Click here for a pdf version of the floor plans.

Renovation
The house was completely  renovated in 2001-2002.  The garage/master bedroom was put on as an addition.  Major improvements from that include:

• Complete replacement of most structural elements of the house.  This can clearly be seen in the basement
• Entirely new plumbing/gas/electrical
• Central air throughout
• New windows on the first and second floors
• New roof
• New hardwood floors (tenant unit done in 2008)
• Replacement or refinish of all interior woodwork
• Replacement of electrical service with 200 amp underground service – no wires to the house
• Front porch was completely rebuilt during the renovation.

Amenities
There are many amenities throughout the house:

• All custom window coverings throughout included.  Most shades open bottom-up to preserve privacy and allow light.
• Original tin ceiling in parlor.
• Working wood fireplace in living room with marble mantle
• Working gas fireplace in parlor with marble mantle
• Two original coal fireplaces with wood mantles on second floor (now decorative).
• Cable/internet/phone in every room.  All lines run directly to main panel in basement.
• 6-zone built in stereo system with keypad controllers.  Full system is included in the price.
• In ceiling speakers in kitchen, dining room, living room, first floor and master baths.
• Security system
• Powered skylights in master batch with rain sensors
• ¾” pipe to master bath for extra water pressure
• Recirculator in master bath for quick shower warmup
• Steam unit in master bath
• Upstairs laundry with catch/drain for washer
• Central exhaust fan on all bathroom – completely quiet.
• Hot tub in back yard
• Back yard wired for landscape speakers and lights

Maintenance
There are many amenities throughout the house:

• Established perennial garden – no need to replant each year
• Automated sprinkler system
• Gutter Helmet on all gutters – lifetime warranty, will not clog, no cleaning.
• Ornaments on turret are all cast resin – extremely durable
• All hardwood floors were refinished in 2008.

History
The house has had a rich history and has been written up in the Boston globe and Allston-Bright Tab several times.  I’ve included some links and text below on the history and architecture (includes an old picture from before the renovation.  It is not a historically registered building, but the has the potential to be.

http://www.bahistory.org/AllstonHgtArch.html
http://www.bahistory.org/AllstonHgtHist.html

The segment of Gordon Street, between Cambridge Street and Ringer Playground is characterized by stylistically diverse houses that includes the ornate, San Francisco "Painted Ladies" interpretation of the Queen Anne Style at 40 Gordon Street that was designed by Universalist preacher and architect Thomas Silloway during the 1870s.

40 Gordon Street ranks among the most extravagantly ornamented examples of the Queen Anne style in Boston. This house was apparently built in at least two stages with an Italianate/Stick main block predating 1875 and a towered Queen Anne north ell built in the early 1880s. It is the curving walls and copper finial topped cylindrical roof cap that calls attention to this house's unusual surface treatments and initially causes this house td be "read" as a Queen Anne house built in a single stage. The tower's walls are enlivened by octagonal shingles, brackets and apron panels ornamented with raised sun flower and diamond shaped motifs. The cylindrical roof cap is pierced by round arched wall dormers. This house celebrates the carpenter's craft with its plethora of saw-cut and turned elements. Possessing an irregular form which verges on the cross-shaped, the northern arm of the "cross" is contiguous with a bowed and conically capped tower. The three -story tower exhibits apron panels beneath the windows which are ornamented with floral bosses. Interrupting the curving sweep of the tower's bracketed roof is a trio of arched windows.

This house rises 2.5 stories from a ledge-stone basement to an intersecting, slate shingle-covered gable roof. Projecting from the northwest corner of the main facade is an open entrance porch with cross-hatched railings, trellises and arch spandrels. This open "checker board" detail enframes the porches pointed and segmental arches. Additionally, spindles enliven the porch transoms. The two-bay street-facing gable exhibits a polygonal bay on the first floor. In general windows are framed, with the majority surmounted by arched lintels containing saw tooth detail. Particularly noteworthy is the square, shed-roofed oriel on the north wall, its arched, stained glass windows presumably light a stair hall. This two-story oriel is supported by large, ornate wooden brackets. This house's gables exhibit deep eaves and a fringe of vertical sawtooth boards beneath the apex of the gable. The main facade's pointed arch Carpenter Gothic attic window opens on to a feature that has the appearance of an Italianate door hood with large saw cut brackets but without a corresponding door. Diagonal bracing flanks the attic window.

The unusually ornate Queen Anne house at 40 Gordon Street was built c. 1870 by and for the Universalist minister Rev. Thomas Silloway. As an Italianate/Stick Style house, it acquired a more Queen Anne sensibility during the 1880s. Silloway was also a prolific architect of New England churches, active from the 1860s until his death in 1886. He is credited with the design of Goddard Seminary in Barre, VT. and the Vermont State House and probably designed his own church still extant at 541 Cambridge Street, now extensively altered. Silloway served as the pastor of the Brighton Universalist Church from the time of its construction in 1861 until he relinquished his post in 1867 to devote his full energies to architecture. This Universalist Church was short lived, closing its doors in 1887. During the 1890s, this church building became the headquarters of the Brighthelmstone Club. Founded in 1896, this women's social and charitable club was one of Brighton's most influential organizations during the early 20th century, particularly within the realms of public health and public education.