What Richardson Never Built

​Biweekly Newsletter    March 1, 2025
 What Richardson Never Built
 
Just a quick follow-up to last week’s newsletter about the new Richardson book, Henry Hobson Richardson: Drawings from the Collection of Houghton Library, Harvard University (Monacelli Press / Phaidon), by Jay Wickersham, Chris Milford, and Hope Mayo.
 
Below is a sketch showing an icehouse designed by H.H. Richardson that F.L. Ames at one time intended to construct on his Langwater property. It would have been at the northern end of the estate off Elm Street. Apparently, Ames, Olmsted, and Richardson all got together, and a sketch was produced. You can see it below. 

​Note the pond in the forefront and the ramp to move the ice up into a storage area. The wing on the right is where carts would drive up to retrieve the ice. Ames decided not to go ahead with the icehouse which would have been near the gate lodge. Perhaps it would have taken away from the landscape design? No one knows.
The fact that there was a plan for an icehouse at Langwater was not discovered until 1976 when Larry J. Homolka, a Ph.D. student at Harvard University, found a reference in a letter that F.L. Ames sent Olmsted and published the information in his dissertation.
In addition, there was a freight house designed by Richardson to sit south of the RR Station, but it was never built. It would have been a one-story building with an attached cylindrical water tower to service steam engines. A freight house was built about 1890, south of the station but it wasn’t Richardson’s design. Again, this information was published in Homolka’s dissertation. 

​Sketch of H.H. Richardson freight house that was never built.
By 1900/1903 the freight house was in a different location on Oliver Street near where the Y is now. Whether it was moved or torn down and another rebuilt is not known. Neither freight house was Richardson’s design. This is according to a Sanborn Fire Insurance map issued 1892 and amended 1900.

In the left rear, behind the rail cars is the top of what is believed to be the freight house (off Oliver St). The roofline looks like the one in a photo of first freight house, making it likely it was moved to the Oliver Street location.

Another view of second freight house location. From 1903 document.
Always something new to learn.
Reminder: There will be a presentation at Oakes Ames Hall, 2-4, on April 6. The new book is the first in-depth publication from the Harvard collection of over 4,000 drawings, made by Richardson and his studio. Hope you can attend.
 
Anne Wooster Drury
With special thanks to Paul Berry for all his research.
 
Source:
Homolka, Larry J. “Henry Hobson Richardson and the ‘Ames Memorial Buildings’.” Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1976.