Higgins House
One of many hidden carvings and details around WPI’s Higgins House
Postcard showing the Compton Wynyates estate, 1956, courtesy of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute archives.
Higgins House as it stands today.
A cornerstone of the An Apothecary Dreams experience is its location: Higgins House, a nationally registered Tudor Revival home styled after the circa-1525 Compton Wynyates estate.
It was built in 1921 by architect Grosvenor Atterbury at the request of WPI’s then-president Aldus Chapin Higgins. And much like Katherine fell into a dream of science and apothecary from the Early Modern period, WPI’s archives tell the story of President Higgins’s own dream of Early Modern architecture:
Upon visiting the Compton Wynyates castle in Warwickshire, England, Aldus developed a vision for building something similar on the land where he had lived most of his life. He worked closely with Grosvenor Atterbury, chief architect then known for his work on weekend homes for wealthy industrialists and who later was commissioned by John D. Rockefeller for various prominent projects. Some of the most notable features replicated in the Higgins House from Compton Wynyates include the multiplicity of ornamental brick chimneys; its half-timbered gables; and the variety of building materials used: brick (of which 10 different types were incorporated throughout the house), stone, wood, and stucco. Additionally, both homes brought in materials from other buildings. Aldus himself harvested pieces from around New England and Europe.
Higgins House is full of details and discovery, its creation driven by a man who clearly had a dream of the past that he wanted to help make real in his present. Today, walking through the Great Hall and looking up at the vaulted ceiling, or sitting along the bay window of the Sun Room as warm afternoon light shines through the panes, feel like liminal moments of time, where both 2025 and 1525 seem simultaneous and intermingled.
It feels like there is no better place for Katherine’s dreams of theory and practice to become briefly real too.
Roses in front of Higgins House, a welcome step into the past.
