USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The book of Boston: the Federal period, 1775 to 1837 > Part 4
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Here large mansions were erected, in four groups of double or twin houses. These sold for $8,000 each, a high
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The Tontine Crescent
price in those days before electricity, plumbing, and central heating. They were handsome, with the characteristic Bul- finch features, such as recessed arches framing the first-floor windows and pilasters on the façade above. Later a project- ing enclosed entrance porch or vestibule was added. This became popular on both large and small houses all over New England. These fine homes were of brick painted gray. The painting of brick houses, perhaps to make them more weatherproof, is thought to have been introduced by Bul- finch at this time.
The center of the Tontine Crescent was higher and emphasized by an arch spanning a passageway, now ** Arch Street. Above this archway were the rooms of the Massa- chusetts Historical Society and the Boston Public Library. Part of the center section with pilasters and a Palladian win- dow was later reproduced and may be seen at number 18 Milk Street at the end of Sewall Place, a small byway.
The grassy tree-shaded park in front of the Tontine Crescent, three hundred feet long, was enclosed by an iron railing and had a large classic urn set up in the center in memory of Benjamin Franklin. This was brought from Eng- land by Bulfinch and now stands over his grave in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge.
It is a great loss to Boston that the Tontine Crescent, so important in American architecture, is gone, but more than that, it is a great pity that this artistic venture should have been the cause of the financial ruin of the Bulfinch family. The withdrawal of his partners, due to the economic stress of the times, forced him into bankruptcy and a term in jail for debt. This distinguished gentleman, who did so much for Boston and the architecture of his country, de- served a better fate.
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Pearl Street showing the Richardson and Harris Houses at the corner of High Street
Other Brick Houses in the Federal South End
Near the Crescent the streets leading off Washington Street to the harbor on the south and the Common on the north were also residential. Here on Essex Street Gilbert Stuart, the well-known American portrait painter, made his home from 1806 until he died in 1828. These quiet streets were lined with blocks of brick town houses joined together. Some were uniform but not designed as one building, like the Crescent. In addition there were detached mansions with gardens and fine stables of classic design in the rear. All were close to the new brick sidewalks. Most of the houses had iron railings and many had small balconies of iron wrought with delicate classic motifs. Shade trees were planted along the streets and in the yards at the rear of the houses, lindens
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Portrait of Thomas Handasyd Perkins, c. 1827, by Gilbert Stuart
and elms being the favorites. Summer Street was one of the loveliest of these streets. No one realized then that this quiet residential section later in the same century would become the shopping center of a great city.
Farther on, toward the water and on Fort Hill, now leveled, were more handsome homes. On tree-shaded Pearl Street were many large free-standing mansions, among them the residences of Jeffrey Richardson, Jonathan Harris, Josiah Quincy, James Perkins and his brother Thomas Handasyd Perkins. The latter, a leading merchant who traded in China and Java, had a fine home at number 17 with a double stair leading to the front door, a gate for carriages to drive in, and the usual courtyard and stable in the rear. Here Lafayette
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The BOOK of BOSTON
sent his son, George Washington Lafayette, to live with his friend Colonel Perkins during the French Revolution. In 1833 Perkins moved to a bow-front house on Temple Place, now incorporated in the Provident Institution for Savings, and gave his Pearl Street home to the Institute for the Blind, which still bears his name.
Colonnade Row, by Bulfinch, from the Common Design on the cover of the music Promenade Quick Step, 1843, showing the Tremont Street Mall
Colonnade Row
Opposite the south side of the Common, looking to tree-shaded Tremont Street Mall and the Charles River, stood a row of stately homes built in 1810 and attributed to Bulfinch, known as Colonnade Row. These nineteen at- tached town houses, now replaced by stores, stretched from West to Mason streets on Tremont Street and had a Doric colonnade supporting a delicate iron balcony under the long drawing-room windows of the second floor. The elderly Dorothy Quincy Hancock, then widowed and remarried to Captain James Scott, lived here and stood in the window to wave to her old friend Lafayette as he passed by during his visit to Boston in 1825.
Park Street Residences
In the early 19th century the old colonial Sentry Lane that led up to Sentry or Beacon Hill was straightened and paved to become the residential Park Place, later called ** Park Street. Here at the corner of Beacon Street, opposite the new State House, Bulfinch built a large four-story man- sion for Thomas Amory in 1804. Part of this handsome brick dwelling house still stands, although it is defaced by stores. On the Park Street side, at the right of the façade on the first floor, are some of the original windows framed in arched recesses. One half of the entrance portico of stopped fluted columns with carved details in the flutes remains with its splendid stone "horseshoe stair" and graceful curved iron
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Armory-Ticknor House on the left and Park Street Mall on the Common at the right
railing. Still unimpaired at the foot of the steps is a beautiful Adamesque street lamp of the type so popular in London at this time. This great town house has received many dis- tinguished visitors, among them Lafayette, who lodged here in 1825 when he came to Boston to take part in the dedica- tion of the Bunker Hill Monument. In 1830 Professor George Ticknor bought the mansion and installed his famous library, one of the best in Boston.
With proper restoration this house would make an ideal governor's mansion today, not only because it is one of the 96
Bowdoin Square
few Bulfinch residences left to us, but also because it is con- venient to the State House and large enough for a governor's family and the necessary entertaining.
In addition Bulfinch built a row of four uniform houses on Park Street in 1805. These attached town houses had his usual characteristic arched recesses framing the ground-floor windows, and there was also a long wrought-iron balcony of classic detail under the drawing-room windows. Number 4, now the site of the Paulist Fathers Catholic Information Center, was the last to go, in 1956.
Bowdoin Square
The West End, around Bowdoin Square at the foot of Beacon Hill, was another fashionable area being built up at this time. There were blocks of attached brick houses as well as unattached mansions along the new streets. This part of the town where Bulfinch was born was also the birth- place of another prominent Bostonian, Harrison Gray Otis (1765-1848). Descended from a long line of lawyers, he was unable to go to London to study law after his gradua- tion from Harvard, as the Revolutionary War had ruined his father financially. In 1780 he wrote to Samuel Breck "that the utmost extent of his desires as to riches was to be worth $10,000." In 1786 he had nothing, but fourteen years later, before he was thirty-five, he was rich. He had become a successful lawyer and made a fortune in real-estate in- vestments.
At the corner of Cambridge and Lynde streets he built the ** first of his magnificent homes, all designed by Bul- finch. This large three-story house resembles a drawing by
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First Harrison Gray Otis House now the Headquarters of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities
Bulfinch in his sketchbook and a similar one, done in color, found among the Otis papers. Built in 1797, beside the West Church, it is of brick with a Venetian or Palladian window over the entrance and a lunette window on the floor above, an arrangement Bulfinch also used on St. Stephen's Church. 98
Interior of the first Harrison Gray Otis House by Bulfinch - The Dining Room
The sash windows are rectangular, having the small panes set six over six, except on the third floor where the windows are shorter, almost square, as is usual in these houses. The entrance steps are of stone, as are the keystoned window lintels. The original cornice, of which one section remains,
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The BOOK of BOSTON
was of wood and is to be restored around the entire façade. The graceful semicircular entrance porch is a later addition probably dating from about 1810.
The interior is spacious and has the usual plan of the period. On the ground floor at the right is the front parlor, on the left the dining room, with the kitchen in the rear. Above are the drawing room, the front chamber, and other bedchambers. The servants' sleeping rooms were on the top floor. The fine entry or entrance hall is in the center of the house. Here a straight flight of stairs with delicate urn turned and twisted balusters leads to the second floor only. This grand staircase is lit by the fan and side lights of the entrance door and by two Palladian windows, one on each landing on the front and rear of the upper hall. The back stairs rising to the top of the house around a rectangular well are simpler in design with round newels and plain square balusters. Such an arrangement of two staircases is often found in these town houses.
The dining room is well known for its superb wood- work with carved classic details in white on an Adam-green background, and is an outstanding example of the delicate late Georgian style of Bulfinch's domestic interior finish.
Restoration was necessary in order to bring this im- portant early Federal house back to its original dignity, for, like so many other beautiful old buildings, it was allowed to deteriorate as the neighborhood changed. It was defaced by shops and their trade signs, including a Chinese laundry and a "Ladies' Turkish Bath," and the upper floors were used as a rooming house. In 1916 the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities acquired the property as its headquarters and it is now restored and appropriately fur- nished. It is open to the public for a small fee which includes
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Beacon Hill
a visit to the ** museum attached to the rear of the house. Here there is a splendid collection of architectural frag- ments, decorative arts and crafts. Here, also, is a large col- lection of photographs showing exteriors and interiors of New England homes and other buildings.
Beacon Hill
In 1795 a group of prosperous people, including Bul- finch and Otis, formed a syndicate called the "Mount Ver- non Proprietors." They purchased the colonial farm lands of the portrait painter, John Singleton Copley, after he moved to England, and began to transform Mount Vernon, the southwest slope of Beacon Hill, into another new res- idential district. In 1799 streets were laid out and lots sold. The colonial pastures and blueberry bushes disappeared as the Hill developed. Between 1806 and 1812 fifteen houses were built on the old Copley land. Earlier houses had been built by some of the Mount Vernon Proprietors for their own use and probably to stimulate building in the neighbor- hood as well.
One of the first of these houses was the second mansion designed by Bulfinch for Harrison Gray Otis. Built in 1802 on Olive Street, on the ridge of the Hill, now * 85 Mount Vernon Street, it is set back thirty feet from the street with a 1 lawn in front. This pretentious, free-standing brick town house has the usual white classic trim. It retains much of the proper setting and is still a private residence. There have been few outward changes except for the entrance, which has been moved from the west front to the east, and the addition of a bowed room which projects on the west. The main entrance
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Second Harrison Gray Otis House by Bulfinch
on the side opening onto the cobblestone carriageway was a new idea at this time in Boston and is thought to have been introduced by Bulfinch. The stately street façade, differing markedly from the first Harrison Gray Otis house, shows Bulfinch's versatility. The four long embrasured sash win-
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Detail of the Second Harrison Gray Otis House
dows open onto wrought-iron balconies of Chinese fretwork design. White wooden Corinthian pilasters which ornament the upper stories accent the façade. All the windows have stone lintels and the new slat blinds which were just coming into fashion. Above the cornice is a roof rail and on the roof
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Third Harrison Gray Otis House by Bulfinch
is a chamfered cupola. Both of these new features soon be- came characteristic of the larger New England mansions. Many sea captains' and merchants' houses had these glazed cupolas from which they watched for their returning ships. Several may still be seen on Beacon Hill. The interior, al- though altered, retains some of the original features.
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Detail of the third Harrison Gray Otis House
In 1806 Mr. Otis built his * third mansion designed by Charles Bulfinch. This was his home until his death forty years later. Here he entertained many notable people includ- ing President Monroe, who came for a New England Thanksgiving dinner in 1817. This great house stands on its original site at 45 Beacon Street on the down slope of the
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The BOOK of BOSTON
Hill, overlooking the Common. It is one of the few in Bos- ton with its stable unchanged nearby. The four-story house of brick with white trimmings has stone lintels over the windows on the upper floors and wooden cornices above the long sash windows of the drawing room on the second floor. These windows open onto wrought-iron balconies of in- teresting design, combining the two accents of the period, classic and oriental, in the Greek key and Chinese fret detail, which is repeated in the railings along the street and on the entrance-porch roof. There are two entrances, the front on the street and the other opening onto the cobblestone car- riage driveway at the side, both with rectangular porticoes and stone steps. The house is unchanged on the exterior except for the ground floor, where a granite basement was added later, and the bow end on the east was obliterated in 1831 when Otis built another house (now number 44 Beacon Street) for one of his daughters, Mrs. Ritchie, on the garden lot. (See illus. on p. 165.)
The tree-shaded yard and the old stable are still there. This stable has the arched doors and fine proportions which make these Federal buildings so important architecturally.
The interior is completely changed, leaving no hint of its former beauty. Originally the oval room, of which only a part remains, formed the bow end on the garden side. The fine interior finish is also gone, but the stories of the gay social life of the early 19th century here live on. Quan- tities of food were always on hand for Otis's family of eleven children and the many friends who came in and out. It was said that every afternoon a ten-gallon blue-and-white Lowestoft punch bowl was filled and placed on the landing halfway up to the drawing room for the refreshment of these visitors. This stately house is now used and well cared for by the present owners, the American Meteorological Society.
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Stable and Yard of the third Harrison Gray Otis House
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87 Mount Vernon Street
Beacon Hill
Other houses on the Hill are attributed to Bulfinch or reflect his taste. Outstanding among these is the mansion at * 87 Mount Vernon Street built by Stephen Higginson, Jr., now the headquarters of the Colonial Society of Massa- chusetts.
The Higginson family were loyal Federalists and prom- inent Bostonians. Stephen Higginson, Senior, a wealthy mer- chant and former sea captain, moved here from Salem in 1778. He was influential in establishing our Navy Yard at Charlestown, across the Charles River from Boston. Like many boys of those days who went to sea in their teens and were sea captains in their early twenties, he made many voyages and acquired a wide experience.
Also like many other Americans of these days, he traveled abroad and was familiar with the "latest taste." In 1800 and again from 1806-1812 he lived in London, and the last two of his three wives were British, the daughters of a wealthy merchant. His Boston residence from 1811-1828 was at 49 Mount Vernon Street.
His son, Stephen Higginson, Jr., also lived graciously. His home in Boston from 1807-1810 was the large brick attached town house adjoining 89 Mount Vernon Street. These dwellings were built at the same time and may have been twin houses, but number 89 now is completely changed. The Higginson house purchased from Bulfinch retains much that is original, including the arched recesses framing the ground-floor windows, the stone upper-window lintels, and the wooden cornices above the long windows on the second floor, also found on the Amory-Ticknor and the third Otis houses. Set high on the Hill with a stable in the rear, it is approached by a graceful, curved cobblestone carriageway which is still in use today.
The interior plan is characteristic of these town houses. The front parlor is on one side of the entrance and the
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The BOOK of BOSTON
dining room on the other, with the kitchen in the rear equipped with a wide cooking fireplace and the usual brick oven. The entry or center hall retains the fine circular stair winding to the fourth story and lit by a roof-light above set with radiating panes of clear white glass.
A brick house built in 1804 (now 55 Mount Vernon Street) is also attributed to Bulfinch but is probably the work of Asher Benjamin. Although altered, it is noteworthy for the entrance on the side without a carriageway, the brick cornice, and window embrasures.
On Chestnut Street there are three beautiful attached town houses, now numbers * 13, 15, and 17, built in 1806 and attributed to Bulfinch. These were purchased by Mrs. Hepzibah Swan and, later, given to her daughters when they married. Mrs. Swan, the only woman among the Mount Vernon Proprietors, was the wife of Colonel James Swan, previously mentioned on page 30. These fine houses have been somewhat altered but still have many original details. The entrance doorways, set in a rectangular recess and placed at the side of the façade, are flanked by slender fluted Doric columns under a wide lintel, and the long drawing- room windows open onto individual bowed balconies of delicately wrought iron.
All three houses originally had brick stables in the rear. These were of two levels because of the slope of the hill, with the horse stalls on the ground floor and the * carriage house above. This upper floor opened onto Mount Vernon Street and may be recognized today, although it is now re- built into one-story homes. They can never be more than thirteen feet high due to a restriction in Mrs. Swan's deeds to her daughters. The deeds also provide for the preservation of an inclined pathway, cight feet wide, through which the
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13, 15, 17 Chestnut Street
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Doorway of 17 Chestnut Street
horses were formerly brought up from the stableyard to the carriage house. One of these houses, now number 60 Mount Vernon Street, was for many years the studio of Mrs. Swan's great-granddaughter.
The interiors of numbers 13, 15, and 17 Chestnut Street had spacious double parlors divided by archways with doors. These rooms were enriched with beautiful mantels and del- icately reeded door and window trims. Number 17 still has the superb circular staircase with the slender carved balusters and sweeping handrail. After being in the Swan family for generations, this house has today been made into apartments.
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Portrait of Colonel James Swan by Gilbert Stuart
Elegant furnishings sent home by Colonel Swan adorned these town houses of his daughters' and his wife's two res- idences. Mrs. Swan spent the winters at 16 Chestnut Street and went to her country house in Dorchester on May first. Much of this French furniture and some of the objets d'art, after being in 17 Chestnut Street for many years, are now on view in the Museum of Fine Arts.
Judge Tudor, whose winter home was on Court Street and summer place in Saugus, was another Bostonian of note. His two sons made names for themselves in very different ways. William began in 1811 the publication of The North
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The BOOK of BOSTON
American Review, which became one of the leading period- icals. He also was one of the founders of the Boston Athe- nacum, established in 1808. This private library was located at 13 Pearl Street in 1822, in the mansion generously donated by Mr. James Perkins. The Athenaeum also housed the American Academy of Arts and Sciences which had been founded in 1791. Both of these distinguished institutions are making important intellectual contributions today.
Frederick Tudor, William's brother, to the amazement of his friends, made a fortune selling New England ice in
Blue Staffordshire printed ware plate with a view of the James Perkins House on Pearl Street given by him to the Boston Athenaeum
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Boston Common to the State House, 1815-20, by J. R. Smith show- ing the Frederick Tudor House fourth from the left, the Armory-Ticknor House on the right and the cows on the Common
the West Indies. He purchased the Thorndike house on the corner of Beacon and Joy streets, now the site of the Tudor Apartments, for his residence. This stately mansion had a large cupola on the roof commanding a view of the harbor. Undoubtedly from here he watched his ships set sail for the tropics with their cargoes of ice. (See illus. above.)
Many of the best examples of Beacon Hill homes are in run-down neighborhoods not yet reclaimed.
The fine double house at * 26 Allston Street, built in 1811 by Cornelius Coolidge, is one of these. It serves as an apartment house now, but the exterior still has its original well-proportioned brick façade and graceful iron railing framing the stone double stairway which leads to the second- floor entrances.
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Double house at 26 Allston Street
There were other architects working on the Hill to- gether with good housewrights and builders. The construc- tion of the houses was solid and the craftsmanship good in these early Federal days. The house at 74 Pinckney Street, now the home of the author, was designed by the architect John Kutts and built by Weeks and Perrin. This small brick II6
Beacon Hill
house of three-and-a-half stories, built in 1829, is unusual in that there is an agreement filed with the decd noting the type of construction (to include a brick sidewalk), the prices of wallpapers (some with borders), the black marble mantel- pieces, and other details. The interior still remains for the most part as it was built, with the circular staircase in the entry leading to the second floor and the rectangular rear staircase winding to the top of the house (both with plain round balusters), the inside shutters and outside slat blinds on the windows, two beautiful Wyatt windows, all five fireplaces with their mantelpieces, and the Prussian-blue front and rear doors.
Wyatt window at 74 Pinckney Street
The BOOK of BOSTON
Behind this house, approached by a narrow brick pas- sageway, is the * "Hidden House" - so called because it is not on any street. This tiny house was built on a field in the rear of 74 Pinckney Street and is now completely sur- rounded by larger brick homes.
On some streets there are groups of houses with similar architectural details. There are several * Wyatt windows on West Cedar Street and beautiful entrance doors deeply * re- cessed in archways on Chestnut Street.
Chestnut Street houses showing the recessed arched doorways
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9 West Cedar Street, home of Asher Benjamin
A range of houses on West Cedar Street, with a long iron balcony of classic detail extending under the second- floor drawing-room windows, is attributed to Asher Ben- jamin. His own home, now number * 9, built in 1833, was one of these. Inside, rising from the entry to the top of the house, is the original staircase curving around an oval well. The smooth round balusters encircle the lower newel post and on the handrail above is a "peace button" of mushroom shape. These were frequently found on the stairways of this period and were supposed to symbolize the fact that the house was satisfactory, the bill paid, and the builder and the owner at peace.
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Twin houses, 54 and 55 Beacon Street, by Asher Benjamin
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Detail of 54 and 55 Beacon Street
In 1808 a young merchant, James Smith Colburn, built the beautiful brick twin houses opposite the Common which are now * 54 and 55 Beacon Street. The former was for his sister's family and the latter for his own. These bow-front residences designed by Asher Benjamin were among the first of this type in Boston where the swell-front style was to become very characteristic of the town houses.
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The BOOK of BOSTON
They are adorned on the ground floor with a colonnade of slender fluted Doric columns supporting a balcony of delicate ironwork under the long windows of the drawing rooms above. The upper façade is decorated with white wooden pilasters terminating in a rich cornice and a roof rail. Smaller balconies of the same ironwork accent the upper stories connecting the balanced curves of the façade, and two "lanthorn" or dormer windows light the garret of each house. The fanlighted entrances have side lights to the floor and are placed in the center of this double façade. At one time these stately brick mansions were painted yellow with white trim. Within are oval dining rooms on the ground floor with drawing rooms above and bedchambers in the upper stories. These were among the first oval rooms in Boston and are among the few surviving in the city today.
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