Beacon Hill – Page 3 – Historic Buildings of Massachusetts

8 Walnut Street, Boston (1811)

by Dan/March 26, 2009/Boston, Federal, Houses

The initial construction of the Federal-style house at no. 8 Walnut Street in Boston was completed by 1811. The building was enlarged later (possibly around 1850) and has since been converted into condominiums. In the early nineteenth century, it was the home of Dr. George Parkman, a pioneer in the field of mental health and member of a prominent Boston family. In 1849, Dr. Parkman disappeared after a visit to collect debts owed to him by Dr. John Webster, a professor of chemistry and mineralogy at Harvard Medical College. After parts of Dr. Parkman’s body were found in Dr. Webster’s laboratory, Webster was arrested for murder. The 1850 trial was a sensational event which prompted much media attention and public interest. Webster was convicted and hanged for the famous murder. In the twentieth century, interest in the case and debates about Webster’s guilt have continued.

59 Mount Vernon Street (1837)

by Dan/March 25, 2009March 27, 2009/Boston, Greek Revival, Houses

An earlier entry on this blog featured no. 59 Mt. Vernon Street in Boston together with nos. 55-57, but this house is architecturally and historically significant and deserves it’s own seperate entry. Considered to be the great example of Greek Revival architecture on Beacon Hill, the 1837 house was designed by Edward Shaw, an architect and author of such works as Civil Architecture (1831), Operative Masonry (1832), and The Modern Architect (1854). The house was home to Thomas Bailey Aldrich, who replaced William Dean Howells as editor of the Atlantic Monthly in 1881. Aldrich was also an author and poet. Images of the house’s great Greek Revival doorway appear in two books about Aldrich: The Life of Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1908) by Ferris Greenslet and Crowding Memories (1920) by Lilian Woodman Aldrich.

65 Mount Vernon Street, Boston (1903)

by Dan/March 25, 2009/Apartment Buildings, Boston, Tudor Revival

65 Mount Vernon Street in Boston was the site of the residence of Henry Cabot Lodge, the senator and his son, George Cabot Lodge, the poet and dramatist. There is a 1911 biography of George Cabot Lodge, who died very young, written by Henry Adams, and an introduction to his works by Theodore Roosevelt. Although Henry Cabot Lodge is listed as living at 65 Mt. Vernon in 1894, in 1903 an apartment building, known as the Cabot, had been built at the address. One of the residents to move into the new building that year was Charles S. Hopkinson, the portrait painter and landscape watercolorist, who lived there from 1903, the year of his marriage to Elinor Curtis, to 1905. The building seems to have been inspired by the Jacobethan style.

Middleton-Glapion House (1790)

by Dan/March 24, 2009September 17, 2016/Boston, Federal, Houses

The oldest surviving house built by African-Americans on Boston’s Beacon Hill is the Middleton-Glapion House at 5-7 Pinckney Street. It is also the oldest standing private residence on Beacon Hill. The house has two street numbers because it was originally home to two bachelor friends: George Middleton was a black liveryman and a veteran of the Revolutionary War, who had led the all black company called the Bucks of America; Louis Glapion was a French mulatto barber, who used his half of the house for his work. The property was purchased by the two men in 1786 and a house was first assessed in 1791. The original house was one story. Today it has two stories, but the first floor matches the earliest descriptions. The house is on the Black Heritage Trail.

8 Chestnut Street, Boston (1804)

by Dan/March 24, 2009/Boston, Federal, Houses

The double house at nos. 6-8 Chestnut Street in Boston was originally a freestanding building, each half having its own side garden and stables. Built in 1804 for Charles Paine (son of Robert Treat Paine, a signer of the Declaration of Independence) and attributed to Charles Bulfinch, they were purchased in the 1830s by the merchant and architect Cornelius Coolidge. He built houses on the two side lots, making nos. 6-8 part of a row. No. 8 was later the home of George Parsons Lathrop, an editor of the Atlantic Monthly and author of A Study of Hawthorne (1876), and of his wife, Hawthorne’s daughter, Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, who later became a Catholic nun and wrote Memories of Hawthorne (1897). The two seperate homes at nos. 6-8 were later joined inside and, since 1957, the building has been used by the Society of Friends.

40-42 Mount Vernon Street, Boston (1850)

by Dan/March 23, 2009March 23, 2009/Boston, Houses, Italianate

The pair of brownstone houses at nos. 40-42 Mount Vernon Street on Beacon Hill were built by the Boston merchant Augustus Hemenway on the site of an earlier 1822 mansion he had demolished. By that time, advances in structural technology allowed the construction of these large and very fashionable buildings. The World Peace Foundation owned the buildings for many years in twentieth century, but they have since been converted into condominiums.

13 Chestnut Street, Boston (1806)

by Dan/March 23, 2009March 23, 2009/Boston, Federal, Houses

The three houses at nos. 13, 15 & 17 Chestnut Street, on Beacon Hill in Boston, were built in 1806 and designed by Charles Bulfinch. These three adjoining houses are known as the Swan Houses, after the heiress, Hepzibah Swan, who had them built as wedding gifts for her three daughters, who were married in 1806, 1807 and 1817. The houses are regarded as among the most architecturally significant on Chestnut Street. They feature recessed arches on the ground floor above stone string courses, while above are tall windows featuring wrought-iron balconies, which emphasize the importance of the second floor, which has double living rooms. Stairs lead to the houses’ basements from street level. The house at no. 13 was occupied by Swan’s daughter, Mrs. John Turner Sargent. From 1863 to 1866, the house was rented to the humanitarian and abolitionist couple, Samuel Gridley Howe and his wife, Julia Ward Howe, author of The Battle Hymn of the Republic. Starting in 1867, Julia Ward Howe held meetings of the Radical Club in the house.