Unique Homes MABrowse by architectural style
Massachusetts's housing stock spans four centuries of evolving architectural taste — from First Period framed houses of the 1640s to mid-century modernist enclaves of the 1950s. Browse current and recently-sold homes by style.
Massachusetts has the deepest and most diverse stock of historic homes in the United States. Every architectural movement of the last four hundred years left a built record here. Use this page to navigate the named clusters we track, from rare First Period frames to the celebrated mid-century enclaves of Lexington and Concord.
The styles below are grouped by era. Each landing page collects current listings, identifying features, notable architects, and a short summary of where in Massachusetts the style is concentrated.
Arts & Crafts Homes in Massachusetts
The Arts and Crafts movement (c. 1890–1920) reformed design against Victorian excess and machine production, prizing handcraft, honest natural materials, and harmony with the landscape. In Massachusetts houses it runs from the architect-designed Craftsman and the everyday bungalow to Arts & Crafts–inflected Colonials, and is still invoked by builders today.
12 current listings
Federal-Style Homes in Massachusetts
The Federal style (1780–1830) is the architectural signature of post-Revolutionary America — and Boston, Beacon Hill, and Newburyport hold the country's finest concentration.
65 current listings
Garrison Colonial Homes in Massachusetts
The Garrison Colonial (1935-1975) is a Colonial Revival sub-style with a second story that overhangs the first — a borrowed motif from 17th-century English-overhang houses, mass-produced for postwar subdivisions.
Georgian-Style Homes in Massachusetts
Georgian (1720-1780) is the architecture of pre-Revolutionary America — symmetrical, classical, dignified. Massachusetts has the country's best-preserved Georgian inventory in Salem, Cambridge, and the North Shore.
15 current listings
Second Empire Homes in Massachusetts
Second Empire (1855-1890) brought Parisian mansard roofs to American architecture. Boston's South End, Roxbury, and the industrial cities have rich Second Empire inventories.
30 current listings
Shingle Style Homes in Massachusetts
The Shingle Style (1880-1905) is the most refined American Victorian style — unified shingle surfaces, free asymmetric plans, and a New England summer-cottage sensibility. Massachusetts's North Shore and Cape Ann hold the canonical examples.
21 current listings
American Foursquare Homes in Massachusetts
The American Foursquare (1895-1930) is the no-nonsense answer to the late-Victorian — a square box on a square plan with a hipped roof, full porch, and four big rooms per floor.
Back Bay Brownstone Homes
The Back Bay Brownstone (1857-1900) is Boston's grand Victorian rowhouse — chocolate-brown sandstone facades, high stoops, and a 25-foot lot width on the Mill Pond's reclaimed land.
Beacon Hill Federal Bowfront Homes
The Beacon Hill Federal bowfront (1800-1840) is Boston's most iconic urban rowhouse — a curved bay window facing a brick-paved street, with refined Federal detailing on a narrow city lot.
Berkshire Cottage Estates of Massachusetts
Berkshire Cottages (1880-1910) are the Gilded Age summer estates of Lenox, Stockbridge, and Great Barrington — multi-million-dollar mansions with the modest name 'cottage'.
Bungalow & Craftsman Homes in Massachusetts
The Bungalow / Craftsman style (1905-1930) brought West Coast Arts and Crafts ideals to Massachusetts streetcar suburbs — low-pitched gables, deep porches, exposed rafter tails, and honest materials.
49 current listings
Colonial Revival Homes in Massachusetts
The Colonial Revival (1880-1955) is the most-built American house style of the 20th century. Massachusetts has them in every shape: Georgian Revival, Dutch Colonial, Garrison, Cape Cod, and Royal Barry Wills cottages.
184 current listings
Craftsman Homes in Massachusetts
The Craftsman style (1905–1930) is the architect-designed face of the American Arts and Crafts movement — exposed structure, hand-fitted joinery, and honest natural materials, from grand front-gabled houses to the everyday bungalow.
73 current listings
First Period Homes (1620–1725) in Massachusetts
First Period houses are the earliest surviving English-built homes in America — fewer than 250 remain, almost all in Massachusetts. Massive central chimneys, post-medieval framing, riven oak clapboards.
2 current listings
Gothic Revival Homes in Massachusetts
Gothic Revival (1840–1885) brought pointed arches, lacy bargeboard, and steep gabled roofs to American houses — a Victorian-era rebellion against neoclassical symmetry.
12 current listings
Greek Revival Homes in Massachusetts
The Greek Revival (1825–1860) gave New England its temple-fronted farmhouses and porticoed merchant mansions — a deliberate evocation of democratic Athens by the young republic.
92 current listings
Italianate Homes in Massachusetts
The Italianate (1840–1890) replaced Greek Revival's austerity with Mediterranean villa motifs — towers, bracketed eaves, paired round-arched windows. The South End and Back Bay are paved in them.
61 current listings
Mid-Century Modern Homes in Massachusetts
MA's mid-century modernist enclaves — Six Moon Hill, Five Fields, Peacock Farm, Conantum — are among the most important post-war architectural communities in America. Plus scattered Compass Homes, Tech-Built, and Garrison-influenced contemporaries.
24 current listings
Original Cape Cod Houses in Massachusetts
The Cape Cod cottage — the most-imitated American house — originated on Cape Cod and the Massachusetts South Shore between 1700 and 1850. Authentic 18th- and early-19th-century Capes survive throughout the region.
29 current listings
Queen Anne Homes in Massachusetts
Queen Anne (1880-1910) is the most exuberant Victorian style — towers, turrets, wraparound porches, multi-textured walls. Massachusetts streetcar suburbs are full of them.
66 current listings
Saltbox Houses in Massachusetts
The Saltbox — a colonial-era vernacular with a long, sloping back roof — is one of New England's most distinctive house forms. Original 17th- and 18th-century examples survive in Essex County and along the South Shore.
4 current listings
South End Italianate Rowhouses
The South End Italianate (1850-1885) is Boston's middle-class Victorian rowhouse — Italianate-bracketed brick or brownstone-trimmed houses on a square-grid neighborhood that was the largest single Victorian-era district in America.
Stick Style Homes in Massachusetts
Stick Style (1860–1890) is the Victorian-era celebration of the timber frame — flat boards applied to the exterior to suggest the structural balloon frame underneath.
4 current listings
Triple Decker Homes in Massachusetts
The Triple Decker (1880-1930) is New England's iconic urban multi-family housing — three full apartments stacked vertically, each with a private piazza, on a narrow city lot.
Tudor Revival Homes in Massachusetts
Tudor Revival (1890-1945) brought English late-medieval and early-Renaissance forms to American suburbs — half-timbered gables, casement windows, Cotswold cottages. Massachusetts's western suburbs have substantial inventories.
40 current listings