Unique Homes MA

Queen Anne Homes in Massachusetts

Queen Anne (1880-1910) is the most exuberant Victorian style — towers, turrets, wraparound porches, multi-textured walls. Massachusetts streetcar suburbs are full of them.

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Queen Anne (1880-1910) is the most exuberant Victorian style — towers, turrets, wraparound porches, multi-textured walls. Massachusetts streetcar suburbs are full of them.
Photo: Wosketomp · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
A Queen Anne mansion with corner tower and asymmetric massing
A Queen Anne mansion with corner tower and asymmetric massing Photo: Unknown author. · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain

What is a Queen Anne?

The Queen Anne is the showiest house America ever built, the late-Victorian one everyone pictures: a corner tower, a wraparound porch, gables pointing every direction, and walls that change texture as your eye climbs them. The name has nothing to do with the real Queen Anne; it came from English architects in the 1870s. In Massachusetts the moment was roughly 1885 to 1905, when new electric streetcar lines opened up Brookline, Cambridge, and Newton, and machine-cut trim made the fancy detail affordable. Almost every old streetcar suburb still has its share.

Why it’s special

The whole point of a Queen Anne is to be noticed. Where the older Federal houses are calm and balanced, a Queen Anne is built so no two sides match. The porch wraps around a corner, a round or octagonal tower pops up at one end, bay windows lean out, and the gables carry sawn scrollwork like lace. These houses were meant to wear several colors at once, an earthy body with the trim, porch, and sashes picked out around it, which is why stripping one down to a single flat color is such a loss.

Corner towers — round, square, or octagonal — are a Queen Anne hallmark
Corner towers — round, square, or octagonal — are a Queen Anne hallmark Photo: Belmont Historical Commission · Town of Belmont · Municipal historic survey

What it’s like to live in one

These are warm, characterful houses, with a generous front hall built around a paneled staircase, pocket doors between the front rooms, and a bay window that makes a natural reading nook. Stained glass throws color across the floor, and the rooms run tall and bright. Brookline has the densest cluster of grand ones, around Pill Hill; Cambridge has plenty as larger two- and three-family houses; and the mill cities built handsome ones in Worcester and Springfield. Going in, be honest about the upkeep: towers and porches leak and cost real money to fix, the trim is hard to match if it has rotted, and many were stripped of texture under vinyl or asbestos siding.

Is it the real thing?

A true Queen Anne is a single-family house from about 1880 to 1910 with that asymmetry, a tower or wraparound porch, and layered shingle-and-clapboard walls. Watch for two close relatives: the Shingle Style is the quieter, all-shingle cousin, usually without a tower, and the Stick Style came just before and shows off the framing on the outside. The same look also rides on Massachusetts Triple Deckers. For a listing to be classified as a Queen Anne on this site, we look for a build date in that window plus the style’s own evidence: an asymmetric tower-and-porch design in the photos, a historic-survey record, or a note naming the style.

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Common questions about Queen Anne homes

How do you identify a Queen Anne home?
  • No two sides match
  • Corner tower or turret with a pointed roof
  • Wraparound porch with turned posts and decorative trim
  • Walls that change texture: clapboard below, fish-scale shingles above
  • Bay windows that bump out from the wall
When were Queen Anne homes built?

Queen Anne homes were built during 1880–1910.

Where in Massachusetts are Queen Anne homes found?
  • Streetcar suburbs — Brookline (Pill Hill, Aspinwall Hill), Cambridge (Cambridgeport, Mid-Cambridge), Newton
  • Industrial mill cities — Worcester (West Side, Salisbury Park), Springfield (Forest Park, McKnight), New Bedford (North End), Lowell, Lawrence, Fall River
  • Cape Ann — Gloucester, Rockport
Who designed notable Queen Anne homes in Massachusetts?
  • Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886) — early Queen Anne adopter before establishing the Richardsonian Romanesque vocabulary
  • McKim, Mead & White — the era's preeminent New York firm; their MA work spans Queen Anne and Shingle Style
  • Peabody & Stearns — Boston firm with major Queen Anne and Shingle Style residential commissions throughout New England
  • William Ralph Emerson (1833–1917) — Boston architect; helped pioneer the transition from Queen Anne to Shingle Style
  • George F. Barber (1854–1915) — Knoxville-based architect whose mail-order pattern books reached MA via mid-priced builders
  • Stanford White (1853–1906) — junior partner at McKim, Mead & White; designed several MA Queen Anne residences

Current listings (91)

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Related styles

National Historic Landmark

Federally designated as nationally significant — the highest U.S. historic recognition. Section 106 review applies to federal undertakings affecting the property.

National Register

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Owners may qualify for the 20% federal Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit on certified rehabilitation work.

State Register

Listed on the Massachusetts State Register of Historic Places.

Local Historic District

Inside a Local Historic District. Exterior changes visible from a public way require approval from the local historic district commission.

Local Landmark

Individually designated by the town as a local landmark. Exterior alterations require commission approval.

MACRIS Inventory

Documented in MACRIS, the state historic inventory. Informational only — no regulatory constraints.

Article 85 (Boston)

Subject to Boston Article 85 demolition-delay review, which can pause demolition of buildings 50+ years old for up to 90 days.

Ch. 91 Waterways License

An active MassDEP permit for a dock, pier, seawall, or other structure on or over a Massachusetts waterway. Many older licenses are not digitized; this record is provided for reference only.

Massachusetts Great Pond

A Great Pond under M.G.L. Ch. 91 — the Commonwealth retains public rights to fish and navigate these state-designated waters. Private docks and other waterfront structures require a Waterways License from MassDEP.

Likely Great Pond

The MLS listing describes this property as being on a Great Pond, which would be a state-designated water body under M.G.L. Ch. 91. GIS data did not independently confirm the pond name — verification needed.