Alexander Parris

Lyman-Paine Mansion // 1824

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The Lyman-Paine Mansion at the corner of Joy and Mount Vernon streets in Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood is an architecturally significant Federal style house designed by a skilled architect and was owned by members of prominent local families. This four-story mansion was designed in 1824 by architect Alexander Parris for George Williams Lyman (1786-1880), a shipping merchant who became one of the Boston Associates, a group of wealthy Bostonians who funded the expansion of New England textile mills, which helped grow many industrial communities all over the region in the 19th century. This house served as Lyman’s winter estate, his summer mansion was the the Lyman Estate, “The Vale”, in Waltham, which he had inherited from his father. Upon George Lyman’s death in 1880, Lydia Lyman Paine, George’s youngest daughter, inherited this Beacon Hill mansion. Lydia’s husband, Robert Treat Paine, was a graduate of Harvard and a successful local attorney. Mr. Paine retired from law in 1872 to become the treasurer for the new Trinity Church building committee, where he averted a fiscal crisis during the mid-1870s when Henry Hobson Richardson’s cost overruns in designing the new Copley Square church threatened its completion. In addition to his pro bono work with Trinity’s finances, Paine was deeply interested in improving the quality of life of the working class, founding building and loan associations and institutes to allow immigrants to buy homes in the Boston area. In addition to their Joy Street mansion, the Paines had a country estate called Stonehurst, which is adjacent to the Vale in Waltham; it was renovated by Richardson. The mansion was converted to apartments (now condos) in the mid-20th century, and maintains its unique, vernacular Federal character, with asymmetrical facade and oddly placed and shaped windows.

Cutler-Paine House // 1834

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Mount Vernon Place is a short, dead-end street in Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood. The street was once an entire block of eight rowhouses, and was developed in the 1830s on land formerly owned by John Hancock and his family. The residences numbered 1-5 Mount Vernon Place were torn down during the 1910s to accommodate the expansion of the landscaped grounds of the State House, leaving just 6, 7, and 8 Mount Vernon Place. The easternmost rowhouse, 6 Mount Vernon Place, was built in 1834 and is believed to have been designed by Alexander Parris, a prominent local architect who designed Quincy Market and mastered the Federal and Greek Revival architectural styles with many notable buildings all over the east coast. This house was purchased in 1834, when still unfinished, by William Savage, a merchant, who sold the property to Pliny Cutler, president of the Atlantic National Bank, who appears to have bought it for his son, Dr. William Ward Cutler (1812-1870). The property was owned in the early 20th century by Robert Treat Paine Jr., who likely rented the home to boarders. The residence has a three bay facade and brownstone sills, lintels, and door surround.

St. John’s Church, Portsmouth // 1807

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St. John’s Episcopal Church is located on Chapel Street, atop Church Hill near the historic commercial center of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. A church has been located on this site since 1732, when British Anglicans built Queen’s Chapel here. It was named “Queen’s Chapel” after King George II’s wife, Queen Caroline, who donated many fine gifts to help the new parish. The congregation increased in growth alongside the community until a tragic fire on Christmas Eve in 1806, which destroyed over 300 buildings in Portsmouth including the original wooden structure of St. John’s and most of its contents. The parishioners immediately began to raise funds to erect the present brick church, with its cornerstone laid in June 1807. The Federal style church was one of the first known buildings by architect-engineer, Alexander Parris, in the time before he moved to Boston, designing many iconic buildings there. St. John’s Church of Portsmouth stands as the oldest Episcopal Parish in New Hampshire and was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

Barnstable County Courthouse // 1831

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Perched atop a hill in Barnstable Village, the old town center of the historic Cape Cod town, the Barnstable County Courthouse sits proudly as a well-preserved example of the Greek Revival architectural style in a civic building. The building was constructed in 1831 from plans by renowned architect Alexander Parris, who designed the iconic Quincy Market in Boston just years earlier in the same style. Due to its highly visible location along the Old King’s Highway and public function, the courthouse was likely instrumental in popularizing the Greek Revival style on the Cape. The building was constructed of Quincy granite with a portico and fluted Doric columns made of wood fashioned to look like stone (which fooled me from the street). The building has been expanded five times between 1879 and 1971, with each addition made cognizant of the architectural significance of the building. At the front of the building, two bronze statues of Mercy Otis Warren and James Otis, Jr frame the building. The Barnstable Superior Court is located in the building today.