FRONTISPIECE. “COLONEL THOMAS DAWES” attributed to , c. 1806.(Private collection.) ii OLD-TIME NEW ENGLAND A Quarterly Magazine Devoted to the Ancient Buildings, Household Furnishings, Domestic Arts, Manners and Customs, and Minor Antiquities oj ’ the New England People

BULLETINOF THE !&IETY FORTHE PRESERVATIONOF NEW ENGLANDANTIQUITIES

Vol. LXVIII, Nos. l-2 Summer-Fall 1977 Serial Nos. 249-250

Thomas Dawes: ’s Patriot Architect’

FREDERIC C. DETWILLER*

ne of Boston’s most prominent professionalability in his capacitiesboth as leaders of the Revolution and the a legislator and a principal agent in the 0 Federal Era was Thomas Dawes construction of several Boston area land- (1731-1809), eminent patriot architect. Al- marks of the period. These two aspectsof though little recognized today for his sig- Dawes’s career must be considered to- nificant role in influencing the course of gether in any study of his life, as a signifi- both our political and our architectural his- cant portion of his architectural work was tory, Dawes was well known in his own undertaken, and much of our knowledge of time. A “high patriot,” Col. Thomas it gained, as a result of his political activi- Dawes actively served the public interest in ties. The importance of his combined polit- the military; in numerous town offices; and ical and architectural achievements is best in state governments as representative, summarized by the Rev. Joseph Eckley in senator, councillor, and for a brief period his eulogy delivered at the Old South Meet- as acting governor. His son, Thomas ing House of which Dawes was Senior Dawes, Jr., actually the third by that name, Deacon when he died in 1809: became a Judge of the Supreme Court of But few personshave been brought into Massachusettsg Early in his career as a more public view, and for a long course of builder, Dawes was considereda “mason” time sustaineda greater variety of offkes, by trade. It is clear, however, that he was than our late respectedBrother. capable of architectural draftsmanship by As a native of Boston, he discovereda very earnestattachment to its interest, and the age of twenty, and was referred to as “architect” in 1790.8 Much of Thomas Dawes’s work as a *Frederic C. Detwiller is an architectural histo- mason-architect was done for town and rian in the Consulting Services Department of the S.P.N.E.A. He attendedColumbii Univer- state governments, as well as other institu- sity School of Architectures’ program in Resto- tions and prominent individuals associated ration and Preservation of Historic Architec- with them. He was highly regarded for his ture.

1 Old-Time New England

at an early seasonof life, bent in his mind, majority and may have influenced him from among other things, to the desire of its an early age. Dawes probably obtained exterior improvement. From the caging some of these volumes later in life, particu- which he pursued,and in which he actedas a principal, he greatly amendedthe style of larly Campbell’s work. However, by age architecture;and there is now a considera- twenty he had acquired his Builder’s ble number of private, as well as some Dictionary, which found its way into the public editices in this town and in the collection of Charles Bulfmch and is in- vicinity, indebted for their conveniency and beauty to his skill: The American scribed ‘Thomas Dawes. Jun., 1751.“6 We Academy of Arts and Sciences was sense from comparison with Dawes’s well justified in making him one of its known commissions that he apparently fa- members4 vored his Gibbs Book of Architecture and Salmon’s Palladio Londoniensis, though in Certainly a man of his eminence deserves his own portrait, painted by Gilbert Stuart recognition, and a study of Dawes’s life in 1806, he is shown holding “Palladio” reveals that his architecture and his politics (Frontispiece). were closely interrelated. In order to fully Certainly Dawes had acquired “a per- understand the nature of his buildings, fectly respectable drafting ability” by the therefore, we must delve as well into his age of twenty-one as suggested by a re- background and peripheral activities-all cently discovered 1751 architectural en- of which bear upon the current focus of this graving of the Old State House (rebuilt in discussion, Dawes’s domestic buildings. 1748) inscribed “T. Dawes, Jun. del.“’ In Thomas Dawes’s family, the trade of How Dawes arrived at this level of ability building was in a sense inherited since he before the age of twenty-one years is uncer- was in the fifth generation of an American tain, for aside from the knowledge of his clan consisting of masons, painters, and books, we must rely upon somewhat cir- housewrights, all descending from his cumstantial evidence regarding his early seventeenth-century immigrant ancestor, training-in both building and design. mason .5 As a youth, Dawes Nevertheless, we know from Dawes’s own (known as Thomas, Junior, until the death account that Dawes worked with promi- of his father) may well have been exposed nent and influential members of his profes- to architectural design and pattern books sion in the fields of both architecture and belonging to his forebearsor contemporary government from the beginning. family members. His own well equipped For our knowledge of Dawes’s earliest architectural library, a significant portion work in building construction on the of which survives at the Boston Shirley-Eustis House in Roxbury (c. 1746- Athenaeum, contains several important 47), we are indebted to a nineteenth- early works. Among these are Andrea Pal- century writer who recalls that: ladio’s First Book of Architecture (trans. Godfrey Richards, 6th ed.), published in The house of Dr. Eustis was an elegant 1700, The Builder’s Dictionary and Ar- one. It was built by Governor Shirley, as Col. Dawes, The Judges’ father, and who chitect’s Companion (1734), JamesGibbs ’s was one of Governor Hancocks’ Council- Book of Archifecrure (1739), William Sal- ion toldme, for‘ ,’ saidhe, I‘ was oneofthe mon’s Palladia Londoniensis or The Lon- masonsthat helpedto build it; and you wilJ don Art of Building (1748), and finally, seeif yougo into the stonebasement story, a haU or entry running through its centre, Colen Campbell’s Vitruvius Britannicus (5 kitchensand other necessaryoffices on vols, 1715-71). Many of these were pub one side, and the servants’ rooms on the lished before Dawes had reached the age of other . . . There was an extensivelawn in Thomas Dawes: Bostons’ Patriot Architect FORMERLYUSEDAS A PRISONFORTITUS YES,

ENTRANCETO BASEMENTHALL

BASEMENT1819-21-1855 THE SHIRLEY-EUSTISHOUSE DUDLEYSTREET FRONT

FIG. I. BASEMENT FLOOR PLAN OF THE SHIRLEY-EUSTIS HOUSE BEFORE 1867. Original drawn by Miss A. L. Blaisdellfrom memory and notesin 1922.(SPNEA Archives: re-drawn from the originalby the author.)

front of the house,and the whole estab- Changes were also made in the exterior of lishmentmade then, as it doesnow, a most the house, reportedly at the time of its respectable appearance, suitable for a ownership by Governor Eustis (b. 1753, d. mansionof a govemor.‘s 1825). We may get an accurate picture of Thomas Dawes’s work on this house, the house as it originally appeared, how- with its designattributed to Peter Harrison, ever, by combining our knowledge of the the well-known architect of Newport, R.I., surviving building with that provided by undoubtedly made a great impression on the Reverend Ezra Stiles of Yale, who the young mason.9 Dawes’s description of sketched “Gov. Shirley’s seat” in 1763 the basement plan of Governor Shirley’s (Figs. 2 and 3). As shown in the recon- house lends credence to the layout of this structed elevation based on the Stiles floor as shown in a sketch by Miss A. L. sketch, the househad a monumental facade Blaisdell in the SPNEA Collection (Fig. 1). with its “Front rustic, with Double Doric Her plan details this area at the time of Pilasters,” and a full Doric entablature Madam Caroline Eustis (b. 1781, d. 1865), similar to that on Peter Harrison’s Christ prior to the moving of the house thirty feet Church in Cambridge (1759). With its im- from its original location and consequent posing entrance, heavy quoins and unusual loss of the basement story in 1867.1° fenestration, the Governor’s house would Old-Time New England

FIG. 2. “GOV. SHIRLEY’S SEAT AT DORCHESTER” from Ezra Stiles Itineraries, Vol. I, page 123.(Beineke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.)

FIG. 3. FRONT ELEVATION OF THE SHIRLEY- EUSTIS HOUSE BEFORE REMODELLING. Based on measureddrawings by Bastille-Neiley, Architects, and other surviving evidence. (Drawing by the author.) Thomas Dawes: Boston’s Patriot Architect 5

greatly influence Dawes. His work with the in the attic of Dawes’s house.13 provincial governor served as an antece- Another contemporary description pub- dent to a future endeavor. He also worked lished about 1766 was written by Samuel on the Governor’s Province House in 1755 Waterhouse, a notorious tory and obvious and later collaborated with Gov. Francis enemy of Thomas Dawes. The thinly- Bernard, “a very ingenious architect,” on disguisedtract entitled Proposalsfor Print- the reconstruction of Harvard Hall after its ing by Subscriptionthe History of Adjutant destruction by fiie in 1764.” Trowel [Thomas Dawes] and Bluster One of the most intriguing of Thomas [James Otis] corroborates Adams’s de- Dawes’s early works is undoubtedly his scription and adds further insight into own house, and we are indebted to his Dawes’s peripheral affairs. Waterhouse military and political activities, his intimate suggeststhat his history: “BEGINS WITH friends, and his arch enemies for our rather ADJUTANT TROWEL’S military charac- limited knowledge of this important struc- ter... how by a little smatteringin practical ture. The house was built about 175660 fortification, his first employment was to and incorporated some unusual features, build and repair forts and garrisons. . .” He which satisfied Dawes’s desire for a noble enlarges upon Dawes’s early successas a structure and at the same time served as a popular leader of resistanceagainst British forum for the discussion of radical patriot authority alleging that: views. Dawes was a member of the Pro- vincial Militia when the budding revolu- He assemblesa numberof Malcontentsat a tionary recorded in February largetent, preparedby him for that purpose, 1763that Thomas Dawes held secret meet- to endeavor to obtain votes, in order to ings of “a clique of intriguers” in his new carry a favorite point at the next General house. Court martial, which, partly by strategem, he effects . . . he builds himself a stately house,superior to theGeneral ’swith a large This day learned that the Caucus Club hall in the upperstory, appropriated to the meetsat certain times in the Garret of Tom same use as his largetent.” Dawes, the adjutant of the Boston Regi- ment. He has a large House, and he has a movable partition in his Garret, which he James Otis, the firebrand of the Revolu- takes down, and the whole Club meets in tion whose oratory is credited with an im- one Room. There they smoke tobaccotil ‘ you camtot see from one end of the garret portant role in inciting the rebellion, appar- to the other. There they drink Sip, I sup ently owed a significant debt to Dawes. pose, and there they choose a moderator According to Waterhouse, “Bluster, dis- who puts questionsto the vote regularly; appointed in his ambition . . . Finding every and selectmen,assessors, collectors, war- dens, tirewards, and representativesare other method fail, he applies to Trowel-is regularly chosenbefore they are chosenin admitted to his junto, or nocturnal the town. Uncle Fairfield, Story, Rud- assembly-he is looked upon . . . as a fit dock, Adams, Cooper, and a rudis‘ indi- person to represent them. He [Otis] be- gestaguemoles ’ are members. They send comes the darling of Trowel’s Junto and committees to wait on the Merchants’ Club, to proposeand join in the choice of presides at the head of their affairs.“1s men and measures.l* Certainly, the importance of Thomas Dawes’s %tately house” with its “large hall This Caucus Club was the beginning of in the upper story,” and its “nocturnal our modem political institution, the assembly,” as the breeding ground of pat- caucus, which seemsto have had its origin riot ideology is apparent in light of the Old-Time New England events which led up to the American Revo- In the “Humorous Description of a Visit lution. to Col. Charles Admirabilis” the visitor Other sources give us some further in- records that: formation regarding both the nature of the secret club and the appearanceof Dawes’s . . . his library room was called the “Attic own house. For a few further clues, we Retirement” . . . ; thoughhe did not speci- fically point out any elegant traits of ar- must again turn to political satire, this time chitecture in his mansion, there was, to issuesof theMassachusettsMagazine of nevertheless,not a room in it, on which he 1789 through 1791. From it, we learn that did not confer some fascinatingtitle. His Dawes’s Club, which possibly evolved into parlour went by the name ofProspect‘ that known as the “Long Room Club,” still Hall,’ his dining room, which lay back of the hall, the ‘Festive Bower’ . . . . After flourished even after the Revolution. In dinner I was admitted into the ‘Attic Re- 1789we have a well disguised“ Description tirement,’ in which I was not longdetained of a Club,” with “Great Tom” as its leader. by an examination of the books and This tract records that members met every curiositieswhich belongedto that apart- ment . . . .I9 Monday evening in each other’s housesfor the alleged purpose of selecting Represen- tatives, Senators, and other officials. In reaction to this rather unsympathetic de- scription, a reply was published, appar- ently written by one of the Club’s mem- bers. The writer (possibly Dawes) asserts that “we have one trader among us, and a few mechanics,” and that “we sometimes propose methods and lay plans for making repairs in roads, bridges, or buildings, or for assistingone another in some particular undertaking. . . “16 Much of Dawes’s work in the fields of architecture and construc- tion undoubtedly came as a result of these meetings. In 1791, an anonymous writer takes his readers on a tour of the home of “Cal. Charles Admirabilis.” The writer asserts that “I believe every person who is much acquainted with what passesin this part of the world has at least heard of Colonel Charles Admirabilis.“l7 From the veiled description that follows, one can infer that this was very likely Colonel Thomas Dawes , who had completed a monumental portico at the Old State House in 1789 in honor of George Washington’s visit to Bos- FIG. 4. DESK AND BOOKCASE OWNED ton; this was in collaboration with his ap- BY COLONEL THOMAS DAWES. Boston, 1765-85.Mahogany; H. 93 in., W. 40 in.. D. 21% parent protege, Charles Buhimch, who de- in. (B.69.139: Photographcourtesy of the Bayou signed the adjoining triumphal arch for the Bend Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts. occasion.1s Houston.) Thomas Dawes: Bostons’ Patriot Architect

FIG. 5. “THOMAS DAWES” by JosephBadger, c. 1763.(Photograph courtesyof the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston;on loan from the heirsof Ellen Minot Fuller.)

Some of the furnishings of this interest- Another delightful work is the portrait of ing home have survived to this day. These Judge Thomas Dawes, Jr. as a child, include Thomas Dawes’s own desk and painted by JosephBadger c. 1763 (Fig. 5). bookcase, an outstanding piece of Massa- Other documentary evidence gives chusetts Chippendale furniture which further insight into the probable exterior Dawes prized so highly that he wrote his appearance of Dawes’s house. It stood name upon the interior of every drawer in south of Fort Hill on PurchaseStreet at the order to foil any potential thieves (Fig. 4). head of Dawes’s wharf between Atkinson 8 Old-Time New England and Summer Streets on property acquired from his favorite Gibbs Book of Architec- in 1756from John Hood (Fig. 6).30Accord- ture as a model for his house. The most ing to the 1798 Direct Tax records, the akin to his known works are Gibbs’s Plates house was a “wood, brick, and rough cast 65 and 66, showing two similar two-story dwelling . . . 1490 square feet; 2 stories, 29 houses “for a gentleman” (Fig. 7). The windows, value, $5,000.“3~ This housewas pedimented entrance pavilion of Plate 66 described by Dawes in his will of 1807, in with its oculus window and dual stairway is which he left it to his wife Hannah, as being a feature utilized by Dawes in his other the “Mansion House in Purchase Street in designs. Its quoins lend themselves to the said Boston which we have lived in for medium of roughcast, a material with more than fifty years with its lot of land that which he was familar, as an article written I bought of John Hood.“33 by Dawes in the Boston Magazine of 1784 From our knowledge of his other work, makes clear. In this article, entitled “On Dawes clearly favored a PaRadian, central Making Mortar,” Dawes gives “some ac- pedimented entrance pavilion with flanking count of the mortar made use of for cover- wings, utilized as early as 1762 on Hollis ing the outside of houses (commonly Hall at Harvard, later in 1770 on his draw- known by the name of ‘rough cast’) . . . , ing of proposedstores for Old South Meet- noting that, “this mortar . . . may be jointed ing House property, and again in 1784 on and drawn, so as to imitate stonework.“33 the Bank. It thus seems In addition, the approximate size of the likely that Dawes might use a prototype houses, number of windows, and plan of

FIG. 6. DETAIL OF FORT HILL VICINITY SHOWING DAWES WHARF. From J. G. Hales, “Map of Boston in the State of Massachusetts” (Boston, 1814: SPNEA Archives). Thomas Dawes: Bostons’ Patriot Architect 9

FIG. 7. “HOUSE FOR A GENTLEMAN,” Plate 65; plan, Plate 66. From JamesGibbs, Book of Architecture (London, 1739:SPNEA Archives). 10 Old-Time New England

FIG. 8. VASSALLLONGFELLOW HOUSE, Cambridge,Massachusetts. Built in 1759for Major JohnVassall. (SPNEA Archives.)

Plate 66 with its “Hall . . . with Dining settsHistorical Society are someadditional Room Beyond,” all dovetail with the pre- bills and receipts relating to Dawes’s viously gathered evidence. Colonel domestic work of the same period; some, Dawes’s house may have rivalled in scale such as that at the Province House, were and elegance one of the more famous sur- charged to the provincial government. viving Palladian dwellings of the period, The Knox papers include documents in- Major John Vassall’s house in Cambridge, dicating the stature of Dawes’s clients. built in 1759 (Fig. 8). Among correspondence are several ma- Of Dawes’s other domestic work up to sons’ bills from Thomas Dawes to the the end of the Revolution, we have only “Honorable Thomas Flucker, Esq. ,” Sec- fragmentary knowledge. Bills presented to retary of the Province under Governor Thomas March’s estate in the 1750sand 60s Hutchinson. These bills were for sundry suggesthe did work for March, also a ma- work “done for Admiral Montague’s son, who lived nearby on Atkinson Street. house” in 1771-72. The work consisted of These bills were “for work and stuff done “Repairing the Battlements: pointing top at the late Mr. Thomas March House in of the house” using “Brookline Bricks.” Atkinson Street” from 1752-63 including In Dawes’s articles forBoston Magazine in “repairing sd. March House,” as well as 1784, “On Making Bricks” and “On Mak- “for work done at the house where Mr. ing Mortar,” he mentions a building Nathaniel Glover lives and for 20 cart load erected in 1764that was “esteemed as good of dirt laid on the Wharff.“” Among the brick work as any in the metropolis” and papers of Henry Knox at the Massachu- that “the bricks for this building were taken Thomas Dawes: Boston’s Patriot Architect 11 out of a kiln made in Brookline. . . ,” thus modelled as McLean Hospital by him in indicating a probable preference for this 1817-1&29Dawes’s majorundertakingdur- source. In addition to “whitewashing” and ing the war was the new U.S. armory at other work on the cellar and fireplaces, a Springfield, begun in 1777 at the order of charge was made for “putting a window the Continental Congress.30 over the front door.” Additional work of a Apparently Thomas Dawes was adept at similar nature is recorded in a “Memo of working for his royalist clients while simul- Work & Stuff done at His Excellency Ad- taneously supporting the growing cause of miral Graves House by Thomas Dawes,” the patriots in secret. During the tense dated July 1774.This work included repairs period before the war, when he counted the to chimnies, the kitchen, oven, and hearth two Admirals of the unwelcome British using “Dutch tiles,” plaster, paint, and Fleet among his clients, he was listed paper.25 Reportedly, Admiral Thomas among the patriot diners at the “Liberty Graves of the fleet “took up his residence Tree” in Dorchester in 1769. By the time of at the southeast comer of Pearl and High the British occupation, “he took so con- Streets.“26 spicuous a part in the early scenes of the Dawes was active in work for the Pro- Revolution as to draw upon himself the vincial Government and in military con- anger of the Royalists; and his house in struction at this time. During the 1750she Purchase Street was sacked by the British worked on the Province Hospital at Troops before they left Boston.“3’ Rainsford Island, Castle William, The Dawes’s achievements as an architect- Court House (Old State House), and the builder prior to the Revolution culminated Light House. In 1767 John Rowe records in his design and construction of Brattle that “I was called upon by Capt. Dawes to Street Church in 1772. His known work view the land by the Fortification.“27 By thereafter seems to center around altera- the time the Revolution began, Dawes had tions to public and commercial buildings attained the rank of major and was in com- such as the Old State House, the Old South mand of the Boston Grenadiers Company Meeting House, and the Massachusetts which was describedin 1872as “composed Bank of 1784. Despite a preoccupationwith of mechanics and professional men, his political and business interests, selected with regard to their height and Dawes’s name still may be linked as ma- martial bearing, no member being under son, architect or agent to certain other five feet-ten inches, and many six feet in building projects, often along with that of height.” Reportedly “Dawes was an of- Charles Bultinch. He was certainly in- ficer of activity and address, and had volved with a number of other public exerted himselfto bring the militia to a high edifices and monuments as well as some standard of excellence.” Lieutenants who domestic buildings, probably including a served under Dawes and were of later sig- house for his own son, Judge Thomas nificance were Henry Knox and his inti- Dawes, Jr. mate friend Joseph Pierce, Dawes’s son- There is ample evidence that Thomas m-law. Col. Knox was credited, along with Dawes continued his involvement in ar- General Putnam, for laying out “Putnam’s chitecture and building construction even impregnable fortress” in 1775 on Cobble after 1789 when Charles Bulfmch rose to Hill, Charlestown.*s Later, this was to be- prominence as Boston’s leading architect. come the site of Joseph Barrell’s mansion The earliest of Bulfiich’s houses suggests designed by Bulfinch, and again re- the influence of Thomas Dawes, with the 12 Old-Time New Englund

Gibbsian projecting central entrance pavil- Court which eventually led to B&inch’s ion with its pediment and old fashioned financial ruin, is perhaps significant: roof balustrade surrounding a “widow’s At this time when you are particularly walk.” These features appear on Bul- interested by the New Valuation which is finch’s elevations of the John Jov house to be taken, let me call on you to exert (1791) and the Joseph Coolidge, sr:, house yourselvesagainst the designsof a certain class of Speculators, who, feeling them- built 1791-2(Fig. 9). Although no evidence selves disappointed by the Tontine’s not has yet been found to connect Dawes’s being incorporated, are endeavoring to name to these projects, he is mentioned make an alteration in the SENATORS of thereafter in relation to several of Bul- the County, and to urge you to take no list finch’s other projects.J2 where the name of the Hon. THOMAS DAWES, Esq. is inserted. Be assured,he The relationship between the two men is a gentlemanof known honor, integrity, may not have remained entirely amicable, and influence;-that he has on all occa- as attested by a newspaper advertisement sionsproved himself the friend and edifier in April, 1792, placed at the time of of the town, and, that from his knowledge, not only ofthe property ofthis, but of ALL Dawes’s running for a senate seat. The the towns in the Commonwealth, his elec- mention of the soon-to-be-built Tontine tion is of the highest importance to us at Crescent, a speculative venture denied in- this time. corporation by the MassachusettsGeneral Nestor Nonsidef3

FIG. 9. ELEVATION OF THE HOUSE OF JOSEPH COOLIDGE, SR., Cambridge (Comer of Bowdoin) Street, Boston. From an original drawing by Charles Bulfinch, 1792.(Photograph courtesy of The New York Public Library; Prints Division; I. N. Phelps Stokes Collection; Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.) Thomas Dawes: Bostons’ Patriot Architect

These political activities provide in- in Boston. Documentation does exist, teresting connections among Dawes, Bul- however, to prove that it was for his mili- finch, and a client. Joseph Barrell’s first tary comrade, Gen. Knox, that “Thomas house was in the area between the Com- Dawes, Bulfinch’s earlier collaborator, mon and old Fort Hill, and the pasture and was consulted on the construction of a garden of his property became the site of stone basement” for Montpelier.3’ As the Tontine Crescent in 1793-4. Barrell, communicated by Knox’s agent, Hem-y “thinking himself unreasonably taxed by Jackson, to him in a letter in the spring of the town fathers . . . bought another estate 1794: in Charlestown [now Somerville], and there gratified his love of show by building My objectis to build the house plain & solid, I have therefore consulted Col. a finer house and laying out larger gardens Dawes & some other principle masonson and pleasure grounds.“34 The drawings for the subject of the basement story who all this new house survive in Bulfinch’s collec- agree that it must be of the common stone tion. While in Barrell’s employment from of that country laid in mortar even with the ground,on that courseof hammeredBrain- 1782to 1785Charles Bulfinch recorded that tree Stone a foot thick all round the house, “My time passed very idly and I was at and then five feet of brickwork two bricks leisure to cultivate a taste for Architecture, thick . . . . which was encouraged by attending to Mr. I expect Capt. Robinson to return any Barrell’s improvement of his estate and on hour, who will take down with him all the hewn Braintree stone for the basement our dwelling house and the housesof some story, which are now ready for him on friends, all of which had become exceed- Tileston’s Wharf. . . .3* ingly dilapidated during the war.“35 Barrel1 was also undoubtedly an acquaintance as Tileston’s Wharf was opposite Thomas weU as a neighbor of Dawes, since not only Dawes’s house on Purchase Street, and were they together on a town committee in voluminous correspondence between 1777 and another of the Musical Society in Knox and Dawes’s son-in-law Joseph 1786, but JosephBarrel1 was also a depos- Pierce, who lived a short way up the street, itor at the Massachusetts Bank, of which may further reveal his involvement in this Dawes was a director.36One may surmise project. that Btimch met Dawes while in Barrell’s Thomas Dawes is mentioned in relation employment, although the extent of their to other Bulfinch-associated projects, mutual involvement in the construction of someof which include the new State House the Barrel1 Mansion remains unknown. in Boston (17957), the Almshouse on Dawes’s name is mentioned in reference Leverett Street (1799-1801), Stoughton to another house ascribed to Bulfinch, Hall at Harvard (1804), and Faneuil Hall the General Henry Knox Mansion, (1806). Thus, it is not surprising to find “Montpelier,” in Thomaston, Maine. Ac- some familiar features in Dawes’s brick cording to Bulfmch’s biographer, Harold house erected for his son Judge Thomas Kirker, “although no documentation has Dawes at the head of his wharf on the yet been found linking Bulfinch with southeast side of Purchase Street after the Montpelier, it is probable that he furnished fue of 1794 (Fig 10). The house apparently the plans referred to in Knox’s letter of did not exist prior to the fire of 1794 as April 25, 1793.” Montpelier is described as documented by Jeremy Belknap’s sketch “a scaleddown version of the Barrel1Man- plan of the area which shows all of the sion” with much of the work prefabricated Dawes-owned houses along Purchase 14 Old-Time New England

FIG. 10. HOUSE OF JUDGE THOMAS DAWES, JR., PurchaseStreet, Boston, c. 1795.Photo- graph taken before the fire of 1872. (SPNEA Archives.) Thomas Dawes: Bostons’ Patriot Architect 15

FIG. Il. “DESIGN MADE FOR A PERSON OF QUALITY,” Plate 54. From JamesGibbs, Book ofArchifecture (London, 1739:SPNEA Archives.)

Street.39 The house (visualized without its house 897 square feet; 3 stories, 31 win- oriel window, undoubtedly a later addition) dows”; and, like his father’s house, is clearly reminiscent of Bulfinch’s Joseph “Value $5,000.“41 In 1815, this property is Coolidge, Sr., house of 1792, with other referred to as “Dawes wharf and Buildings features similar to its contemporary, the thereon including the Brick House oc- house of JosephCoolidge, Jr. (1795), also cupied by Samuel May. . . “42The houseis by Bulfiich. 4O However, Dawes’s new shown on several nineteenth-century house much resembles a plate in his own plans-on one, at the time of Judge book, Gibbs Book of Architecture, Plate Dawes’s death in 1825, indicated as the 54, “Plan and Front of a Design Made for a “Brick House belonging to the Hon. person of Quality” (Fig. 11). Certainly, Thomas Dawes.“43 The best representa- Thomas Dawes was capable of producing tion of the wharf and its buildings is dated this househimself, and one is led to wonder 1833, shortly before the property was dis- the extent of Dawes’s influence on Bul- posedof by the family. This plan showsthe finch and vice versa. “Brick House,” “C.[ounting] Room,” and Judge Thomas Dawes, Jr., like his “Stable,” all located at the head of father, had his portrait painted in 1806 by “Dawes Wharf” (Fig 12). Gilbert Stuart. His house was described in A final reference to the second Dawes the 1798 Direct Tax as “Thomas Dawes, house survives in later Dawes family pa- Sen’r., owner; Thomas Dawes, Jr., oc- pers which descended through the Eliot cupier; brick dwelling: East on Dock . . . , family. These refer to a photograph of the 16 Old-Time New England

Dock

--- -- ____ - -- LinofoldWFdrf ------=-- -_--_ _ _ Dock ------___ - -____

FIG. 12. DETAIL SHOWING DAWES WHARF, BRICK HOUSE, COUNTING ROOM, AND STABLE. From a copyof PlanNo. 5, Plan BookNo. 2, SuffolkRegistry of Deeds.(1884 copy of the originaldrawn in 1833by AlexanderWadsworth, surveyor.)

“Purchase Street House of Samuel and his monument in King’s Chapel Burying Mary May, burned in the fiie of 1872.“” ground: Thus ends the story of a truly outstanding house, the result of the work of Boston’s “Of his tastefor the GrecianSimplicity colorful patriot-architect, Thomas Dawes. in Architecture,there are many Monu- The appearance of this house recalls mentswhich he raisedwhen that Art was Dawes’s epitaph which was inscribed on new to US.“~~ Thomas Dawes: Boston’s Patriot Architect 17

NOTES

i This article is an introduction to the life and ton dated 6 March 1922, SPNEA Collections, work of Thomas Dawes. Further research is Photo file, Massachusetts, Roxbury. Shiiey- being undertaken on Dawes’s domestic, com- Eustis House. mercial, and public buildings as well as his I1 “The Province House Acct: 1755,” Mss. 4 monuments.It is hoped enoughmaterial will be April 1755,inMassachusetts Archives, vol. 248, assembledfor a complete biography. Accounts 17.51-5,p. 162; Thomas Hutchinson, 2 Henry W. Holland, William Dawes and His History of the Province of MassachusettsBay, Ride with (Boston: JohnWilson and vol. III (London: 1828).p. 105quoted inpublica- Son, private printing, 1878), pp. 23, 60. This tions of the Colonial Societyof Massachusetts, book includes the Dawes family genealogy. vol. 14, Transactions 1911-13 (Boston: Pub lished by the Society, 1913),pp. ‘2, 14, 16. 3 Bill to the ‘Province of Mass. Bay . . . for Repairs Done at the Court House in Boston,” I2 John Adams, Diary and Autobiographyof John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield (Cambridge, dated 4 April 1775; MassachusettsArchives, Mass.: , Be&nap Press, vol. 248, Accounts 1751-5, p. 161; Massachu- l%l), vol. I, p. 238. setts Magazine, vol. II, no. 6 (June, 1790). p. 324. ‘Thomas Dawes, Esq. . . . the architect of I3 The origin of the term “caucus” is identitied Hollis Hall.” as being the mid-eighteenthcentury Boston club in an article by Mr. Pickering, “The Present 4 Rev. JosephEckley, “Obituary: Sketch of the State of the English Language,” Memoirsofthe Late Hon. Thomas Dawes, Esq.,” dated 1809, American Academy of Arts-and Sciences;vol. Boston Athenaeum Library, Tracts B438, III. oart 2 (Cambridae. Mass.:Hilliard and Met- B1213. calf: 1815),-p.462. &ketingcites Cordon’s His- 5 Abbott Lowell Cummings, “A Recently Dis tory of the (1788) as the covered Engraving of the Old State House in earliest published reference to the origin of the Boston,” in Boston Prints and Printmakers caucus. 1670-1775,Colonial Society of Massachusetts I4 Samuel P. Waterhouse, Proposalsfor Print- (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, ing by Subscription the History of Adjutant 1973)...__ po. 174184. This article includes a sum- Trowel and Bluster, (Boston, c. 1766), Boston mary of Thomas Dawes’s life, work, and ances- Athenaeum Library, Tract B659. p. 121. The try. * characters are identified in eighteenth-century 6 The Builder’s Dictionary, or Gentleman and script. Architect’s Companion,vol. II (London, 1734), 1s Ibid. owned by Charles Bulfiich and inscribed I6 Description of a Club,” Massachusetts “Thomas Dawes, Jun. 1751,” was presented to Magazine, vol. I, no. 4 (April, 1789), p. 129; the Boston Society of Architects and is now at Reply from “Ruricola,” MassachusettsMaga- the U.S. Library of Congress.The remainder of zine, vol. I, no. 5 (May, 1789).pp. 26G61. The his twelve volume library is in the Boston authorsof these articles used both pseudonyms Athenaeum, having been given at the time of and fictitious locations to put distance between Dawes’s death in January, 1809. themselvesand their subjects,thus makingposi- 7 Cummings,op. cit., p. 184. tive identification of the charactersvirtually im- possible. 8 Gen. W. H. Sumner, “Reminiscences,” New England Historical and GenealogicalRegister, 1’ “Humorous Visit to the Home. of Col. vol. XIII, no. 1 (January, 1859),p. 103. Charles Admirabiis,” Massachusetts Maga- zine, vol. III, No. 4(May, 1791),p. 280. See also 9 The circumstantialevidence suggestingan at- p. 211 for an article on the “Ugly Club,” and tribution of the Shirley-Eustis House to Peter note 16. Harrison is discussedin Shirley-EustisHouse, Roxbuty, Massachusetts,a report prepared for I* Harold Kirker, The Architecture of Charles the Shirley-Eustis House Association by Bulfinch (Cambridge:Harvard University Ptess, Bastille-Neiley, Architects and Consultants, 1%9), pp. 23-24. (Boston, July, 1977), see Appendix C. pp. 6-8. 19 “Humorous Visit,” op. cit. IO Miss A. L. Blaisdell, “Plans of the Shiiley- z” John Hood to Thomas Dawes, Jun., 12April . Eustis House,” letter to William Sumner Apple- 1756, Sulfolk County Deeds, Lib. 88, fol. 181. Old-Time New England

21 A Report of the RecordCommissioners of the j* Amm Eliot Ticknor, Samuel Eliot (Cam- City of Boston, Containing the Statisticsof the bridge, Mass.: University Press, 1869), p. 15. United States’ Direct Tax of 1798. Document92 35 Charles Buhinch, Autobiography quoted in (BostonRockwell and Churchill, City Printers, Ellen Susan Bulfimch, Life and Letters of 1890),p. 366. CharlesBulfinch, Architect (Boston: Houghton 22 Will of Thomas Dawes dated 21 May 1807, Mifflin and Co., 1896),pp. 41-42. Suffolk County Probate, Lib. 107, fol. 645. M A Report of the RecordCommissioners of the

23 Thomas Dawes, “00 Making Mortar,” Bos- City of Boston, Containing the Boston Town ton Magazine, vol. I (1784), pp. 432-33. The Recork, 1770through 1777: Document 91 (Bos- copy given to the MassachusettsHistorical So- ton: Rockwell and Churchill, City Printers, ciety in 1791by James Freeman has been anno- 1887), p. 275; Henry Wilder Foote, Annals of tated by the donor to identify the author, “Z”, as Kings Chapel, 2 ~01s. (Boston: Little, Brown “Cal. Dawes.” and Co., 1896).vol. II, p. 400, The First National Bank of Boston, 1784-1934(Boston: privately u Account of JosephJackson, Executor to the printed, 1934). pp. 8-9, 22. Estate of Thomas March 1752-63,I&s., Boston Public Library Rare Books. O7Kirker, op. cit., pp. 93-99. 25 Thomas Dawes, “Account with Thomas 39 Henry Jacksonto General Henry Knox, Mss. Fhtcker” and “Account with Admiral Graves,” letter, 22 April 1794, Knox Papers, Massachu- papers of Henry Knox, Boston Public Library setts Historical Society Collection. Microtext. reel 54,p. 27 (otiginal manuscriptsin 39 Jeremy Belknap, “Plan of the fii in Boston the collections of the MassachusettsHistorical on 30 July 1794,” in Carl Seaburg,Boston Ob- Society). Thomas Dawes, “On Making Bricks” served(Boston: Beacon Press, 1971),pp. 128-9. and “On Making Mortar,” Boston Magazine, Originalin the MassachusettsHistorical Society vol. I (1784), pp. 219, 292, 33940, 432-33(pub Collection. lished serially). 4OKirker. op. cit., pp. 41-44, 115-17.A recently 26 Samuel Adams Drake, Old Landmarks and identitIed drawing shows Joseph Coolidge, Sr., Historic Personagesof Boston, (Boston: James house and grounds prior to its demolition in R. Osgood and Co., 1875).p. 272. 1845. This view suggeststhat the building was *’ MassachusettsArchives, vol. 248. Mss. Ac- built somewhat di&rently than shown iu Bul- counts17515, pp. 65, 161, 162, 166;John Rowe, fmch’s drawing. Pencil drawing before 1845, Letters and Diary of John Rowe, Boston Mer- incorrectly labelled “Old House on Purchase chant, 1759-1762, 1764-1779, ed. Anne Rowe Street,” given by Dr. Algemon Coolidge in 1922 yam (Boston: W. B. Clarke Co., 1903), to the MassachusettsHistorical Society. . . ‘l Record Commissioners,Document 92, op. m Samuel Adams Drake, Historic Mansions cit., p. 366. Thomas Dawes refers in his wig of and Highways Around Boston (Boston: Little, 1807 to the “Brick House now in my son’s Brown & Co., 1899), pp. 172-73. occupation with the land, watercourses, and Flatts . . being ah my land on the southeasterly *9 Kirker, op. cit., pp. 307-10.McLean Hospital . side of Purchase Street.” Wig of Thomas was relocated in Belmont, Mass. in 1896. Dawes, op. cit. 30 Collectionsof the MassachusettsHistorical ‘* Deed to Judge Thomas Dawes from his son Society, ser. 7, vol. 4. William Heath Papers Thomas dated 26 August 1815, Sulfolk County (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, Deeds, Lib. 269, fol. 17. 1904),p. 134. 43 Sutfolk County Deeds, Lib. 298, fol. 115. 31 Holland, op. cit., pp. 63-64. 44 Massachusetts Historical Society, Photo- 32 Kirker, op. cit., pp. 37-40, 41-42. For graphic fde, Boston Houses, PurchaseStreet. Dawes’s relationship with Butfinch see Index under Thomas Dawes. 45 ThomasBridgman, Memorials of the Dead in Boston (Boston: Benjamin B. Mussey & Co., 33 Boston Gazette, 2 April 1792. 1853). pp. 124-5.