page_title: Elbridge Boyden
section_title: E. Boyden & Son, 1863-1898
hierarchical_section_title: Elbridge Boyden / Architectural Works / E. Boyden & Son, 1863-1898
caption_attribution_description: Brooks House, on Main Street in Brattleboro, Vermont, was built in 1871 as an 80-room luxury hotel to replace a previous hotel on the site which was destroyed by fire. On April 17, 2011, the current building was seriously damaged by fire, and efforts to repair the damage and renovate the building were continuing a year later, when the owner announced he was selling the building to a local consortium, who could better raise the necessary funds. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places and is located within the Brattleboro Downtown Historic District. (Sources: "The Visitor's Guide to Brattleboro and the Vibrant Villages of Southern Vermont" (2010), "A new lease on life" Brattleboro Reformer (April 4, 2012))
context_page_description: Elbridge Boyden was a prominent 19th-century American architect from Worcester, Massachusetts who designed numerous civil and public buildings throughout New England and other parts of the United States. Perhaps his best known works are the Taunton State Hospital and Mechanics Hall in Worcester.
context_section_description: Circa 1863 Boyden's son, George E. Boyden, became a partner in the office, which became E. Boyden & Son. Though the younger Boyden died in 1885, the firm remained E. Boyden & Son until Elbridge Boyden's death, making it the longest-lasting period in the firm's history.
  Boyden and his son designed many churches, mainly in the High Victorian Gothic style. The first of these was St. Paul's Church, presently the Cathedral of St. Paul, in Worcester. It is a mostly monochromatic building, but maintains the "stripy bacon" aspect so criticized in such buildings. It was begun in 1868 and completed in 1874. Next was the First M. E. Church in Saratoga Springs, New York, now known as the Universal Preservation Hall. It is considered to be one of the finest High Victorian Gothic buildings in the region. In 1873 Boyden made his first foray into Rhode Island, designing L'Eglise du Precieux Sang in Woonsocket, an American center of French Canadian culture. The church's tower was significantly rebuilt in the early 20th century. In 1874 they designed All Souls Church in Brattleboro, Vermont. This church was the firm's first use of this unique tower, which would be repeated on other churches, including the Congregational Church at Gilbertville (1874) and the Channing Memorial Church at Newport, Rhode Island (1880). Several years later in 1888 he designed St. Paul's in Rutland, Vermont, which attempts to unite the High Victorian Gothic and Queen Anne styles.
  The firm's next most common type of commission was for academic buildings. In 1867 they competed for the design of Boynton Hall on the campus of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, but lost to Earle & Fuller. Boyden had to settle for the schools second building, Washburn Shops. Built in 1868, this was a long, brick building with a tall mansard roof. They designed two public schools for the city, the Cambridge Street and Grafton Street Schools, in 1869 and 1879, respectively. Cambridge Street was solidly Second Empire, but Grafton Street showed a move towards the Queen Anne of the 1880s. In 1869 he designed the former Fitchburg High School on Academy Street in Fitchburg, which had much in common with the contemporary Cambridge Street School. Henry M. Francis may have been involved in the design. Boyden's final academic works were two buildings on the campus of Nichols Academy in Dudley. These were Academy Hall, an academic building, and Conant Hall, a dormitory, in 1880 and 1885. Both were solidly in the Queen Anne mainstream. Both have been altered, Academy Hall beyond recognition.
  They also designed a number of public buildings, including several town halls. First was the one in North Brookfield, in 1864. This was one of Boyden's last fully Italianate commissions. By the time Boyden & Son were commissioned to design the Town Hall in Orange in 1868, they had switched over to the Mansard Second Empire. This building was totally rebuilt in 1912, to designs by H. M. Francis & Sons of Fitchburg. They also designed two Queen Anne town halls. The Upton Town Hall, still standing, was built in 1883. In 1884 they designed the town hall for Sutton, since demolished. In 1870 they designed a secondary Worcester County courthouse in Fitchburg. Like several of Boyden's public-oriented commissions of the 1860s and 70s, it was a monochromatic High Victorian Gothic building. It is now vacant. His last major public commission came in 1889, when he designed the Hospital Cottages for Children at Baldwinville. Like his much earlier Taunton State Hospital, it was a sprawling medical campus, though now Queen Anne, not Italianate. The complex has been demolished.
  During this period Boyden designed many hotels, all in the Second Empire style. First, in 1868, came two in upstate New York. He built the massive Congress Hall in downtown Saratoga Springs, and rebuilt the much older Fort William Henry Hotel in Lake George. Both built of wood, they were destroyed by fire at different times. In addition to these tourist hotels, he also built a series of commercial hotels across New England. In 1870 he designed the To
caption: Brooks House, Brattleboro, 1871.
exif: {"Image Make": "EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY", "Image Model": "KODAK EASYSHARE C433 ZOOM DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "126", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/125", "EXIF FNumber": "17/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:04:03 15:00:45", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:04:03 15:00:45", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "7", "EXIF ApertureValue": "7/2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-1/2", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "7/2", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "Daylight", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "47/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2304", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1728", "EXIF ExposureIndex": "80", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "56", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}