Otis Place Streetscape
MACRIS NWB.AO · area form, 1980
Otis Place was laid out around 1880, and the survey records that almost all of its houses were built over the following thirty years. Orlando and Willard Hatch, carpenters and shipjoiners, appear to have carried out at least part of the development and held interests in several houses, including 14–16 and 19–25. Neither lived on the street: Orlando lived on Forrester Street and Willard on Federal Street.
The houses are vernacular, drawing on earlier Victorian styles. 15–17 Otis Place has turned brackets, bay windows and roof dormers taken from the Italianate, while 19–25 adds a mix of shingles and carved trim, which the form links in part to the Hatch brothers' trade.
The street met a need for middle-class housing near the downtown business district, and was home to clerks and managers of Market Square businesses. In 1909 George E. Moulton of 4 Otis Place managed a boot and shoe store at 21 State Street, and in 1889 William P. Dame of 17 Otis Place was a baggage master. The 1980 form finds the street little changed since about 1900.
Summarized from the Massachusetts Historical Commission's area form. See the MACRIS record ↗
