Carney left his mark with a magnificent carriage house
Turn onto Osgood Street at the North Common and immediately you will see this carriage house. And its mansion, which surely must be magnificent to deserve such an elaborate out-building? Where is it? Gone, without even a photograph remaining.
The carriage house was built about 1908 by Michael Carney, a successful liquor dealer from Lawrence. He bought the corner, its house and barns and about 60 additional acres when its owner, Josiah Crosby, successful at groceries but unsuccessful at real estate, sold 'Elm Vale' - his name for the property - at auction in 1885.
A carriage house is what its name implies: storage for carriages and tack, stalls for horses, a second floor for hay and living quarters for the horse men, a specialized barn. And what high style has been lavished upon this barn! The long line of the roof and the massive facade are broken by the middle section which sits out over the barn doors. The distinct sections are outlined with elaborate columns and strong returns at the eaves, as well as the horizontal band below the overhang. The Palladian window - named after the Italian, Palladio, who popularized the pattern of one arched window flanked by smaller side lights - would be acceptable in a church with its columns and brackets, its glass patterns. Just as acceptable would be that oval gable vent with its oversized keystones. Even the barn door bracing is ornamental, patterned into overlapping stars.
No wonder the corner was called Carney's Corner, and the carriage house, Carney's Stable.
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