Dana House

Ulrich Franzen and Associates

1964

Description

Field survey was not conducted on this house.

Significance

The Dana House was designed by Ulrich Franzen & Associates. James D. Dana acquired the property in 1962. Construction began in 1963 and the house was completed in 1964. The contractor for the project was Emil Toikka, the structural engineer was Vladimir Busch, and the mechanical engineer was John Altieri. According to the assessor property street cards, the original house had a concrete foundation, brick veneer exterior cladding, and a flat composition roof. The assessor noted that the house had a sunken living room.

The Dana House was featured in Architectural Record Houses of 1966. In historic photographs, the exterior of the two-story house resembles a fortress, with strong vertical lines, plain brick walls, and projecting brick bays extending the full height of the building containing fixed or awning sash. In the article, the house is described as "representative of a couple of the relatively newer directions in house design: the treatment of a building's massing as big, powerful sculpture, and more clear-cut and definitely expressed separation of 'public' and 'private' areas within a home" (Architectural Record Houses of 1966, 114). Franzen described the dwelling as a country house placed in an apple orchard: "As the design evolved, the concept became a cluster of articulated masonry masses, freely arranged but sheltering a central meeting hall. The large space is the 'covered yard,' the precinct between the smaller structures containing the more intimate activities" (Architectural Record Houses of 1966, 114).

The central public living space contained a living room and dining room with large decks extending off of both rooms. The first floor of the towers contained a kitchen; bedroom (likely maid's room), bath, laundry and mudroom; a playroom; a two-story study; and a garage. On the second floor, two towers contained two bedrooms and a bath, one tower contained the upper part of the study, and the remaining two towers formed a master suite consisting of a bedroom, bath, and sitting room. The exterior finishes like the brick veneer, hardwood floors, and hemlock soffit, continued into the interior, creating an unbroken line between exterior and interior.

By 1969, Bertha B. Shepard was the owner of the Dana House. Shepard filed for a name change in that year, but since the 1960s assessor property cards are currently being conserved and are unavailable, it is unclear if Shepard's original last name was "Dana" or if she had acquired the house from the Danas. A tennis court was constructed on the property in 1969. In 1977, a shed was completed. In 1999, Shepard changed her name to Bertha R. Betts.