Maqui’s Victorian Home

Built in 1885, the beautiful Victorian home was originally owned by Alpha M. Cheney. Mr. Cheney was a prominent religious and business leader in Southbridge. Serving as a deacon of the Baptist Church, Mr. Cheney also used the house as a poor farm to help needy residents in the community. Thus the beautiful home was named the Alpha M. Cheney House.

The Alpha M. Cheney & Carriage House is significant for its association with the town’s late 19^th century real estate development and its stylish Queen Anne design.  As the Massachusetts Historical Commission records indicate, the house meets National Register Criteria A and C at the local level and retains integrity of setting, location, materials, workmanship, design, and feeling.

The projecting porch belvedere,  one story bay windows, cross gables and peak-roofed tower give the house a picturesque silhouette, a quality which was very much admired throughout the mid to late 19^th century. The Cheney House is one of the few intact high style examples of Victorian Gothic or Stick Style houses in Southbridge.