This Gothic Revival brick cottage is of several houses built by Amos A. Lawrence for his Cottage Farm neighborhood in Brookline, Massachusetts. After he built his own stone residence at the center of the estate, Lawrence erected a series of cottages in the vicinity which were rented or sold to family and friends. This house was listed as the “Bates House” in Amos Lawrence’s papers, likely referring to the renter of the property soon after the cottage was completed by 1853. After Amos Lawrence died in 1886, the estate was inherited by his daughter, Hetty S. Cunningham. The “Bates Cottage” was later acquired by Boston University, who in 1964, received town approval to convert the residence into offices for the Center for the Study of Liberal Arts Education. The cottage was expanded at the rear and is today home to the Boston University African American & Black Diaspora Studies Program.
Buildings of New England 