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earlgreytea68The book told me to go right on Embankment Road. Pretty sure it's now David G. Mugar Way.
13. The Esplanade
I was supposed to use the opportunity of being on "Embankment Road" to view the Esplanade. (By the way, in Boston, it's said Esplanahd, not Esplanayde. I have no idea why, really.) Anyway, the Esplanade is still exactly as the book describes: "a grassy promenade along the Charles River where in an open shell summer evening concerts are given by the members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra." However, the Esplanade is now separated from the rest of the city by Storrow Drive (otherwise known as The Only Street That Makes Driving in Boston Bearable).
If you peer through the trees, you can just make out sailboats dotting the Charles. The orange-y thing is actually a pedestrian footbridge that permits you to cross Storrow to get to the Esplanade. I didn't take it, though, because it would've taken me off-track for the foot tour.
The book told me to take a right on Chestnut, a street I'd never been down before. David G. Mugar Way still leads to Chestnut Street, but I assume it was more picturesque in 1937.
The book tells me that "Beacon Hill is a conservative residential section where new buildings are considered extremely regrettable, through occasionally necessary." Chestnut Street, he continues, is where the Hill's residents used to have their stables. I think these might be some of them, converted now:
14. Charles Street Church.
Which now apparently has a cafe in the basement.
15. Francis Parkman's House
I have no idea who Francis Parkman was--the book says a "noted historian"--but he apparently lived here.
16. Home of Edwin Booth
This was very neat. I had no idea Edwin Booth had lived in Boston. TAnd I *love* this house. I think it's my favorite of the day. he book notes that "[i]t is the only house on the street with a main entrance at the side, facing a small lawn." "[T]he entire house has a princely, brooding air suggestive of 'Hamlet,' Booth's most famous role."
The book also tells me that this house "has a few of the original purple window-panes once favored in this district, which sun and time have transformed to a lilac hue, the despair of imitators."
I had actually never heard about these purple windows before, but the book assures me, "To have a house with original purple panes is practically to have a patent of Bostonian aristocracy." And, indeed, the helpful plaque in front of the house agrees.
17. Home of Julia Ward Howe and later of John Singer Sargent
Very illustrious. John Singer Sargent is my favorite painter (I like pretty portraits of pretty women in pretty dresses. I'm shallow.), so this is was a bit exciting.
It looks like the house is crooked but that's just the slope of the hill. And also my terrible photography skillz. Anyway, according to the book: The "second-story long windows with wrought-iron balconies...indicate a second-story drawing room, a hallmark of fashion in Boston." Also, "this house was the meeting-place of the Radical Club that succeeded the noted Transcendental Club." (Incidentally, Transcendentalism is the most annoying word to write in the history of time. Drove me crazy in high school.)
18. Ellery Sedgwick House
This house is so huge, I had a hard time getting a good photograph. This is the best I did.
Elery Sedgwick was "the recently retired editor of the Atlantic Monthly." This house as built in 1805, and the book praises it as "the most individualistic house on the Hill." I think because, even in 1937, it was apparently painted gray with black shutters (the book calls them "black blinds"). I think he also really likes the "large tree-shaded garden, which, owing to the slope of the Hill, is elevated high above the street and buttressed by a base-wall of hand-hewn granite blocks." And it is a nice garden.
19. Thomas Bailey Aldrich's House
I am ashamed to say I don't know who Thomas Bailey Aldrich was. But this was his house.
20. Home of Charles Francis Adams, Sr.
The books approves: The house "is of a conservative elegance to be expected of the Civil War Ambassador to England, son of John Quincy Adams, and father of the author of 'The Education of Henry Adams.'" The book mentions two items of architectural interest: the covered balcony over the door:
and the "unusual richly carved lintel."
Oh, and:
The book didn't have anything to say about this house, but I liked the "Cabot" over the door, which I think indicates it must have once belonged to one of the famous Boston Cabots of the doggerel:
So this is good, old Boston,
The home of the bean and the cod,
Where the Lowells talk only to Cabots,
And the Cabots talk only to God.
21. Sears House (Second Harrison Gray Otis House, 1800)
The book babbles for a decent paragraph about the architecture of this house: its roof balustrade and propostions and arched recesses and Corinthian pilasters, etc. But who cares about all that. BECAUSE LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THIS HOUSE. I spent most of the time staring in shock at HOW BIG THIS HOUSE IS AND HOW MUCH LAND IT HAS. It doesn't even look like it belongs on Beacon Hill. It's all out of place. Seriously, I cannot even imagine how much this house must be worth. That much space? On Beacon Hill? Unheard of.
The plaque on the house next door explained for me the reason for the unusually large lot size.
22. Louisburg Square
Beacon Hill in general, and Louisburg Square in particular, is prettier when it's snowing, and the whole place looks like a fairy tale scene. I think it doesn't shine half so much in summertime like this. The book lists noted residents: William Dean Howells, Louisa May Alcott and her father, Amos Bronson Alcott, Jenny Lind, and Minnie Maddern Fiske (I don't know who that is). Louisburg Square remains one of Boston's most coveted addresses. This is where John Kerry lives, for instance. See that street parking. All private for Louisburg Square residents. Which is why there are actual spaces available.
The book notes that the central green has "an iron fence with no gate." I'm glad he confirmed that, because I've always looked for the gate. I guess that's one way to keep people out, although I'm not sure how they keep the lawn cut. The green was owned by Louisburg Square residents in 1937, and I would imagine it still is (given the parking restrictions around it). The book discusses two statues within the green: Aristedes the Just and Christopher Columbus, which "have been adopted affectionately by the residents through many years of custom, but when their donor, Joseph Iasigi, a wealthy Greek living at No. 3, included also a fountain, it was hastily removed." Apparently, the statues have gone the way of the fountain; they are no longer in the green.
The book also explains that Louisburg Square traditionally keeps open houses on Christmas, hiring carolers "sung by trained voices usually selected from musical groups with sufficient social prestige to be asked to contribute." I've heard of this custom before but I'm not sure if it's still done. I have, however, encountered carolers on Beacon Hill in a snowstorm. One of the most gorgeous things ever. One of those very frequent moments when I turned to arctacuda and said, "This is the best city in the world."
The book tells me at this point to cross Pinckney Street, "the border-line between wealth and poverty." "Beyond it a less proud district slopes down the back of the Hill." This is still true. Beacon Hill is one of the nicest areas of the city, but the back part of the Hill belongs to renters primarily, while the front part of the Hill is owner-occupied. You can tell the difference as you cross the line.
23. Harrison Gray Otis House
In 1937, you could tour the interior of this house, and you still can today! I've toured it, because I never met a house tour I didn't want to go on. In 1937, the house was owned by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, and I think it still is today. Built in 1795, the book notes the restoraton of the semi-circular porch. I think that has since been removed. However, the book does point out the Palladian window and third-story fan window, "the main decorative features."
24. Old West Church
The book calls this "more solid and masculine" than other architecture of its era (it was built in 1806). The book also notes, "The church has for some time been converted to the uses of a branch library." Actually, it's once again a church of some sort today. The branch library is in a newish building a couple of doors down.
25. Women's City Club
This looks like just a private residence to me now, which is a shame, since "its beautiful spiral stairway is as fine as any in New England.
26. Wadsworth House (Third Harrison Gray Otis House)
I don't know why this Harrison Gray Otis needed three houses on Beacon Hill, but, anyway, here it is:
The house has a ground-level entrance with the important rooms on the story above, which apparently reveals a French influence on the architecture. This entrance is also unusual, I am told: "a rectangular portico with four columns--coupled columns and coupled pilasters behind--being used as the door enframement." The book beams that "the house is a fine example of an aristocratic city mansion of the Federal period." And today, it is owned by the American Meteorological Society!
The book has nothing to say about these window boxes, I just thought they were very cool:
27. Robert Gould Shaw Memorial
The book says this was "sculptured [yes, it says sculptured] with remarkable sensitivity to the medium and the subject." The trees are apparently part of the design. They are English elms.
28. State House
The book is in absolute raptures about the State House. "Built in 1795, the 'Bulfinch Front' of the State House stands as a monument to the architectural genius of Charles Bulfinch and as an expression of classicism in American design. Unhappily, this original portion of the present State House is now sandwiched between huge, inept wings."
The book sulks unhappily about these wings: "The 'Bulfinch Front' cannot be seen merely as a unit of the structure; its quality sets it apart as a thing to be known and revered independent of its setting." To the author of this book, I offer this:
This is an ugly government building. In fact, it's so ugly, I couldn't even capture its full ugliness in one photo. Here's the bottom of the building:
This building sits right across the street from the State House. And I can only hope the author of my book was long dead before his aesthetic sense had to be exposed to 1970s architecture.
The end of Foot Tour 1. Which, incidentally, I am still sore from days later. This book is going to prove excellent for exercise, I suspect.
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no subject
Date: 2009-08-13 12:48 am (UTC)Thanks for sharing the walking tour with us! The Edwin Booth house is gorgeous!
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Date: 2009-08-13 02:05 am (UTC)It really was gorgeous. I'd never come across it before!
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Date: 2009-08-13 01:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-13 02:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-13 01:54 am (UTC)that crap gov't bldg is beside another crap bldg of Suffolk University. HIDEOUS bldg. feels like a prison or warehouse for people on the inside.
i toured the Otis house on Cambridge St w/ my interior design class - omg, so gorgeous. there's a victorian house on the other end of Beacon Hill that also has tours - it's decorated in period, and at least partially original, full-on victorian geegaw heaven.
you have a treasure in this book. thanks for sharing!!
no subject
Date: 2009-08-13 02:19 am (UTC)It must be so neat to tour those houses with an interior designer's eye! I'll have to look into the other house that can be toured!
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Date: 2009-08-13 03:13 am (UTC)http://www.thegibsonhouse.org/
check the links page for other places to tour.
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Date: 2009-08-15 01:28 am (UTC)