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Redtop (Belmont, Massachusetts)
Encyclopedia
Redtop, also spelled Red Top, is an historic house located at 90 Somerset Street, Belmont, Massachusetts
. It was once the home of William Dean Howells
and family, and is now a National Historic Landmark
.
The house was initially designed by William Rutherford Mead
of the noted architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White
, and brother of Mrs. (Elinor Mead) Howells, while the Howells family lived nearby at their recently completed home on Concord Avenue in Cambridge
. The new house Redtop was in fact owned by Charles Fairchild
(1838–1910), Boston
financier, who then rented it to the Howellses, but it was designed from the start for the Howellses' taste, with McKim becoming more and more involved. Construction began in 1877 and the Howellses lived in the house from 1878 to 1882.
Nearly every important American author of the time visited Redtop. To judge from published letters, Mark Twain
visited Redtop eight times, and novelist Henry James
wrote praising the house as a "fairy abode of light and beauty" on its "cheerful, breezy hill . . . I never saw a house that took my fancy more captive at once by its tone of colour--as soon as I had entered the door; and every subsequent impression deepened the effect. All the details struck me as purely lovely, and when I looked from within outwards and over that incomparable landscape . . . I said to myself, 'Well, good fortune can no further go. Let silence muse the amount of it!'"
The house sits on a large lot high atop Belmont Hill, looking out over Cambridge and Boston. It is built of brick and shingles in the Queen Anne style, with a large, sloping roof dominating the house as seen from the road beneath. The roof, once red, gave the house its nickname; but it is now gray. The shingles were later covered by a coat of stucco.
Mead's architectural designs for Redtop are preserved in the Amherst College
Archives.
Belmont, Massachusetts
Belmont is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. The population was 24,729 at the 2010 census.- History :Belmont was founded on March 18, 1859 by former citizens of, and land from the bordering towns of Watertown, to the south; Waltham, to the west; and Arlington, then...
. It was once the home of William Dean Howells
William Dean Howells
William Dean Howells was an American realist author and literary critic. Nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters", he was particularly known for his tenure as editor of the Atlantic Monthly as well as his own writings, including the Christmas story "Christmas Every Day" and the novel The Rise of...
and family, and is now a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
.
The house was initially designed by William Rutherford Mead
William Rutherford Mead
William Rutherford Mead was an American architect, and was the "Center of the Office" of McKim, Mead, and White, a noted Gilded Age architectural firm. The firm's other two founding partners were Charles Follen McKim , and Stanford White .-Life and career:Mead was born in Brattleboro, Vermont...
of the noted architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White
McKim, Mead, and White
McKim, Mead & White was a prominent American architectural firm at the turn of the twentieth century and in the history of American architecture. The firm's founding partners were Charles Follen McKim , William Rutherford Mead and Stanford White...
, and brother of Mrs. (Elinor Mead) Howells, while the Howells family lived nearby at their recently completed home on Concord Avenue in Cambridge
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
. The new house Redtop was in fact owned by Charles Fairchild
Charles Fairchild
Charles Grandison Fairchild was an American educator.Fairchild was born in Birmingham, Michigan, the son of Edward Henry Fairchild.After serving in the Union cavalry during the Civil War, Fairchild graduated from Oberlin College...
(1838–1910), Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
financier, who then rented it to the Howellses, but it was designed from the start for the Howellses' taste, with McKim becoming more and more involved. Construction began in 1877 and the Howellses lived in the house from 1878 to 1882.
Nearly every important American author of the time visited Redtop. To judge from published letters, Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
visited Redtop eight times, and novelist Henry James
Henry James
Henry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....
wrote praising the house as a "fairy abode of light and beauty" on its "cheerful, breezy hill . . . I never saw a house that took my fancy more captive at once by its tone of colour--as soon as I had entered the door; and every subsequent impression deepened the effect. All the details struck me as purely lovely, and when I looked from within outwards and over that incomparable landscape . . . I said to myself, 'Well, good fortune can no further go. Let silence muse the amount of it!'"
The house sits on a large lot high atop Belmont Hill, looking out over Cambridge and Boston. It is built of brick and shingles in the Queen Anne style, with a large, sloping roof dominating the house as seen from the road beneath. The roof, once red, gave the house its nickname; but it is now gray. The shingles were later covered by a coat of stucco.
Mead's architectural designs for Redtop are preserved in the Amherst College
Amherst College
Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...
Archives.