 (from Sullivan family files).

[4] New Hampshire Notables, 1919, p.93.

[5] Manchester Historic Association files. Elizabeth Durfee Hengen, "The Manchester Post Office Building" (unpublished historical sketch prepared in 1986). Frank Carpenter obituaries.

[6] Carpenter's daughter Mary married Charles Manning whose family lived next-door at 1838 Elm Street. (Manning's father, Charles H., was the superintendent of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company.) The house at the north end of the block, 1880 Elm Street, was built in 1889 for Mrs. Frank Gerrish, Carpenter's niece, upon her marriage. It was later the home of Patrick Sullivan, whose son married Carpenter's granddaughter Priscilla Manning.

[7] A short news article in the Mirror and American written on April 24,1891 stated that "there are quite a number of important building enterprises on hand that will be completed the present year. The elegant residence of Mr. Frank Pierce Carpenter and the new St. George's Church are among this number."

[8] In the absence of more formal documentation, this attribution is not definitive. Newcomb, however, was the architect for the house built in 1907 for the Carpenters' daughter and son-in-law Mary and Charles Manning. Newcomb was also the assisting architect for the Carpenter Memorial Library, another family gift. Possibly because Newcomb had by then moved to Honolulu, Hawaii, Carpenter employed Edward L. Titton of New York City as the lead architect for the library. Elizabeth Lessard, Librarian at the Manchester Historic Association, recalls Carpenter's granddaughter, Priscilla Manning Sullivan, crediting Newcomb with the design of Frank Carpenter's house. It is as yet unknown what initially brought Carpenter and Newcomb together.

[9] It is unclear which buildings at Harvard Newcomb might have designed. Bainbridge Bunting's recent (1985) book Harvard, An Architectural History makes no mention of Newcomb. Though Newcomb has been cited as the architect for Felton Hall, a private dormitory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Peabody and Stearns are also credited for that building. The dedication program for the Carpenter Library mentions Newcomb as the "assisting architect" and Tilton as the lead architect. What his actual role was is unclear, but his residency in Hawaii must have limited his presence during the lengthy construction period of the building.

[10] Book 639/473; 706/92.

[11] Interview with Patricia Sullivan Myers.

[12] Information extracted from Tax Court Proceedings, Priscilla Sullivan vs. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 11/8/1949.

References

Amoskeag Manufacturing Company Plot Plans. In collection of Manchester Historic Association.

Artwork of Manchester. Chicago: The WH Parish Publishing Co., 1892.

Atlas of Manchester, NH. Published by D.L. Miller & Co., Philadelphia, 1896.

Genealogical and Family History of the State of New Hampshire. Edited by Ezra S. Stearns. New York: Lewis Publishing Co., 1908, Vol. 2.

Hillsborough County Registry of Deeds.

The Leader, 4/14/1938.

Manchester Historic Association photograph collection and files.

New Hampshire Notables, 1919.

The New York Times, 4/14/1938.

Sanborn Insurance Maps, 1915, 1929, 1952, 1954.

Town and County Atlas of the State of New Hampshire. Compiled by D.H. Hurd & Co., Boston., 1892.

Interviews: Patricia Sullivan Myers, Washington DC, June 1993 (great granddaughter of Frank Pierce Carpenter).

‡ Elizabeth Drufree Hengen, consultant, American Red Cross, Frank Pierce Carpenter House, Manchester, NH, nomination document, 1993, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, Washington, D.C.

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Street Names
Elm Street


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