From Dave "Fancy Boy" Brigham:
As promised, I am starting this third and final installment in my Beacon Hill series with a ghost building.
Located on the side of a Suffolk University residence hall, the outline of a 3 1/2-story brick building was quite stunning as I rounded Bowdoin Street onto Ashburton Place. I don't know when the building was torn down for a parking lot, but I'm glad that its ghost survives. In too many cases, these types of architectural shadows are all we have left of the once-vibrant, more human-scaled buildings in older cities like Boston.
As I mentioned in the first two posts -- Part II and Part I -- walking through Beacon Hill can be like walking through a movie set, with so many beautiful, historic, well-mainlined homes, quirky architectural details and narrow, cozy streets. In this wrap-up post, I will cover more of those same types of things. So let's get after it!
Let's check out some flesh-and-blood buildings of note, shall we?
Located on Beacon Street, across from the State House, the Claflin Building dates to 1873 and has architectural details that really stand out and are unlike any I've seen around the city. Architect William Preston renovated the building in 1884 for the Boston University School of Religious Education and Social Service, per Wikipedia. Here's a cool picture of the building from that era. Of interesting historical note: Alexander Graham Bell taught vocal physiology -- the mechanics of speech -- in this building, per the Boston University web site.
In what are called the spandrels of the Claflin Building are two terra-cotta portrait plaques: one of German painter and printmaker Albrecht Durer, who was born in 1471; and one of painter Anthony van Dyck, who was born in what is now Belgium in 1599.
(The Albrecht Durer portrait.)
(The Anthony van Dyck portrait.)
I have no idea why the university chose those two artists, but I think it's really cool that the plaques are still there.
On the other side of the State House, at the intersection of Derne and Hancock streets, I spied this unique building.
Built in 1876, this Egyptian Revival house is rare in Boston, according to a plaque on the front of the three-condo building. "The papyrus capitals on the entryway columns mark the style," per the plaque. Egyptian Revival is "attributed generally to the public awareness of ancient Egyptian monuments generated by Napoleon's conquest of Egypt and Admiral Nelson's defeat of the French Navy at the Battle of the Nile in 1798," per Wikipedia. Many theaters, temples and other buildings were built in this style around the world.
Just down the slope from the State House, along Park Street, sits the fabulous Union Club.
Founded in 1863, the Union Club was formed at the height of the Civil War to show members' stalwart support of the United States, per the club's history page. The club has been in this beautiful building -- the former homes of John Amory Lowell, a wealthy merchant with interests in mills, and businessman and politician Abbott Lawrence -- since six months after its founding. Famous members over the years include poet/essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson, Supreme Court Justice Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge and President Calvin Coolidge. The building dates to the 1830s, per Wikipedia.
Next door to the Union Club is The Paulist Center, below, which holds Catholic masses, feeds homeless people, offers religious classes and in recent years has "amplified its outreach to 18-39 year-olds by adding a staff person whose mission it is to specifically speak to this group," per the group's web site. The organization was founded by Isaac Heckler, who, before starting the Society of St. Paul the Apostle, lived at the Brook Farm Transcendentalist community outside Boston, and experimental Utopian community Fruitlands in Harvard, Mass.
Built in 1956, the Paulist Center includes an auditorium, a chapel, offices and a residence. The building is somewhat institutional-looking, which doesn't make it the most attractive place in the world, but in an area with municipal and state offices, it doesn't look out of place. But I wish it wasn't there. Reading the file for the building at the Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System (MACRIS - one of my new favorite research tools), I learned that developers razed three historic structures so they could put up the Paulist Center: the former home of Boston Mayor Josiah Quincy, who developed Quincy Market and went on to become president of Harvard University; the home of distinguished surgeon John Collins Warren of Harvard Medical School; and the last of four circa-1804 houses designed by renowned architect Charles Bulfinch. I believe at some point the New England Women's Club was located on this site as well.
Oh well.
At the bottom of Park Street stands the Park Street Church.
(The steeple of Park Street Church, with the Millennium Tower in the background.)
Raised in 1810, the church was the tallest building in Boston until 1867, per the church's web site.
If you laid all the pages of the Holy Bible end to end from the Park Street Church heading due north, you might have enough to reach Church On the Hill, home of the Boston Society of the New Jerusalem (Swedenborgian), below.
As regular readers may recall, I am not at all a religious man, but I have a thing for churches. Here's your boilerplate description of the Boston Society of the New Jerusalem, from the church's web site: "The Swedenborgian Church is an open-minded, forward looking Christian church drawing its faith from the Bible as illuminated by the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg."
OK, whatever. What I'm more concerned with here is that in the 1960s the congregation replaced a "beautiful Gothic Revival structure" with the rather boring church/apartment building amalgam you see in the above photo. I call that a damn shame.
Along Beacon Street, near the intersection with Charles Street, sits the King's Chapel Parish House.
Organized in 1686, King's Chapel, located at the corner of Tremont and School Streets, was New England's first Anglican congregation. The stone church was opened in 1754, replacing a wooden structure that rose there in 1689. The parish house, located a half-mile away, contains a chapel, offices, meeting rooms and the minister's residence. The brick town house was "built by two partners in the China Trade in the early 19th century," per the chapel's web site.
A little ways up Beacon Street is, believe it or not, the headquarters of the American Meteorological Society (AMS). The group -- 13,000+ members strong -- "is the nation’s premier scientific and professional organization promoting and disseminating information about the atmospheric, oceanic, and hydrologic sciences," per its web site.
I took this picture because of the rough-looking paint job on the portico. The wood has since been repainted. I had no idea what the building was, until I walked closer and read the sign on the door. And it wasn't until researching this post that I learned this building dates to 1806 (!) and was designed by local architectural icon Charles Bulfinch. Its original incarnation was as a house for Boston's third mayor, Harrison Gray Otis, per the AMS web site. From Otis's death in 1848 until the AMS purchased the building in 1958, there were three other owners.
Further on up Beacon Street, two blocks from the State House, is the Phillips-Winthrop House.
Yet another Charles Bulfinch construction, the house at One Walnut Street has been home to "some of Boston’s most prominent figures. John Phillips, first Mayor of Boston lived here and his son, famous abolitionist Wendell Phillips, was born here in November, 1811. Later occupants included Thomas Lindall Winthrop, Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts from 1826 to 1832 and Thomas Dixon, Consul for the Netherlands. In 1939, the house was donated to the Judge Baker Foundation by Mrs. James Storrow. "In June of 1990, The Engineering Center Education Trust purchased the building and this affiliation of engineering and land surveying societies operates the Aldrich Center on the first floor," per the web site for the Aldrich Center. For a complete history of the building, read this Aldrich Center document.
On Chestnut Street, not far from Charles Street, is the Harvard Musical Association headquarters.
Founded in 1837, the association in 1852 erected the Boston Music Hall (now the Orpheum Theater) and formed the Harvard Musical Association Orchestra, which ultimately gave rise to the Boston Symphony, per the group's web site. The HMA's library and concert rooms are available to musicians for practicing and scholars for research. "The association maintains a longstanding tradition of commissioning new works, supporting local non-profit musical organizations, and giving prizes and awards to young performers," per the web site.
The association moved into the above building, the former Malcolm Greenough house, in 1892. "The main floor was dropped four feet in 1907, which required changing the main entrance to Chestnut Street...." per the web site. "With the proceeds of a generous bequest from Julia Marsh, widow of Charles Marsh (member Eben Jordan’s partner in the chain of Jordan Marsh stores), the Association renovated the upper floors in 1913. The third floor, with its warren of leased rooms, was removed and the resulting space conjoined to that of the second floor to create a highly-ornamented, double-height hall (designed by member architect Joseph Everett Chandler) thereafter known as the Marsh Room."
I never would have guessed all that goes on in there.
I would guess, however, that the 21st Amendment has seen all sorts of political shenanigans over the years, seeing as how it's located approximately three crooked politicians' lengths from the State House.
Named for the amendment to the U.S. Constitution that repealed the 18th Amendment, which banned alcohol nationwide, thereby bringing legal booze back into our lives, the bar "was originally designed in 1899 as Boston's most luxurious hotel complete with electricity, running water, a roof garden and the city's first 'passenger lift,'" per the saloon's web site. Over the years it was the men-only Bellevue Pub and the Golden Dome Pub, among others. I'm not sure how long it's been the 21st Amendment. Per the web site, it has long been "a hangout for some of the state's most colorful figures. A good part of the Commonwealth's business was transacted in the Bellevue's dark corners and John F. Kennedy was even rumored to write speeches by the fireplace in the back."
Once again on Beacon Street, not far from the State House, is the pair of buildings below.
On the left is 34 Beacon, which is owned by Northeastern University, and serves as the home of its president, Joseph Aoun. Built in 1825, it was owned for several decades by publisher Little, Brown & Co. It has 14 rooms and is assessed at more than $12 million.
In the middle is 33 Beacon (there are no buildings on the other side of the street here, just Boston Common, hence the odd and even numbering on the same side of the street), which is owned by the City of Boston and serves as a place for high-level meetings, functions and, on occasion, the residence of Boston mayors. The late Tom Menino lived here in 2013 while recovering from a long hospital stay. Known as the Parkman House, the building has a rich and occasionally sordid history.
From the Boston Globe article linked above:
"Parkman House was built on land originally owned by Governor John Hancock. Completed in 1825, the house was sold in 1853 to a widow and her two children who took refuge from unwanted attention.
"They were the family of Dr. George Parkman, a scion of one of Boston’s wealthiest clans. Parkman’s body was chopped into pieces in 1849 and hidden at Harvard Medical College by a chemistry professor. Parkman had been pressuring the professor to repay a debt, and some later blamed the doctor for bringing on his own death.
"Parkman’s wife and children lived in the mansion for the next half century. After the wife and daughter died, the doctor’s son, George F. Parkman, lived there as a recluse, standing in the parlor on the second floor, staring out at Boston Common.
“He would always see squirrels playing,” said Cecily Foster, a former city employee who was involved in renovation of the mansion in 1973 and 1997. “That became his entertainment, watching the squirrels. That’s who he related to, I guess.”
"George F. Parkman commissioned an ornate chandelier with squirrels cast in bronze that still hangs in the second-floor parlor, said Foster, who served as Mayor Kevin White’s personal assistant and as Menino’s director of special events and tourism.
"Parkman died in 1908 and bequeathed the mansion to the city, along with a $5 million trust for upkeep and improvement of nearby parks, a sum that would be the equivalent of almost $125 million today. The Parks Department used the mansion as its headquarters until White renovated the property in 1973."
(Plaque on the house in recognition of George Parkman's bequeathal to the city for maintenance of Boston Common and other parks.)
Attached to the Parkman House, on the right as you are facing the buildings, is 25 Beacon Street.
Built in 1926-27 by American Unitarian Association President Samuel Eliot, 25 Beacon was sold, along with two rear-adjacent properties, for more than $23 million in 2014 and is now condos. The Unitarian Universalist Association had a farewell party at the property at which several figures from the organization's history "came to life" in the form of actors in order to, among other things, express sympathy for the organization's leaders who faced criticism for selling the property.
A personal aside: My parents were Unitarian Universalists for decades, and after he retired from teaching, my father would come up from Connecticut to do some work at the U-U headquarters. I used to drop him off and pick him up in front of that cool trio of buildings above for the two or three days that he was in town. I believe he worked in the buildings behind 25 Beacon that were sold. I never asked him what the buildings were like on the inside. He passed away in 2014 so I may never find out.
The cool thing about Beacon Hill is that I could find out cool historical information about almost any random townhouse or former stable that I wanted to investigate.
Across Joy Street from the Northeastern president's house and the Parkman House, heading away from the State House, is The Tudor at 34 1/2 Beacon Street.
"Constructed 1886," it says on the left side. "Restored 1999" on the opposite side. It was built as an apartment hotel, and for much of the 20th century it housed both apartments and offices. In 1999, it was renovated and converted into 17 exclusive luxury condominiums, per a CL Properties web page.
Alright, let's get to some more plaques.
Located at 55 Beacon Street, this plaque honors William Hickling Prescott, who lived here from 1845 to 1859. "Historian of Spain, Mexico and Peru," the plaque reads. The lower plaque, translated from Spanish, reads: "The Peruvian Government and people in homage to the author of 'History of the Conquest of Peru,' written in Boston in 1846-47 in the first centenary of his death." Or something like that.
Since 1944, the house has been owned by The National Society of The Colonial Dames.
Also along Beacon Street is perhaps the Plaque of All Boston Plaques:
Reverend William Blaxton (aka Blackstone) was the first white settler of Boston, which in 1625 was a Native American settlement known as Shawmut. "[H]e arrived in Weymouth, Massachusetts in 1623 on the ship Katherine," per Wikipedia. While most of his shipmates returned to England in 1625, Blaxton headed north a bit and become Bostonian Number One. Man, that's a gutsy move. Seeing as how he was a man of the cloth, I'm guessing he talked about Jesus to the Native Americans.
The plaque marks the approximate spot along Beacon Street where his house stood.
When the Puritans arrived in nearby Charlestown in 1630 but had trouble finding potable water, Blaxton invited them to settle on his land in Boston. In return, the Puritans granted Blaxton 50 acres, but he sold it back to them. That land is now Boston Common, per Wikipedia. I'm not sure whether he paid the local natives anything for his land, or if he just squatted on it.
In 1635, Blaxton ditched Boston for Rhode Island, where once again he was the first white settler. He died in 1675.
Another well-known Bostonian -- this one a creative native son -- lived along Beacon Street.
John Singleton Copley -- namesake of the square that is home to the Boston Public Library's main branch -- is perhaps the most well-known painter of Colonial America. Born on Long Wharf in 1737, he lived on Beacon Hill before moving to England. He died in London in 1815. Here are some of his best-known works.
While Rev. Blaxton's plaque is the capo di tutti of Boston's countless historic markers, the next one on our little tour is certainly top five in importance to the city's colonial history.
"HERE STOOD THE RESIDENCE OF JOHN HANCOCK," the plaque starts out. Probably heard of that guy, eh? He started an insurance company or something, right? And he had that fancy signature?
No. And yes.
Seriously, though, Hancock was a major mover and shaker before, during and after the American Revolution. He inherited his uncle's importing/exporting business -- he'd moved in with his aunt and uncle after his father died -- and did well with that. He spent his money supporting the colonists against the British crown, and was charged with smuggling and had his boat seized in 1768. The charges were eventually dropped, per Wikipedia. "He served more than two years in the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, and he was the first to sign the Declaration of Independence in his position as president of Congress. He returned to Massachusetts and was elected governor of the Commonwealth, serving in that role for most of his remaining years. He used his influence to ensure that Massachusetts ratified the United States Constitution in 1788," see Wikipedia.
His house was located on the land where the State House now stands. The capitol rose on that property two years after Hancock's death.
From the highest high we go to, well, not the lowest low. But certainly down a few pegs on the name-recognition ladder (trust me, there is such a thing).
William Ellery Channing "was the foremost Unitarian preacher in the United States in the early nineteenth century," according to Wikipedia. As a former Unitarian/Universalist church school kid...this doesn't matter to me at all. Anyway, the house is on Mount Vernon Street.
The next stop on our exploration isn't a plaque, per se, but it's important.
"Corporal Max Hirshovitz was killed in action on July 23, 1918, in Trugny Wood," during World War I, per a commenter on this web page.
The final plaque on my agenda perhaps should have been the first thing in the initial post in this series....
"In 1634 the General Court caused a beacon to be placed on the top of this hill," the plaque starts. "In 1790 a brick and stone monument designed by Charles Bulfinch replaced the beacon but was removed in 1811 when the hill was cut down." A reproduction made of stone was erected in 1898 on the side lawn of the State House. It is pictured below.
There are several statues and memorials all around the State House.
Dedicated on September 11, 2007, the Massachusetts Firefighters Memorial is a 3,000-pound bronze statue created by Bob Shure. It is surrounded by a “Ring of Honor,” that is available to fire department and associations and families to honor deceased firefighters, per the organization's web site.
Nearby is the Massachusetts Law Enforcement Memorial.
The memorial, which is in the shape of a police badge, recognizes the more than 340 law enforcement officers who have lost their lives in the Commonwealth.
There are numerous statues of well-known politicians, military men and even a martyred Quaker all around the State House.
That guy up there, who stands along the southwest lawn of the capitol, is Henry Cabot Lodge. A member of a well-known Boston Brahmin clan, Lodge was a representative in the Mass. State House from 1880-82. He was a U.S. Representative from 1887-93 and a U.S. Senator from 1893-1924.
The next guy wasn't a Brahmin, but he and his Irish-American family had a little bit of money and talked just as oddly as their moneyed British-American counterparts.
John F. Kennedy was the 35th president of the good ol' US of A. Prior to his election (and subsequent assassination), he was a U.S. Representative from 1947-53, and a U.S. Senator from 1953-1960. Look him up.
The next dude has controversy built into his name and his reputation.
That's Gen. Joseph Hooker up there on that steed, placed prominently near the front entrance to the State House. Born in Hadley, Mass., in 1814, Hooker served in the Seminole Wars and the Mexican–American War, per Wikipedia, before resigning from the Army. "At the start of the Civil War, he joined the Union side as a brigadier general, distinguishing himself at Williamsburg, Antietam and Fredericksburg, after which he was given command of the Army of the Potomac."
While Hooker certainly had some victories during the War Between the States, he is "chiefly remembered for his decisive defeat by Confederate General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863," says Wikipedia. Perhaps he'd have won that battle if he'd cut back on his hard-drinking and skirt-chasing. Per Wikipedia: "his headquarters were known for parties and gambling."
In modern times, Hooker has become the subject of protest. In March 2018, the Boston media were filled with stories about a movement to change the name of the State House entrance near the above statue from "General Hooker Entrance" to, well, I'm not sure what. A state representative thought the name "Hooker," being another term for "prostitute," should be removed from the capitol building. She caught a lot of flack for that, but Peter Drummey, librarian at the Massachusetts Historical Society, told Boston magazine that there were rumors during the general's day that he consorted with, well, hookers.
I believe the name still appears above the entrance.
The final statue on my tour around the State House is of a woman who was hanged on Boston Common in 1660 because she refused to disavow her religious beliefs.
Mary Barrett Dyer was a badass. Born in England in 1611, she came to North America in the 1630's, after marrying William Dyer. She worked with well-known thorn-in-the-side-of-Puritan-fathers Anne Hutchinson to organize Bible study groups that went against the theocratic law of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, according to the Quakers in the World web site. Hutchinson and the Dyers were banished from the colony in 1638 for heresy. The Dyers first moved their sacrilegious selves to Rhode Island, and then to England.
There, Mary joined the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). In 1657 she returned to Boston to protest the law banning Quakers. She was arrested and expelled; her husband, who was not a Quaker, was not pinched. There followed more arrests and banishment in Connecticut and Massachusetts, and a return to Rhode Island. In 1660 she traveled once again to Boston to defy the law, and was arrested, convicted and sentenced to hang. On June 1 of that year, she was executed by the colony.
I did a quick search to see when the anti-Quaker laws were repealed but didn't find anything. I'm assuming they're no longer on the books....
There are two more Beacon Hill statues I want to discuss, even though my pictures of them aren't that great.
This is Christopher Columbus, who stands at the north end of Louisburg Square. Why is the man who is credited with discovering America represented in stone in the most tony address on Beacon Hill? Who the hell knows....
The other statue, located at the south end of the square, is of Aristedes.
The Greek statesman, who was nicknamed "the Just," "is remembered for his generalship in the Persian War," per Wikipedia. "The ancient historian Herodotus cited him as 'the best and most honourable man in Athens,' and he received similarly reverent treatment in Plato's Socratic dialogues. The statues were placed in the square in 1850.
As for Louisburg (pronounced "Lewisberg") Square, below, in 2014 it was one of the most expensive residential neighborhoods in the country, per Wikipedia. I'm guessing it's still on that list six years later. Laid out in 1826 by the Mount Vernon Proprietors on pasture land owned by John Singleton Copley, the residential park's homes were constructed between 1833 to 1847. The townhouses sell for tens of millions of dollars. Among the well-to-do current residents are former Secretary of State John Kerry and his wife Teresa Heinz.
Still with me? This has been a looooooong journey, I know. We're almost done, though. Just a few architectural details and some cool storefront signs stand between you and a job well done.
I love the juxtaposition of the classic shell details on the casing around the exterior window along Beacon Street with the peeling paint and more modern white and yellow squares on the interior window.
Also along Beacon Street I spied the cool lantern below.
You can't swing a mink stole in Beacon Hill without hitting a unique architectural flourish.
This harp-looking decoration is on the outside of the aforementioned Harvard Musical Association, inside of which concerts are held for members only.
The next three photos were taken along Ridgeway Lane, which connects busy Cambridge Street near the Old West Church and the Otis House Museum, with Derne Street, which runs directly behind the State House. It's one of many narrow, picturesque alleys that dot Beacon Hill, and which are quite photogenic, although I imagine they can be a bit dicey in the dark. These lanes give one a sense of what Beacon Hill and the old West End looked like 100 years ago.
I've dubbed these the "oven windows." They're on the side of a building known as The Whitwell, where the penthouse apartment costs nearly $14 million. The building at 28-32 Derne Street (corner of Ridgeway Ln.) was formerly known as the Fenton Building, and was owned by Suffolk University until 2015.
Heading down Ridgeway toward Cambridge Street I was quite taken by this tall door/transom combination at the back of an apartment building that faces onto Temple Street.
I just love this doorway, one of so many on Beacon Hill about which I could say those words.
I'm gonna wrap up my Beacon Hill series with some cool storefronts and a bar along Charles Street.
The Sevens Ale House was established in 1933, the year Prohibition ended. I've never been there but from what I've read online it's a place for "just folks" amid all the highfalutin shops and restaurants in the neighborhood.
DeLuca's Market has operated under that name for decades, and while this place has been a grocery store since 1905, I believe it was originally under a different name.
Last, and certainly not least on my tour of Beacon Hill is Gary Drug Co., which was established in 1939.
The store sells medications, medical supplies, health and beauty products, gifts and more, and has been on Charles Street since 1972, when Herman Greenfield bought the business. The place, which is surrounded by antique stores, high-end clothing shops and pricey restaurants, features a window display that seems like something out of a small-town apothecary in the heartland.
These adorable horses are in the left side of the window, and they're pulling....
....a faux wagon advertising miracle hair grow, snake oils and other tonics to cure what ails ya.
As someone who wrote a (too long) short story years ago, which appeared in Movable Feasts: An Anthology, about just such a late-19th century operation, I really got a kick out of this.
Well, that wraps up Beacon Hill. I hope this and other deep dives into neighborhoods and towns inspire you to get out and explore a bit more of the backside of America.
