Beacon Hill – Page 4 – Historic Buildings of Massachusetts

48 Mount Vernon Street, Boston (1825)

by Dan/March 21, 2009March 23, 2009/Boston, Federal, Houses

Nos. 44, 46 and 48 Mount Vernon Street in Boston were built in the 1820s and are typical examples of the smaller houses found on the south slope of Beacon Hill. Frances Weston Carruth, in Fictional Rambles in & about Boston (1902) identified No. 48 (c. 1825) as William Dean Howells‘s inspiration for the home of the Coreys in The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885). Victorian Boston Today (2004), on the other hand, notes that Carruth’s photograph and the description in the novel do not fit no. 48 and that therefore no. 45 is the correct address.

20 Pinckney Street, Boston (1852)

by Dan/January 10, 2009June 29, 2013/Boston, Federal, Houses

The house at 20 Pinckney Street on Boston’s Beacon Hill is listed in some online sources as having been built in 1860, but it must have been built sometime before 1852, because from 1852 to 1855, it was the home of Bronson Alcott and his family. Louisa May Alcott’s room was on the house‘s third floor. While living here, Louisa’s first story was published, “The Rival Painters: a Tale of Rome” in 1852 and her first book, Flower Fables (1854). Later, after Louisa May Alcott became a successful writer, she lived in nearby Louisburg Square, looking after her father.

William Ellery Channing House (1835)

by Dan/January 9, 2009September 17, 2016/Boston, Greek Revival, Houses

Dr. William Ellery Channing was a leading Unitarian preacher and theologian, who was minister of the Federal Street Church in Boston from 1830-1842. Asher Benjamin designed the 1835 house at 83 Mount Vernon Street, on Boston’s Beacon Hill, where Channing and his family lived from 1835 until his death in 1842. Among the distinguished visitors at the house was Charles Dickens, who had breakfast with Channing in 1842. Dr. Channing’s nephew was William Ellery Channing, the Transcendentalist poet.

Massachusetts State House (1798)

by Dan/December 19, 2008October 20, 2009/Boston, Federal, Public Buildings

The Massachusetts State Capitol building in Boston, designed by Charles Bulfinch, was completed in 1798. The government of Massachusetts had previously used the Old State House, so the current building is sometimes called the New State House. It was built on Beacon Hill, on land once owned by John Hancock. The site on Beacon Hill was lowered 50 feet for the construction, with the excavated dirt being used as landfill. Bulfinch modeled his design on William Chambers‘s Somerset House and James Wyatt‘s Pantheon, both in London. The capitol building‘s dome was originally made of wood, which soon leaked. In 1802, it was covered with copper by Paul Revere’s company. Originally painted gray, to resemble stone, it was later painted yellow and, in 1874, gilded with gold. It was most recently regilded in 1997. The building was expanded with the addition of a yellow brick annex in 1895 and the two massive marble wings, on each side, in 1914 and 1917. The State House underwent a restoration in 2000. Today, this important structure, which Oliver Wendell Holmes once called, “the hub of the solar system,” is open to the public for tours.

William Hickling Prescott House (1808)

by Dan/November 24, 2008September 17, 2016/Boston, Federal, Houses

William Hickling Prescott was an important nineteenth century historian who is best known for his works, History of the Conquest of Mexico (1843) and History of the Conquest of Peru (1847). The latter work was written in a house that Prescott lived in on Beacon Street in Boston from 1845 to 1859. The 1808 house (on the left in the photo above) was designed by Asher Benjamin and features Greek design motifs and a Federal style doorway. William Makepeace Thackeray, a friend of Prescott, visited the house. Thackeray was as inspired to write his novel, The Virginians (1859), after seeing two crossed swords displayed in the home, one belonging to Prescott‘s grandfather (Col. William Prescott) and one by Prescott’s wife’s father (Capt. John Linzee), each on opposing sides at the Battle of Bunker Hill. The Prescott House is now a museum and the headquarters of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Francis Parkman House (1830)

by Dan/November 22, 2008September 17, 2016/Boston, Federal, Houses

Francis Parkman was one of nineteenth century America’s most noted historians. His first book, The Oregon Trail (1849), became a classic and he went on to write his multi-volume epic, France and England in North America. From 1865 until his death in 1893, Francis Parkman resided at a house at 50 Chestnut Street on Boston’s Beacon Hill. It is one of several houses built sometime in the late 1820s or 1830s by Cornelius Coolidge.

Here’s an additional photo and a list of Parkman‘s works (with links to Google Books) which, although dated in many ways, are considered to be significant literary works: Continue reading “Francis Parkman House (1830)”

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.