Mason-Fitz House // 1829

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One of six attached houses townhouses between 70-75 Beacon Street, this stately granite-faced residence was built concurrently with its neighbors in 1828 on speculation for the Mount Vernon Proprietors, a group of wealthy Boston businessmen who helped develop Beacon Hill into the posh, architecturally significant neighborhood it is today. The Mount Vernon Proprietors knew how important Beacon Street was as the entry into the neighborhood, and thus, hired Boston’s premier architect, Asher Benjamin, to design the row. When completed, all of the houses were identical, but throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, they all deviated from the original design, some gaining additional floors, others adding bay windows, but all together form a cohesive and architecturally significant span of houses. Completed in 1829, the residence at 75 Beacon Street is known as the Mason-Fitz House and was originally owned by Jonathan Mason (1756-1831), a U.S. Congressman and U.S. Senator, and later inherited by his son, William Powell Mason (1791-1867), who engaged in real estate. It was likely William Mason who added the mansard roof in the late 1850s or 1860s, but the main unique detailing of the residence occurred in 1889 when newlyweds, Henrietta G. and Walter Scott Fitz hired the popular architectural firm of Little & Browneto reconfigure the front of the house in the Colonial Revival style. Little & Browne added the rather fanciful, oriel windows on the facade, which include the three, small hipped-roof oriels on the second story and larger projecting oriel on the first floor with fanlight and leaded glass. Cambridge architect, Edward T. P. Graham later purchased the residence and petitioned to convert the single-family house into eight apartments, but was denied, later converting the residence into four units. Today, the Mason-Fitz House is broken up into two larger condominium units. 

Greenough-Dwight House // 1829

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One of six attached houses townhouses between 70-75 Beacon Street, this stately granite-faced residence was built concurrently with its neighbors in 1828 on speculation for the Mount Vernon Proprietors, a group of wealthy Boston businessmen who helped develop Beacon Hill into the posh, architecturally significant neighborhood it is today. The Mount Vernon Proprietors knew how important Beacon Street was as the entry into the neighborhood, and thus, hired Boston’s premier architect, Asher Benjamin, to design the row. When completed, all of the houses were identical, but throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, they all deviated from the original design, some gaining additional floors, others adding bay windows, but all together form a cohesive and architecturally significant span of houses. Completed in 1829, the corner dwelling is known as the Greenough-Dwight House and it retains its original three-story rusticated granite façade with segmental arch openings. The major change to the exterior of the Greenough-Dwight House is the addition of the ornate wood oriel window with iron cresting in 1874, the oriel and facade feature the iconic purple windows, which became a status symbol in the 20th century. The story goes, that between 1818 and 1824, an English company sent shipments of glass that contained too much manganese oxide into Boston Harbor. After being exposed to sunlight for an extended period of time, the manganese oxide in the glass began to turn purple creating the colored panes we love today. Over time, many panes broke or were replaced, creating the checkerboard appearance on so many windows, but many owners in the 20th century had imitation purple glass installed as a marker of wealth and prestige, like in this house and bay, which were built after the period that the glass was brought over from England. My favorite in the row, the Greenough-Dwight House shines with its granite facade and brick end wall, with panes reflecting the sun off her violet glass windowpanes. 

Ripley Apartments // 1925

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One of the taller apartment buildings constructed on Beacon Hill in the inter-war period stands at 81-82 Beacon Street, providing residents with sweeping views of the Boston Common, Public Garden, and the ever-growing city of Boston. The ten-story building replaced two, four-story townhouses formerly on the site owned by members of the Thacher family. The two parcels were purchased by James H. Ripley of the New York-based real estate firm of Goggin & Ripley, who then hired Boston architect, Joseph Daniels Leland, who founded the firm of J. D. Leland & Company. The building was originally planned as a seven-story co-op but was later expanded to a ten-story tower with one apartment on each floor, making the building a luxury residence for its residents. The two-story limestone base with side entrance, flemish bond brickwork, iron balcony, and traditional double-hung windows all showcase how the Colonial Revival style works well with multi-family housing.

Henry Forbes Bigelow House // 1916

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This massive five-story, five-bay building at 142 Chestnut Street on the Flat of Beacon Hill is today, an 11-unit condominium building, but it was originally built as a single-family home, designed by a prominent Boston architect as his own residence. Henry Forbes Bigelow (1867-1929) was born in Clinton, Massachusetts and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1888. He was hired by the firm of Winslow & Wetherill and soon became a partner of the same firm, which changed its name to Winslow, Wetherill and Bigelow. The firm designed many commercial buildings, hotels, stately mansions, and academic buildings in the New England area. Henry F. Bigelow purchased a two-story stable and cleared the site to erect his home in 1915-1916. This building remained his primary residence until his death in 1929. After his death, the Bigelow heirs sold the Chestnut Street mansion to Bernard Brooker, President and Treasurer of the Building Finishing Corporation, a real estate development company, who converted the building into apartments, which were later converted again into the 11 condominium units. The handsome structure could be classified as Renaissance Revival in style with its cubic form, recessed central entrance, cornice-like window headers, limestone base and entry, iron balconies, and corbeled cornice. The building was designed with an enclosed courtyard with fountains, which today, provide a private space for residents.

Sears Stable – The Vincent Clubhouse // c.1856

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Located behind the David Sears Mansion (now Greek Consulate) on Beacon Street, this handsome utilitarian structure fronts Brimmer Street in Beacon Hill and predates the building it adjoins. The two stables and attached caretaker’s residence was built around 1856 for David Sears, who lived farther down Beacon Street, but also owned other buildings on the street which fronted the Public Garden. He built this stable in the Flat of Beacon Hill, an area west of Charles Street in what Samuel Eliot Morrison coined, “the horsey end of town” for its prevalence of stables and carriage houses. The architect is not known, but the handsome structure features bays of shallow, recessed brick arches and brick dentil courses, showing the importance of good design even for uses such as a stable. The building later became space for furniture storage and an ancillary apartment to the adjacent mansion, until 1957, when the it was acquired by the Vincent Club, a women’s organization with the mission of raising money for the Vincent Memorial Hospital whose mission was to treat the “diseases of women.” Even though the Vincent Hospital merged with Mass. General Hospital in 1988, the Vincent Club remains in this former stable as its home-base and continues to carry out its mission to advance the field of women’s healthcare.

David Sears Mansion – Greek Consulate // 1911

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The David Sears Mansion (now the Greek Consulate) at 86 Beacon Street in Boston, is a large, architecturally significant example of a mansion built in Beacon Hill in the early 20th century for a member of a prominent local family. In 1910, Dr. Henry Francis Sears (1862-1942), who had inherited his father’s property on this site, that included two townhouses and a double-stable at the rear, demolished the two houses and built a new mansion on the double lot. The architectural firm of Wheelwright & Haven was hired to furnish plans, which resulted in the symmetrical, four-story mansion with fifth floor mansard punctuated by dormers. The brick structure is trimmed with marble, including at the entry portico, keystones and headers at the windows, and the ornamental panels between the second and third floors in alternating wreath and swag motifs. In the 1920 census, Henry F. Sears lived here with his wife Jean, their four children, his older brother David Sears, and nine domestic servants. After Dr. Sears’ death in 1942, the property was conveyed to the Charlotte Cushman Club of Boston, a boarding house for touring actresses needing respectable, inexpensive, safe lodgings as single women performers were unwelcome in many hotels. In the 1950s, the property became the Katherine Gibbs School, a satellite campus of the higher education institution founded by Katharine Gibbs with the goal to provide educational opportunities to women, eventually becoming Gibbs College. The most-recent chapter of the mansion’s history began in 1993 when the building became home to the Consulate General of Greece in Boston, with the consulate occupying the first two floors of the interior, with condominium units above.

Burnham Townhouse – Engineer’s Clubhouse // 1911

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Located at the boundary of the Beacon Hill and Back Bay neighborhoods, this prominent townhouse on a corner lot at Beacon Street and Mugar Way was built in 1911, replacing an 1840s townhouse of the same form. The Colonial Revival style townhouse was built for Henry D. and Johanna H. Burnham from plans by the architectural firm of Wheelwright, Haven & Hoyt. Henry Burnham was the son of cotton broker, John Appleton Burnham and was in the real estate business. Henry and Johanna lived at 96 Beacon Street through at least 1938. The house was bought by the Engineer’s Club, a social and professional organization, in 1947. In the 1950s, the formerly mid-block townhouse suddenly became a corner lot with the construction of Storrow Drive, its off ramp as Mugar Way, and the addition of the Fielder Footbridge connecting Beacon Hill to the Esplanade. The Engineer’s Club took over renovations at the interior, which were done to adapt the former single-family residence for clubhouse functions, including a large banquet hall. In the 1960s, the property was acquired by Emerson College and used it as a college center and cafeteria until the early 2000s when it was converted into condominiums by Grassi Design Group, adding new openings to the formerly solid brick side wall.

Bayard Thayer House – Hampshire House // 1911

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This iconic building at 84 Beacon Street in Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood, is best-known for its bar, which in 1982, became world-famous as the locale for the bar in the television sitcom Cheers, one of the most-watched programs in television history; but its history begins earlier. This five-story building was constructed in 1911 as a mansion for Bayard Thayer (1862-1916), who split his time between Boston and his country estate in his home-town of Lancaster, Massachusetts. Thayer hired architect, Ogden Codman Jr., a favorite designer of Boston and New York high-society, to design his Boston mansion, which is an expressive and overscaled example of a Colonial Revival style townhouse. Bayard Thayer died in 1916 and his widow, Ruth Simpkins Thayer, lived here with her granddaughter, Ruth, and nine domestic servants. After Ruth Thayer’s death in 1941, the property was conveyed to the Colonial Properties Trust in 1944, operating the building as a small luxury apartment hotel. From this point on, the hotel became known as Hampshire House. In about 1969, the basement space in the Hampshire House opened as the Bull & Finch Pub, which later became the inspiration of the iconic sitcom Cheers. Pictures of the exterior of the building were used in the show’s credits and scene changes, and the interior was faithfully replicated from the set in Hollywood, where the show was actually filmed. The Bull & Finch Pub has permanently been renamed Cheers Pub and visited by many who wish to visit the place where “everybody knows your name”.

Brimmer Street Terrace // 1912

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An interesting ensemble of seven rowhouses running along Brimmer Street in Beacon Hill, the Brimmer Street Terrace development showcases the rebirth the “Flat” of Beacon Hill encountered in the early 20th century from livery stables and carpentry shops to high-end housing and artist’s studios. Built on the site of a large livery stable, Brimmer Street Terrace was developed in 1912 by Gerald G. E. Street and William C. Codman, developers who sought to enhance this section of Beacon Hill and protect it from unsympathetic development, and hired architect Richard Arnold Fisher to design the houses. The rowhouses were originally rented to upper-class families but later were sold off as individual properties. Colonial Revival in style, the row is built of the iconic Boston red brick, Federal Revival style fanlight transoms over the entrances, include shutters, and all sit atop a stone basement. The row is anchored on each end by residences facing north and south with large symmetrical facades with the five more narrow rowhouses connecting them along Brimmer Street. 

Chestnut Street Townhouse // 2016

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It is uncommon to see new construction in Boston’s historic Beacon Hill, but when it happens, hundreds of eyes closely scrutinize and analyze the design to belong in one of America’s most coveted neighborhoods. The rare opportunity for infill construction occurred on this site on Chestnut Street. An 1860s stable building that was later converted into a residence and art studio in the 1920s as Beacon Hill Flat gentrified as an artist enclave, was listed for sale in 2013. The townhouse featured leaded-glass windows and Tudor elements at the interior and on its rear facade and was purchased by a developer who, after inspection, noted structural deficiencies in the building. After inspections by the City and a request to the Beacon Hill Architectural Commission, it was approved for demolition, but the replacement design would be scrutinized. Hacin, architects, brought forward plans for a new townhouse, which employed similar materials, massing, and fenestration typical for this area of Beacon Hill, but with contemporary finishes that blends old with new in a way that the new structure does not stand out nor detract from the surrounding streetscape. Through hearings, details like the window types and color of the brick were analyzed to slightly deviate from the existing fabric of the neighborhood, distinguishing the new construction as contemporary. What do you think of this new townhouse on the Flat of Beacon Hill?