32 Eliot St
Jamaica Hills, Boston, MA, USA

Ellen Swallow Richards House

The Ellen H. Swallow Richards House is a National Historic Landmark house at 32 Eliot Street in Jamaica Plain, a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It was the home of Ellen Swallow Richards (1842–1911) from 1876 (shortly after her marriage to Robert Hallowell Richards) until her death. Richards was the first woman to graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and was its first female instructor. She introduced revolutionary ideas about home sanitation, and conducted pioneering work (some of it in this house) that led to the establishment of the field of home economics. The house itself was regularly altered as a consequence of her research, and was used by Richards as a consumer product testing laboratory. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1992.


Description
The Richards house is, from its exterior, a fairly typical two story Italianate house. It stands at the corner of Eliot and Dane Streets on a generously sized lot. The house is three bays wide and two deep, with an ell extending along most of the width of its rear. It is clad in clapboards, and has a low-pitched hip roof with a small gable above the main entrance, and a hip-roof dormer in the rear. The eaves are decorated with sawn brackets. The windows on the street-facing facades are treated with decorated surrounds, and there are projecting polygonal bays on the side facades.

The interior of the house, in particular the kitchen in the rear ell, was extensively modified by the Richardses after they moved in during 1876. The most significant changes affected the plumbing and air circulation within the house. The house water was supplied by a well, and Richards ensured that the drainage around the house would not direct wastewater toward it. Pipes in the house were regularly modernized, including the introduction of traps to prevent mixing of fresh and waste water. Lead pipes were replaced because of the known risk of lead poisoning.

Prior to the introduction of electricity to the area, the house was lit by gas and heated by coal. To reduce health concerns caused by fumes from these sources, Richards made modifications to improve air circulation. Windows were replaced with ones that could open either upward or downward, so that warmer (polluted) air might escape through the upper opening. Holes were cut in walls an ceilings above lights and heating fixtures to facilitate the removal of combustion byproducts. A master vent was installed at the attic level, and a mechanical ventilation system was installed. A range hood was installed over the stove in the kitchen. As soon as electricity was available in the neighborhood, the Richardses had the house electrified, removing many sources of combustion. They were also among the first in the area to have a telephone.

Richards used her own domestic processes to perform experiments and improve efficiency. The gas meter in the house was placed in the kitchen, where she could observe consumption with different cooking methods. All manner of home gadgetry was subjected to testing, either by Richards or by students who boarded with the family, testing for efficiency and effectiveness for intended tasks. These experiments, in conjunction with laboratory work performed while she worked at MIT's Sanitary Chemistry Laboratory, led to the discipline now known as home economics. Her other work at that lab led to improvements in areas as diverse as wastewater engineering and the proper ventilation of industrial spaces to avoid fires.

The Richards house was designated a National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992, in recognition for Ellen Swallow Richards' many accomplishments. The house is also a contributing resources to the Monument Square Historic District.

National Register of Historic Places - Ellen Swallow Richards House

Statement of Significance:

The single-family dwelling at 32 Eliot Street in Jamaica Plain, Boston, was the home of Ellen Swallow Richards, the founder of the domestic science movement, from 1876 until her death in 1911. Situated at the southeast corner of Eliot and Dane Streets, the residence at 32 Eliot Street is in an area characterized by predominantly suburban residential development of mid- to late-nineteenth century wood frame single family and early twentieth century two family dwellings. One block to the northwest of 32 Eliot Street is Jamaica Pond. Incorporated within Frederick Law Olmsted's Emerald Necklace system of parks during the 1890s, Jamaica Pond was once bordered by Colonial and mid-Victorian country estates and was host to a thriving ice industry during the mi nineteenth century. One block to the southeast is Centre Street, Jamaica Plain's major commercial thoroughfare. In addition, Monument Square, with its node of architecturally and historically significant ecclesiastical, residential and municipal buildings is also located one long block to the southeast.

Prominently sited on a large corner lot with ample side (southeast) yard, 32 Eliot Street is a boxy, ca. 1873-74 Italianate house that is currently clad by clapboards. It consists of a two-story, three-bay by two-bay main block and two-bay by six-bay rear ell. This house is formally finished on three sides with less elaborate surface treatments on the rear wall and ell. In general, this house's windows contain ^2 wood sash. Baseboards run between the pudding stone foundation and clapboards. A fascia board runs beneath the main facade's bracketed eaves and is interrupted by the low-pitched hipped roofs centered gable. Side boards appear beneath the bracketed eaves on the side walls. Projecting from the rear slope of the hipped roof is a center dormer containing three windows.

The main facade's pudding stone basement is pierced by two windows, located on either side of a short flight of cement steps. These steps provide access to a small porch that projects from the center of the main facade. Originally open, this porch is presently enclosed by metal and glass panels. Visible within this enclosure are low railings with well-turned balusters which extend from the chamfered pilasters to chamfered porch posts. This porch is enclosed by a flat roof. Multi-panel double doors (probably original) open on to the entrance porch. These doors exhibit raised and well molded surrounds. Flanking the entrance bay are windows with enframements consisting of raised and well-molded surrounds, sills with small tab brackets and bracketed lintels.

On the main facade's second floor, more elaborate enframements are in evidence. At the center of the second floor is a window with louvered shutters that is surmounted by a deep centered gable with return eaves. This gable echoes the configuration of the larger centered gable directly above the entrance bay. The small, second floor centered gable shelters sawcut, curvilinear gingerbread ornamentation. Flanking the main facade's center window are windows with more ornate enframements than those of the floor below. Here, raised and well-molded surrounds with small tab brackets beneath the sills are surmounted by lintels with prominent keystones. The keystones are flanked by distinctive elongated, reverse S-shaped moldings. The main facade culminates in a hipped roof with broad centered gable with return eaves. The roofs deep eaves exhibit sawcut brackets

The two-bay Dane Street facade features a one-story octagonal bay near the Dane and Eliot Street corner. Beneath the windows of the bay are apron panels. To the left of the bay is a window with enframements identical to those of the main facade's first floor. Similarly, the second-floor windows of the Dane Street facade are identical to those of the main facade's upper floor. The main block's rear wall is extremely plain, in terms of surface treatments. On the rear wall's first floor, a small square window is located at the corner formed by the intersection of the main block and the rear ell. The rear wall's first floor is otherwise covered by the one-story rear ell. The rear wall's second floor exhibits three simply enflamed windows. At the center of the rear wall's roof slope is a pedimented dormer containing three windows. The rear wall's eaves are missing several sawcut brackets.

The side yard of this property overlooks an amply, tree shaded lawn with a short asphalt paved driveway and modern carport. The side yard's wall is the mirror image of the Dane Street elevation. Here, placement of octagonal bay and single window has been reversed: a single window is located near the corner formed by the Eliot Street side yard walls. This window is fully enflamed, exhibiting sills with tab brackets and bracketed lintel. To the left of this window is an octagonal bay with surface treatments identical to its Dane Street counterpart. To the immediate left of this bay is a second, identical bay that projects from the side wall of the rear ell.

According to the present owner of the 32 Eliot Street residence, the rear ell contains a kitchen that has been greatly modified over time. The ell's rear wall, reading from Dane Street to the side yard, exhibits double, single and triple windows. These windows are fully enflamed with raised moldings and sills with tab brackets. The Dane Street side of the ell features a simply enflamed door nestled within the corner formed by the intersection of the main block and the ell. To the right of this secondary entrance is a fully enflamed window with tab bracketed sill.

The house, and the kitchen ell, were remodeled following Ellen Swallow and Robert Hallowell Richards' 1875 -76 purchase of the Jamaica Plain home, considering Ellen Swallow Richards' concerns as a pioneering environmental scientist. According to biographer Robert Clarke, she applied newly developed scientific and technological principles to the Jamaica Rain house, "tearing out, redesigning, and rebuilding its circulatory and respiratory systems." * The house's water supply and sewage system were improved, considering Ellen Swallow Richards' concerns about pollution. "She checked the house drainage to make sure it wasn't headed in the direction of the well, a common fault in those days. To make sure, she extended the drainpipes farther away from the well. She had the level of the ground surveyed, and she took extra steps to protect its water from its waste. She checked and adjusted the plumb and fit of pipes through the house, replaced most with modern-seal joints, put in traps and other precautions for wastewater, discarded old lead poisoning water lines. A hand pump in the kitchen pulled water up from the well into a storage tank on the second floor for bath and toilet." Simultaneously, Ellen Swallow Richards pressed for an extension of Boston's water and sewage systems to Jamaica Plain.

With the help of her husband, Ellen Swallow Richards overhauled the house's heating and ventilation systems. "She redesigned an inefficient water heater in the basement, replacing its input pipe and burner so that water would heat faster with less fuel. She put a 'water back1 on the furnace, using the heat from it in the winter and the water heater itself in the summer." The Richards were innovators who incorporated the most current scientific and technological developments into their home; "at a time when most homes had no hot water when there was no fire in the stove, theirs had it all year round.