The Grandeur of The Past
Built in 1848, 93 Beacon Street represents one of a number of elegant Beacon Hill townhouses built for Boston’s aristocracy as the Back Bay was gradually being filled in. The property was a part of a landmark real estate venture at the time—eight townhouses comprising an entire city block, designed and built by noted architect George Minot Dexter. At the same time, the Boston Public Garden, America’s first urban botanical garden, was emerging right across the street.
Today, the façade of 93 Beacon remains virtually untouched from when constructed. This is a testament to Dexter’s design, which inspired many at the time see this block of Beacon Street as one of the finest in the area. Built as the popularity of Federal and Greek Revival architectural styles was transitioning to a more Italianate romanticism, 93 Beacon’s granite foundation, rusticated brownstone, elaborate cornice, and cast iron balcony give it a unique dignity. It seems fitting that this home’s first occupant was Supreme Court Justice Benjamin R. Curtis, one of only two justices who argued in favor of Dred Scott’s emancipation.
This most prestigious block on the “flat of the Hill” was part of the neighborhood that formed the seat of Boston power and wealth. Intellectual, artistic, and literary luminaries like John Singleton Copley, Daniel Webster, and Henry David Thoreau called Beacon Hill home. So, too, did the Boston Brahmins of the mid-19th century. Oliver Wendell Holmes described Beacon as “the sunny street that holds the sifted few.” Among these Brahmins was 93 Beacon’s original owner, William Appleton, a statesman, banker, and one of the city’s wealthiest merchants. Other members of the Appleton family lived here as well, including his daughter Hettie and her husband Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, President Jefferson’s great grandson and America’s minister to France under Benjamin Harrison.
93 Beacon has remained an exclusive and coveted address through the years. It has been home to Boston’s elite, built as a magnificent, single-family home and, later, offering apartments, still boasting exquisite custom millwork and tiger maple floors, marble mantels and an elegant entry lobby with a graceful spiral staircase. The 12-foot-high piano nobile of this extra-wide townhome features elongated windows that let in an abundance of light and look directly across to the Boston Public Garden, which has served as 93 Beacon’s magnificent front yard for the last 176 years. Fortunately, this very special property has been owned and stewarded for the last 70 years by multiple generations of a single family who have preserved its irreplaceable historic detailing to honor its illustrious past.
