Federal – Page 27 – Historic Buildings of Massachusetts

Wilson Printing Office (1816)

by Dan/November 21, 2008/Commercial, Deerfield, Federal

The Wilson Printing Office, in Old Deerfield, was originally built in 1816 by Col. John Wilson (1782-1869) on the lot of his father-in-law, Horatio Hoyt. In the building, he printed broadsides and reprints of popular works. Wilson also printed works by his brother-in-law, Rudolphus Dickinson, a minister and his partner at the press before 1820. In later years, the building would be moved five times within Deerfield until 1951, when Henry Flynt restored the building to its original site to become part of Historic Deerfield. In restoring the structure, Flynt referred to an 1820 sketch by Wilson’s daughter, Mary Hoyt Wilson (1809-1841).

Eddy Law Office (1810)

by Dan/October 20, 2008December 31, 2008/Commercial, Federal, West Springfield

The Eddy Law Office, originally built around 1810 in the town of Middleborough, was later moved to the Eastern States Exhibition grounds in West Springfield to become part of the historical Storrowton Village. The building was the law office of Zachariah Eddy, one of the foremost lawyers of his day. In Middleborough, it stood not far from the Eddy Family Homestead, built in 1803. In town is also the later Zachariah Eddy House of 1831, now a Bed & Breakfast.

Levi Gilbert House (1794)

by Dan/October 13, 2008September 17, 2016/Federal, Houses, West Springfield

The Levi Gilbert House was built in West Brookfield around 1794. It is one of the buildings to be moved in the twentieth century to the Eastern Stares Exposition grounds, in West Springfield, to form part of Storrowton Village, a recreation of a nineteenth century village. The Gilbert House displays for visitors the life of an eighteenth century farmer.

Phillips School (1824)

by Dan/October 7, 2008September 17, 2016/Boston, Federal, Schools

The former school building, built in 1824 at the corner of Pinckney and Anderson Streets in Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood, originally served as the Boston English High School. In 1844, it became the Phillips Grammar School, named for John Phillips, Boston’s first mayor. It became the first integrated school in Boston in 1855. In 1861, the Phillips School moved to a larger building and was renamed the Wendell Phillips School. The old building was then used by the Sharp School, a public school. In the 1980s, the building was adapted to house condominiums. Today, it is on the Black Heritage Trail.

Charles Street Meeting House (1804)

by Dan/July 29, 2008/Boston, Churches, Federal

Designed by Asher Benjamin in 1804, the Charles Street Meeting House in Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood began as the Third Baptist Church of Boston (it was built on reclaimed land near the Charles River where baptisms could be performed). In the 1830s, abolitionist members, led by Timothy Gilbert, challenged the church’s segregationist seating arrangements and went on to found the integrated Tremont Temple Baptist Church. In the years before the Civil War, the church became a center of abolitionism, with many notable speakers addressing audiences there, including William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth. From 1876 to 1939, the building was the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1920, the church was moved ten feet west to accommodate the widening of Charles Street. With the departure of the African-American community from the north slope of Beacon Hill, it served as an Albanian Orthodox Church and lastly a Unitarian Universalist Church to 1979. In the 1980s, the Charles Street Meeting House was converted to secular use as offices. The building is on the Black Heritage Trail.

Somerset Club (1819)

by Dan/July 25, 2008July 2, 2009/Boston, Federal, Houses

The home of David Sears, on Beacon Street in Boston, began as a 2-story bowfront house, built in 1816-1819 and designed by Alexander Parris. The left section of the house, featuring a second bowfront, was added by Sears in 1832, and in the 1830s, the house was the most expensive in Boston. The building has been home to the exclusive Somerset Club since 1872, when the third floor was added. Today, the house gives an impression of monumentality, with its large size and granite facade.

Second Harrison Gray Otis House (1802)

by Dan/June 8, 2008September 17, 2016/Boston, Federal, Houses

The only freestanding mansion on Boston’s Beacon Hill is the second of three houses designed by Charles Bulfinch for Harrison Gray Otis, a prominent businessman, lawyer and Federalist Party leader. Both Otis and Bulfinch were members of the Mount Vernon Proprietors, who purchased land on Beacon Hill for development. Bulfinch created an even more elegant mansion for Otis on Mount Vernon Street than the one he had created earlier, on Cambridge Street in 1796. Constructed between 1800 and 1802, Bulfinch hoped that the freestanding home on a landscaped property with outbuildings in back would be a model for the rest of Beacon Hill, but the neighborhood would end up being much more densely developed. Otis sold the house in 1806, only a few years after it was built: his growing family would require an even larger home, also to be designed by Bulfinch. Many people have owned the Second Harrison Gray Otis House over the years and undertaken various renovations and remodelings.