Haverhill House typifies late 19th Century design
Something happens about the time a house reaches its 80th birthday: it becomes an antique.
People start to appreciate the way of life it represents and the workmanship they might have ignored before.
This house, built on Lexington Avenue, in the Bradford section of Haverhill, in the winter of 1899-1900, was one of four frame houses built as rental property. Even though the builder did not intend to live there, he built a gracious house. From its curved roof and hipped dormer with diamond panes, to its bay window overlooking the porch and its roof railing, it is handsome.
Ten years ago, this house did not have a name. Now we have begun to describe it as a "four square". It describes the house well, a box that feels square and upright with a hip roof sloping back from all four sides like a pyramid. This is a city house with a front porch to sit on and watch the neighborhood, with no wings or sheds that a farm would need.
Lots of these houses were built in the Merrimack Valley. They are so plentiful in Haverhill that locally they are called the 'Haverhill House'. In the Valley, four squares are most often finished as this one is, with Colonial Revival details: clapboard with corner boards and a frieze moulding at the eaves, double-hung windows with working shutters, Doric columns with simple capitals.
Other parts of the United States decorated their four squares with less sense of tradition, using Victorian, Arts and Crafts and Bungalow details.
Note: I wrote this in honor of my uncle, Erwin N. Griswold's 80th birthday. Among other things, he had been a trustee of Bradford College and knew the town well.
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