990 South Street, Boston, MA 02131

Boston built very few late Victorian era Craftsman houses, and fewer still kept their interiors intact. This one did!! Behind an enclosed porch on Doctor's Row, a second door opens to a paneled Arts and Crafts hall with original casement windows, a window seat, and hand-blocked Sanderson Morris paper. It's something to behold. Beyond it, gumwood beams run the length of the living and dining rooms over high wood paneling. A plate rail on carved brackets carries the full wall, with the mantel set just below it and a firebox in patterned brick tile. Dividing the two rooms is a colonnade screen: one broad arched opening flanked by a pair of smaller blind arches on heavy posts. These details are unforgettable. Two glass-front china cabinets are built into the dining room. The woodwork was never painted over. Oak runs underfoot through the main rooms and gives way to mahogany flooring in the kitchen, where a large marble slab counter once served a working chef. Soft and warm red fir...