The Babson-Alling House is a historic colonial house in Gloucester, Massachusetts. The 2.5-story Georgian house was built in 1740 by William Allen, and remains one of Gloucester's finest houses of the period. It is a typical house of the time, with a center chimney plan and a gambrel roof. The house was purchased by Joseph Low in 1779; his daughter Elizabeth married Nathaniel Babson, and their son ultimately inherited the property. It remained in the Babson family into the twentieth century, eventually being inherited by Low descendant Elizabeth Alling.
The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
Description, location, and environment
The mid-eighteenth-century (1740) Babson-Alling House is one of two early dwellings that remain at Gloucester's original town center. Once known as the Green, the central position of this inland area was usurped in 1738 when the First Parish Meetinghouse was moved eastward to the Inner Harbor, where it remains (see Central Gloucester Historic District, and Boundary Increase). The Green area gradually declined over the next two hundred years until the mid-twentieth century, when the north-shore corridor of Washington Street was “improved” with the Grant Circle Rotary to accommodate traffic from the newly constructed dual-lane State Route 128 (east-west). At that time, the seventeenth-century White-Ellery House (NRHP: 3/9/1990) was moved from its original location, roughly centered on the rotary, to its present position immediately north of the Babson-Alling House. These two well-preserved early dwellings, along with a barn, stone walls, and other landscape features, provide a unique and multifaceted glimpse into the city's origins. The remnant of a ca. 1930 scallop-topped wooden fence was placed on the Babson-Alling property to indicate the early position of Washington Street, but was replaced in April 2018 with a similar fence as a result of a car crashing through in December 2017.
The Babson-Alling House is situated directly on the Grant Circle Rotary at the northeast corner of State Route 128 and Washington Street, where it continues to face south. It is buffered from the intrusion of constant automobile traffic by a tall wooden fence (modern) and a screen of white pines on the west. A large front yard planted with mature weeping willows enhances privacy on the south. The setting of open fields to the north and east is substantially more compatible, providing a sense of the surrounding landscape during the period of significance. To the rear (N) the property abuts the White-Ellery House and an open field that is maintained in rough turf and edged by fieldstone walls and mature oaks. A large untended field provides the eastern border. Poplar Street, which runs behind (N) the two houses, is an early-to-mid-twentieth-century residential neighborhood.
Summary evolution of the property
The handsome and coherent appearance of the Babson-Alling property today results from three major periods of construction and remodeling. The gambrel roof house with its bold modillion cornice and massive central chimney is a product of mid-eighteenth-century Georgian sensibilities. The east wing is either original or an early addition to the main block.
During the Federal period, fashionable entries with delicate fanlights and oval windows were added to the south facade and west elevation. At the same time, it appears that the landscape was enhanced by the creation of a low-rise with a granite retaining wall as a pedestal for the house. In the early twentieth century, ca. 1930, a delicate Federal Revival portico was added to the main entry, and the yard was planted with white pines (W) and weeping willows (S), presumably as screens to increased traffic and encroaching development. At about the same time, a utilitarian board fence along Washington Street was replaced with a more decorative scalloped-top fence, a secondary wall with balustrade was added in front of the foundation, and a gazebo was erected southeast of the house. These complementary building and landscape features create a rich evolutionary overlay that illustrates the continuing history of the property.
Current appearance of the landscape
The main approach to the Babson-Alling House is from Washington Street (W) via an unpaved drive located immediately south of the barn. Leading to the west rear of the house, that drive is lined by a lilac hedge and enclosed by a wooden gate. A longer secondary drive, also unpaved, runs south from Poplar Street behind the White-Ellery House and the barn. The barn is sited between the two houses on the Washington Street (W) side.
The 20,000 sq. ft. lot encompasses several landscape features that appear to have evolved during various periods in the property's history. Like the architectural changes, they are complementary and add substantially to the property's ability to reflect changing fashions and tastes over a two-hundred-year period. They also help to create an oasis of tranquility that contributes to the overall historic integrity of the property, helping to mitigate the intrusiveness of modern traffic patterns.
The house now sits on a low rise defined by a granite block retaining wall, which is a typical Federal period landscape device. The wall is broken in the center to allow three granite block steps to ascend laterally from the west (reoriented ca. 1930); three additional steps lead north to the entry portico. The retaining wall extends eastward beyond the house to a small shingled shed with a pyramidal roof (ca. 1930). A fieldstone wall, which may date to an earlier period, continues eastward from the shed. A split rail fence of unknown date occupies the southeast corner of the front lawn area and extends northward to the stone wall that separates the Babson-Alling property from the Poplar Street field. Directly behind the house, fieldstone is replaced by finished granite blocks which seem to be a mid-to-late nineteenth-century attempt to beautify the area immediately surrounding the house. The large front lawn is planted with mature willows and pines, and overgrown ornamental shrubs.
Current appearance of the house
The five by two bay house rises 2 and 1/2 stories from a high foundation of irregularly sized granite ashlar blocks to an asphalt shingle gambrel roof with a massive center chimney. The main block is extended by an early three-story, three bay east wing that takes the set-back half-depth form that is characteristic of the North Shore and is commonly referred to as a Beverly jog (Old-House Journal). Two small one-story gable roof eels frame the rear elevation. The entire building is sheathed with clapboard which was the original exterior material, although individual elements have probably been replaced over time. The main block is trimmed with narrow cornerboards and watertable, and a handsome, boldly projecting modillion cornice on the front and rear elevations. Unless otherwise noted, windows are simply framed and contain 6/6 sash that date to the Federal Period.
The symmetrical five bay south facade is centered on a well-detailed entry that reflects three compatible periods of development. Historic photographs reveal a surround consisting of paneled pilasters carrying an entablature with a fanlight below. Those extant details probably date to the Federal period occupancy of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Low Babson, and appear to be contemporary with many of the landscape refinements. The present delicate portico, with its swelled roof supported on slender paired Tuscan columns, is a well-conceived Colonial Revival addition dated to the 1930s. The double-lead entry with its raised field panels may be original. Two windows frame the entry on each side while five second-story windows, aligned with the first-story openings, are framed into the cornice.
The two bay west elevation, where the two driveways terminate, is focused on a slightly off-center secondary entry that also appears to date to the Federal period. In this case, the composition consists of an enclosed hip-roof porch detailed with paneled corner pilasters and oval windows on the side walls. The entry, with its six-panel Federal door, is approached by two granite block steps. Two windows are located on the north side of the entry and one on the south. Two windows light both the second and attic stories where their heads are aligned with the main cornice and roof break respectively.
The primary outbuilding is a wood-shingled wood-frame barn sited near Washington Street between the Babson-Alling (SE) and White-Ellery (N) Houses. It rises from a fieldstone and granite block foundation to an asphalt shingle covered gable roof. Built into the side of a small hill, it is one story at the north gable end and two stories at the south. A sliding door is located on the east side, and a similar element has been removed from the south gable end. Loading bays are located in both gables. One window retains a remnant of a 2/2 sash, which would indicate a construction date in the late nineteenth century if it is original.
Archaeological description
While no prehistoric sites are currently recorded on the property, it is possible that sites are present. The physical characteristics of the property, including its elevated level to moderately sloping and well-drained location in close proximity to Annisquam River wetlands, indicate favorable locational criteria for Native American subsistence and settlement activities. Four known prehistoric sites are also recorded in the general area (within one mile), all of which border Annisquam River wetlands. Given the above factors, the historic land use of the property, and the small size (20,000 square feet) of the lot, a moderate potential exists for locating significant prehistoric survivals.
There is a high potential for locating significant historic archaeological remains on the property. Structural remains and/or construction features may survive from at least three major periods of construction and remodeling at the house since its construction in ca. 1740. Structural remains from outbuildings are also likely, including barns, wood houses, and storehouses. One barn is still extant between the Babson-Alling and White-Ellery Houses however, at least one other barn, destroyed by fire in 1908, was also present close to the house. Occupational related features (privies, wells) are also likely on the property. nineteenth-century deeds for the house note at least two outhouses no longer extant. Many of the resources described above and other landscape features on the parcel together constitute a mid-nineteenth-century rural landscape preserved on the property. Darvill, Timothy, Christopher Gerrard and Bill Startin 1993 Identifying and Protecting Historic Landscapes. Antiquity 67(256): 563-574
Statement of significance
Located at Gloucester's original town center, the Babson-Alling House is one of the city's finest examples of mid-Georgian architecture. Historically, the property is associated with some of the city's leading businessmen and their families, and illustrates the changes in Gloucester's maritime industry over the last 250 years.
The Babson-Alling House possesses integrity of location, design, materials, setting, and workmanship, and meets Criteria A and C for listing in the National Register. The period of significance for the property is ca. 1740–1945.