Beautiful Historic Home: Davis Square Bed and Breakfast

The Somerville Historic Preservation Commission held its Historic Preservation Awards cermony in May, and this summer Somerville Patch will feature the homes and properties that won awards.

Somerville writer Marian Berkowitz interviewed the winners to create profiles of the historic Somerville properties and the people who care for them.

In this profile, Berkowitz tells the story of the outside Davis Square. 

Here it is:

Heading west on Morrison Avenue toward College Avenue, you can't miss the Morrison House Bed & Breakfast on the right, as it has a sign on the front. It looks like a lovely, quiet place to stay, even though it’s just outside the lively Davis Square commercial district. Homes on this street are striking because they were built during a brief period of time in the late 1800's when Nathaniel Morrison, the original owner of a large tract of land in the area, set forth in an 1869 deed that “no building shall be erected thereon within thirty feet of the proposed street.” This stipulation was in place for many years, giving the street an unusually spacious feeling. 

The current owners, Ron and Linde Dynneson, bought the house in 1996 from Arthur Hughes. He was once a principal of the John F. Kennedy elementary school on Cherry Street, and raised his 7 children in the house. Since 2000, the Dynnesons have built up a now well-established bed and breakfast business. One year, one of Mr. Hughes’ daughters, who grew up in the house, booked a room to surprise her husband who first dated her when she was living in the house. Linde Dynneson loves to garden and thanks to a large front yard, visitors during the warmer months can enjoy walking up to the front door via a brick path amidst a fragrant and colorful flower garden.  

The Italianate house is historically designated and is known as the “Warren-Sparrow House,” named after its original owners, a mason and a salesman. It was built in 1870 on speculation, as the landowner knew that the Lexington and Arlington Branch of the B&M (Boston and Maine) Railroad was planned to come through what is now Davis Square. The square was so named in 1883 in commemoration of Person Davis, a major landowner and grain dealer at the time. It was the era of the post civil war economic boom, and the predominant agrarian character of the area was transformed by widespread residential and commercial development. This house is part of the Morrison Avenue Local Historic District that was expanded in 2010 to include 3 properties, and perhaps more in the future. 

The Dynnesons won a 2012 Preservation Award from the Somerville Historic Preservation Commission for extensive restoration of the exterior over a couple of years. They were also instrumental in helping the City adopt a Zoning Ordinance amendment in 2009 to establish bed and breakfast lodgings in historically designated properties. Among many improvements, the Dynnesons restored missing window details, rebuilt the front porch closer to its original character, and repaired the original soffits and fascia, while retaining the roofline details. White aluminum siding was removed, and underneath, they found gray clapboard siding with cream colored trim. Fortunately, only a small amount of the original clapboard needed to be replaced.  They chose to use the same paint color on the clapboard siding, with red and black trim colors.  As often happens when working on an old house, there's a surprise -- on the left side of the house, removal of the aluminum siding revealed a window they never knew existed! It could not be seen from the inside because it was concealed behind the back of a closet. They decided to keep the closet intact and painted the glass black on the outside of the window, so it would look similar to the original design.  

The garden and restored exterior certainly do make this place look welcoming, while also bringing new charm to the overall streetscape.