The Laura Richards House is a good example of Federal period architecture in the Gardiner area. It is a two-story clapboard sided structure with a hipped roof. The facade is symmetrical with a central entry door framed by sidelights, fanlight, and simple wood pilasters that support a wide entablature. The cornice is denticulated and a shed dormer sits in the center of the roof. Ebenezer Byram built the house after purchasing the land from Robert Hallowell Gardiner. The house's most significant resident was Laura Richards, a renowned author, who lived here from 1878 until her death in 1943. Richards was the daughter of Samuel Gridley Howe, who championed schools for the blind and mentally handicapped in Massachusetts in the nineteenth century, and Julia Ward Howe, the author of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Richards married Henry Richards, an architect, in 1871 and in 1876 a financial panic caused economic hardship for the couple and they moved to Gardiner, where Henry had family. (Henry was a descendent of Gardiner founder, Dr. Sylvester Gardiner.) Richards literary career began by writing poetry and jingles for her seven children, but by the 1880s she regularly published children's books. Her most notable work is a biography of her mother, which was awarded the first Pulitzer Price for biography in 1915.
Year Listed: 1979
For more information: https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/AssetDetail?assetID=d72a0de7-b3cc-42ff-8acd-66fcfdf3f587