First Harrison Gray Otis House facts for kids
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First Harrison Gray Otis House
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U.S. National Historic Landmark District
Contributing Property |
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First Harrison Gray Otis House
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 Location in Boston
Location in Massachusetts
Location in the United States
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| Location | 141 Cambridge Street, Boston, Massachusetts |
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| Built | 1795 |
| Architect | Charles Bulfinch |
| Architectural style | Federal |
| Part of | Beacon Hill Historic District (ID66000130) |
| NRHP reference No. | 70000539 |
Quick facts for kids Significant dates |
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| Added to NRHP | December 30, 1970 |
| Designated NHL | December 30, 1970 |
| Designated NHLDCP | October 15, 1966 |
The First Harrison Gray Otis House is a really old and important house in Boston, Massachusetts. It's now a historic house museum, which means you can visit it to learn about the past. It's also a National Historic Landmark, meaning it's super important to American history.
This house was built way back in 1795-1796. It was designed by a famous architect named Charles Bulfinch for a politician named Harrison Gray Otis. This was the first of three houses Bulfinch designed for him!
The house is special because it's one of the earliest three-story brick homes built in the "Federal style" of architecture. Its inside design was influenced by a famous architect named Robert Adam. Today, the house is the main office for Historic New England, an organization that helps protect old buildings. You can visit it for tours all year round.
House Design and History
This house is the simplest of the three homes that Charles Bulfinch designed for Harrison Gray Otis. The design was inspired by a house Bulfinch saw in Philadelphia in 1789. That house, in turn, was based on a design from London.
Outside Features
The house has three stories and is five bays wide. "Bays" are like sections, usually marked by windows. It has elegant "string courses," which are decorative bands of stone or brick that go all the way around the building.
The beautiful front entrance you see today was added after 1801. Above the entrance, there's a lovely "Palladian window." This type of window has a tall, arched central part with two smaller, rectangular parts on either side. Above that, there's a "lunette," which is a half-moon shaped window. The third floor of the house is quite short, with ceilings just over 6 feet tall.
Inside Layout
The inside of the house follows a common design called a "central hall plan." This means there's a main hallway in the middle, with two rooms on each side. The kitchen was in an "ell," which is a wing or extension built at a right angle to the main part of the house.
Moving the House
In 1916, the house was bought by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. This group is now called Historic New England. They bought it to use as their main office.
The house wasn't always in its exact current spot. It was originally about 40 feet closer to the street. In the 1920s, Cambridge Street was going to be made wider. To save the house, it was carefully moved back to its present location. During this move, the original basement was lost.
Today, the house is connected to a group of row houses on Lynde Street. These connected buildings are used for offices and programs by Historic New England. The house was carefully fixed up in 1960 by an expert named Abbott Lowell Cummings. It is open for tours throughout the year.
Images for kids
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First Harrison Gray Otis House
