Ezra Rice House

The Ezra Rice House is a historic house at 1133 West Boylston Street in Worcester, Massachusetts. It was built sometime between 1833 and 1845, and was a rare local example of transitional Federal and Greek Revival styling. Most of significant exterior details have been obscured or lost due to the application of modern siding. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.[1]

Ezra Rice House
Location1133 W. Boylston St., Worcester, Massachusetts
Coordinates42°20′4″N 71°47′24″W
Arealess than one acre
Builtc. 1833 (1833)
Architectural styleGreek Revival
MPSWorcester MRA
NRHP reference No.80000507[1]
Added to NRHPMarch 05, 1980

Description and history

The Ezra Rice House stands in a residential area in far northern Worcester, at the northwest corner of West Boylston Street and Wilbur Road. It is a 2-1/2 story wood frame structure, with a gabled roof and exterior finished in modern siding. A full-height 2-1/2 story ell extends to the rear, joining the main block to a modern garage. The main facade, facing West Boylston Street, is three bays wide, with the main entrance in the rightmost bay, and windows placed irregularly in the two left bays. The entrance is the only portion of the exterior retaining significant Greek Revival features: it has flanking half-height sidelight windows, and is set in a slight recess flanked by pilasters and topped by a corniced entablature. The entry was virtually identical to that of the Charles Newton House (another period house in the city), and is derived from examples published by Asher Benjamin in 1830.[2]

Due to the house's location remote from the city center, little is known of the property prior to 1851, when Ezra Beamon Rice is recorded as living here. Rice is likely a member of the Beamon family that was historically prominent in the affairs of West Boylston, and is poorly documented in Worcester records.[2]

See also

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  2. "NRHP nomination for Ezra Rice House". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved 2014-04-23.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.