Kennard House (Brookline Music School) and Lincoln School

Kennard House (Brookline Music School) and Lincoln School

Lincoln School Peter Vanderwarker or Antonina Smith

Lincoln School

1843, Gridley J. F. Bryant; 1996, Gary Wolf. 19 Kennard Rd. 1992–1994, Graham Gund Architects. 25 Kennard Rd.

One of the first Boston merchants to erect a country house in the vicinity of the old town green was Jeremiah Wells, whose 1843 house now serves as the Brookline Music School. Gridley J. F. Bryant designed a bowfront Greek Revival house similar to his contemporary Boston brick bowfront town houses. Accessible with permission of the music school, the house, which contains much of its original Greek Revival–style interior, provides space for offices and recitals. Gary Wolf planned the adaptive reuse of the house, including the new portico at the west entrance facing the adjacent school. The house originally included a service wing on the west side, which was demolished when the new Lincoln School was built.

For the adjacent Lincoln School, Graham Gund derived his design from late-nineteenth-century Romanesque Revival public architecture, but without the same sense of monumentality. The principal facade embraces a circular driveway in a manner that welcomes visitors. Warmly colored materials scaled to elementary schoolchildren make the exterior appealing.

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