•*'•" ?,»5 5) An . ?i '•:^>r' l:. • t*. fume fymaru Patrick Donahoe, 1811-1901 Gura slan do Given by James Ford BEACON HILL Its Ancient Pastures and Early Mansions Pi <u O -2 ffl M «; ^ o o (^ BEACON HILL Its Ancient Pastures and Early Mansions BY ALLEN CHAMBERLAIN With Illustrations BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1924 AND I92S, BY ALI^ CHAMBERLAIN ALL RIGHTS RESERVED W^t Bititiitilie petite CAMBRIDGE • MASSACHUSETTS PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. ACKNOWLEDGMENT THESE studies of the older real estate ownerships of Beacon Hill were originally- made for the 'Boston Evening Transcript/ and were published by that paper in 1923, 1924 and 1925 as a series of sixteen illustrated articles. In spite of due diligence in the collection of the facts, and notwithstanding painstaking efforts to avoid typo- graphical errors, some inaccuracies of statement were inadvertently included in the original papers. Those papers are here reproduced only after careful revision, partially in the light of subsequent infor- mation, several of the chapters having been re- written or expanded. Without the inspiring and whole-hearted assist- ance given the writer by many recognized authori- ties on various aspects of the problems involved in these researches, the result would have been far less satisfactory. Most appreciative acknowledgment of their aid is therefore made to Julius H. Tuttle, Librarian, and to Worthington C. Ford, Editor, of the Massachusetts Historical Society; to Samuel Eliot Morison, historian, biographer of Harrison Gray Otis; to Walter K. Watkins, high authority on Boston antiquarian lore; to William Sumner Appleton, Corresponding Secretary of the Society ACKNOWLEDGMENT for the Preservation of New England Antiquities; to the late Irwin C. Cromack, long in the engineer- ing service of the city of Boston; to John H. Edmonds, Curator of the State Archives; to Edward H. McGlenen, City Registrar; to the Reverend Charles A. Place, authority on the work of Charles Bulfinch; to Ellen Mudge Burrill, com- piler of the Historical Notes on the State House; to the officers of the Bostonian Society, of the City Assessing Department, of the Boston Public Library, of the Boston Athenaeum; to many repre- sentatives of those families early associated with the development of the west slope pastures; and to George S. Mandell, Managing Editor of the * Boston Transcript,' for his encouragement of the undertaking. The sources of information from which the facts here presented were drawn were the Suffolk Registry of Deeds, the files of the Suffolk Probate Office, the original assessment books of the Boston Assessors, the plan files of the Street Department of Boston, the private letter and document files of H. G. Otis, through the courtesy of their owner, the manuscript abstracts of title prepared by Nathaniel Ingersoll Bowditch during his long practice as a conveyancer (now in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society), the 'Gleaner* papers by Bowditch in the Fifth Report of the Boston Record Commissioners, the original assess- vi ACKNOWLEDGMENT ment rolls relating to the United States tax on dwelling houses in 1798 (now in the library of the New England Historic-Genealogical Society), the Boston Directory (a full set in the library of the Bostonian Society), and certain private diaries and letter-books of the early nineteenth century to which access was generously given by the present owners. CONTENTS I. Fence-Viewing in the Ancient Pastures i II. Trimountain's Summits 27 III. Social Transitions of a Century 42 IV. The Mount Vernon Proprietors 49 V. Copley Title Complexities 61 VI. How High was Mount Vernon yo VII. Early Building on Mount Vernon 85 VIII. A Typical Georgian Mansion 105 IX. Dr. Joy's Suburban Home 113 X. Urbanizing a Country Place 127 XI. Governor Hancock's Manor 146 XII. The Proprietors' Earliest Venture 160 XIII. LouisBURG Square 187 XIV. Building-Costs in the Thirties 206 XV. The North Slope Village 213 XVI. The Oldest of them All 236 XVII. Some Eccentricities 251 XVIII. Of Shade-Trees and Gardens 263 XIX. Early Architects and Builders 273 Index 293 ILLUSTRATIONS David Sears Mansion as Originally Built on the Site of Copley's Residence, 41 and 42 Beacon Street Frontispiece Reproduced by permission of the Somerset Club, now occupying the remodeled building Plan Showing the Ancient Pasture Fence Lines as They would Appear if Rebuilt through the Streets and Houses of 1925 2 Data for the old property lines are from Gleaner Papers, vol. 5, Boston Record Commissioners; Osgood Carlton plan of Copley land, 1794, Suffolk Deeds, L. 387, f. 271; Mather Withington plan, Copley and Allen lands, 1796, L. 192, f. 198; Bowditch manuscript title abstracts, Mass. Hist. Soc, vol. 4, p. 388; vol. 5, pp. 44, 68, 330; vol. 6, pp. 98, 2Z^, 354; vol. 8, p. 306; vol. II, pp. 344, 410; vol. 12, p. 352; vol. 17, pp. 360, 370, Data for the old Town Plot are from Osgood Carlton plan of Hancock land, 1795, Suffolk Deeds, L. 828, f. 266; Bowditch abstracts, vol. i, p. 235; Boston Street Commissioners' ancient plans, vol. i, pp. 3, 20. Beacon Hill and the Mount Vernon Street Side of THE Original State House 30 From a lithograph made in 1855 by George G. Smith after a drawing by J. R. Smith about 18 10 A Calculation of the Original Summit Elevation Based on Dr. Lathrop's Well Soundings of 1797 2^ Mrs. Jonathan Mason 44 Reproduced from the portrait by Gilbert Stuart through the cour- tesy of the owner *A Prospective View of Part of the Commons* 50 From a water-color drawing by Christian Remick in 1768 xi ILLUSTRATIONS Four of the Mount Vernon Proprietors: Charles Bulfinch 58 From the portrait by Mather Brown painted in London in 1786 Mrs. James Swan 58 From a portrait by Gilbert Stuart; reproduced by courtesy of the Franklin H. Sargent Estate, New York Harrison Gray Otis ^8 From a portrait by Gilbert Stuart, 1814 Jonathan Mason ^8 From a portrait by Gilbert Stuart, 1805, reproduced through the courtesy of the owner Beacon Street from the Common 64 From a water-color by J. R. Smith made about 1809 Charles Bulfinch's Street and Lot Plan of 1796 Superimposed on the Layout Finally Adopted 70 Mansion of Jonathan Mason, 1802, on Mount Ver- non Street Opposite Walnut Street 86 From a drawing made in 1836 Plan of the Enoch Brown Pasture as Originally Developed 90 87 Mount Vernon Street 100 Built by Stephen Higginson, Jr., 1805. Attributed to Bulfinch 85 Mount Vernon Street 100 Built by H. G. Otis, 1801-02. Attributed to Bulfinch Thomas Perkins 106 From the portrait by Gilbert Stuart, 1807; reproduced through the courtesy of the owner Crystal Chandelier Made in England for the Thomas Perkins Mansion, Mount Vernon Street 108 Furnishings from the Thomas Perkins Mansion 108 xii ILLUSTRATIONS English Needlepoint Wing Chair, once the Pro- perty OF Governor Dummer, from the Thomas Perkins House iio Dr. John Joy as a Boy 122 From a portrait by Badger; reproduced through the courtesy of the owner Walnut and Beacon Streets in 1843: John Phillips House and Benjamin P. Homer House 128 From an old lithograph John Callender's 'Small House for Little Money/ 1802, Corner of Mount Vernon and Walnut Streets 128 A Guide to the Remaining Ancient Houses and Historic Sites on Beacon Hill 160 A portion of J. G. Hales's property map of Boston, 1814 The Swan Houses, 13, 15, and 17 Chestnut Street, 1806 164 First House Built by the Mount Vernon Proprie- tors, 29A Chestnut Street, Once the Home of Edwin Booth 164 Louisburg Square as it was in the Fifties 198 From a woodcut in Gleason's Drawing Room Companion, by cour- tesy of Thomas N. Metcalf SSi Sl-> ^^^ 59 Mount Vernon Street 210 Nos. 55 and 57 were built in 1804 from plans by Bulfinch. No. 59 was built in 1 837 from plans by Edward Shaw. No. 57 was altered (widened) in 1838 by Cornelius Coolidge, owner and architect. Daniel Webster lived in it, 1817-19, and Charles Francis Adams, 1842-86. Thomas Bailey Aldrich lived for many years in No. 59 The Patriarchs, 44 and 46 Temple Street 220 Built by Bela Clap about 1787 xiii ILLUSTRATIONS MiDDLETON AND GlAPION HoUSE, 5 AND 7 PiNCKNEY Street 220 Basement Kitchen of Ditson House 242 43 South Russell Street, Built by Oliver Ditson's Father about 1797 242 Eccentric Wall of Mr. Otis's Stable 260 The Mislocated House, 23 Revere Street 260 The Great Horse-Chestnut in the Back Yard of 61 Beacon Street 266 A Corner of One of the Back-Yard Gardens 270 An Ancient Linden Tree in a Pinckney Street Back Yard 270 54 and ^^ Beacon Street, 1807 274 Prescottj the historian, lived in the upper house Newel-Post and Mantel-Detail of Bela Clap House, 44 and 46 Temple Street 288 BEACON HILL Its Ancient Pastures and Early Mansions BEACON HILL I FENCE-VIEWING IN THE ANCIENT PASTURES DURING the summer and autumn of 1855 the * Boston Evening Transcript' pub- hshed a series of articles dealing with the history of real estate titles in Boston, and chiefly concerning those on and around Beacon Hill. The author, who signed himself 'Gleaner,' was Nathaniel IngersoU Bowditch, a son of the dis- tinguished mathematician, Dr. Nathaniel Bow- ditch, and himself the best-informed and leading conveyancing lawyer of the city in his day. Those papers are classic and are recognized by all anti- quaries as furnishing the most complete and de- pendable information as to the ancient ownerships, and as to the development of the Hill, anywhere to be found. Happily they have been preserved in convenient form through their republication by the Boston Record Commissioners in 1880 as a city document.