By Mary Harrod Northend 
Photographs by the Author 
The house itself is almost as old as our 
country, for it was built by one William Cod- 
dington in 1636, on a portion of a grant of five 
hundred acres, and extending from the old 
Dorchester line at Squantum, a mile inland 
from Hough’s Neck. The tract of land on 
which it was built showed level meadows and 
attractive setting. The unpretentious dwelling 
itself was situated as it is to-day, on the bank 
of Black Brook, formerly known as Codding- 
ton’s Brook. 
Coddington, for entertaining views too lib¬ 
eral for his age, was forced to leave his home 
and settle in Newport, where in 1639 he built 
A PASSION for old furniture is apt to 
involve the amateur in a hopeless 
tangle if his enthusiasm carries him away. 
He often becomes oblivious of precedent, and 
the setting in which his treasures are placed 
is so unfit for their use and display that all 
their charm is lost. This is true with repro¬ 
ductions also. To-day so many manufactur¬ 
ers are busied with the making of really fine 
reproduction, either in exact duplication of 
the master cabinet makers’ designs or most 
cleverly reproducing their spirit in shapes 
better fitted to present use, a guide to the 
proper combinations of design is necessary. 
What better model than a Colonial house furnished as it was in 
the early days of our country could be found? Almost an ideal 
example is the Dorothy Quincy house at Quincy, Massachusetts. 
The family who occupied this old homestead for so long were 
able to acquire the best of furniture and equipment, and it may 
thus be considered a representative example of the Colonial 
period, especially since the Colonial Dames of Massachusetts—its 
present owners—have taken particular pains in restoring it in as 
exact a manner as 
possible. 
The owner of 
Colonial furniture or 
the purchaser of re- 
productions can, 
therefore, get val¬ 
uable assistance in 
deciding upon appro¬ 
priate furnishings by 
a study of this house. 
He will find what 
freedom is allowed 
him in choice of de¬ 
signs, and will, fur¬ 
thermore, find his in¬ 
vestigations made in¬ 
teresting by the nu¬ 
merous delightful bits 
of romance and his¬ 
tory which cling to 
the objects of his 
scrutiny. 
The original Quincy 
house was not a large 
one. It consisted 
only of a kitchen, 
living-room, and two chambers, but the work was done by ex¬ 
perienced master builders, who luxuriated in the abundance of 
timber, using a superfluity of beams, each one being a foot or 
more in thickness. They stand to-day sound as iron. 
a house similar to the one he left. The first of a long line 
of Quincys to occupy the house was Edmond, who num¬ 
bered among the guests in the attractive homestead Sir Harry 
Vane and his contemporaries. He was a man of considerable 
means, and brought with him a large retinue of six servants. 
His daughter was the mother of Hannah Hull—she who mar¬ 
ried Judge Samuel Sewall, and received for her dowry her 
weight in the Pine Tree shillings of that day. 
For many years the 
house as it originally 
stood was occupied by 
the Quincy family. 
Edmund, third Quin¬ 
cy, married Dorothy 
Flynt, the mother of 
Dr. Holmes’ great¬ 
grandmother, con¬ 
cerning whom his 
poem was written. It 
was during his life¬ 
time that the addi¬ 
tional rooms were 
added to the house. 
The original building, 
whose lines are still 
discernible, has been 
overtopped by the 
newer edifice, which 
was designed to sur¬ 
pass everything that 
had ever been built in 
Braintree. These 
rooms consist of a 
dining-room, hallway, 
parlor and chamber. 
In 1706 Judge Quincy added a little ell for the accommodation of 
Dorothy’s brother, Henry Flynt, for fifty-five years a famous tutor 
at Harvard. 
The estate is surrounded by a high paling fence, through a gate 
Upon the old building erected in 1623 additions were made which, though increasing its size, do not spoi 
the pleasing atmosphere found in the old New England architecture 
jSp. fjistoric 
American f^ome 
and its furnishings 
JSjx A u *h° ritatlve 
Quide to (forrect 
(Colonial f)ecoration 
( 97 ) 
