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Mount Vernon Proprietors was a real estate development syndicate operating in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded at the end of the 18th century, it developed land on the south slope of Beacon Hill into a desirable residential neighborhood.
In 1795 a syndicate formed by Harrison Gray Otis sought to speculate on land development around the newly formed government buildings on Boston's Beacon Hill. The Mount Vernon Proprietors, as the group was named, included founders Otis, Jonathan Mason, Joseph Woodward and Charles Ward Apthorp. [1] Membership in the Proprietors changed frequently but partners included Charles Bulfinch, Hepzibah Swan, Henry Jackson, Dr. Benjamin Joy, William Scollay. [2]
As probably the first organized real estate syndicate in early Federal period America, the Proprietors' contribution to real estate development formulated the model by which much of America was built.
The Proprietors purchased an 18.5-acre (75,000 m2) cow pasture for the total sum of $18,450 from the esteemed painter John Singleton Copley who was living in England at the time. The Copley tract comprised an area of Beacon Hill now bound by Beacon Street, Walnut Street and Mount Vernon Street and the area called Louisburg Square. After agreeing to the sale, Copley reconsidered the offer and tried unsuccessfully for ten years to break the sale contract.
Once the sale was upheld, architect Charles Bulfinch set out to pattern streets, design mansions, and create an elegant urban setting.
Houses associated with the Proprietors that survive to the present day include:
The houses from 70 through 75 Beacon Street, Boston, opposite the Boston Public Garden, were built by the Mount Vernon Proprietors in 1828, on a speculative basis. They have a continuous granite facade. The architect was Asher Benjamin (1773–1845). According to a Harvard text on Beacon Hill architecture, #72's facade is unchanged and #73 retains its original brass-work on the front door. These houses are in addition to those listed above.
Charles Bulfinch was an early American architect, and has been regarded by many as the first American-born professional architect to practice.
Beacon Hill is a historic neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, and the hill upon which the Massachusetts State House resides. The term "Beacon Hill" is used locally as a metonym to refer to the state government or the legislature itself, much like Washington, D.C.'s Capitol Hill does at the federal level.
The Public Garden, also known as Boston Public Garden, is a large park in the heart of Boston, Massachusetts, adjacent to Boston Common. It is a part of the Emerald Necklace system of parks and is bounded by Charles Street and Boston Common to the east, Beacon Street and Beacon Hill to the north, Arlington Street and Back Bay to the west, and Boylston Street to the south. The Public Garden was the first public botanical garden in America.
Harrison Gray Otis, was a businessman, lawyer, and politician, becoming one of the most important leaders of the United States' first political party, the Federalists. He was a member of the Otis family.
There are three houses named the Harrison Gray Otis House in Boston, Massachusetts. All were built by noted American architect Charles Bulfinch for the same man, Federalist lawyer and politician Harrison Gray Otis.
Jonathan Mason was a Federalist United States Senator and Representative from Massachusetts during the early years of the United States.
The West End is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, bounded generally by Cambridge Street to the south, the Charles River to the west and northwest, North Washington Street on the north and northeast, and New Sudbury Street on the east. Beacon Hill is to the south, North Point is across the Charles River to the north, Kendall Square is across the Charles River to the west, and the North End is to the east. A late 1950s urban renewal project razed a large Italian and Jewish enclave and displaced over 20,000 people in order to redevelop much of the West End and part of the neighboring Downtown neighborhood. After that, the original West End became increasingly non-residential, including part of Government Center as well as much of Massachusetts General Hospital and several high rise office buildings. More recently, however, new residential buildings and spaces, as well as new parks, have been appearing across the West End.
Beacon Street is a major thoroughfare in Boston, Massachusetts and its western suburbs Brookline and Newton. It passes through many of Boston's central and western neighborhoods, including Beacon Hill, Back Bay, Fenway–Kenmore, the Boston University campus, Brighton, and Chestnut Hill.
Louisburg Square is a street in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, bisected by a small private park. The park is maintained by the Louisburg Square Proprietors. While the Proprietors pay taxes to the City of Boston, the city does not own the park or its garden.
The Hancock Manor was a house located at 30 Beacon Street on Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts. It stood near the southwest corner of what are today the grounds of the Massachusetts State House. It was the home of United States Founding Father John Hancock.
The Church of the Holy Cross (1803-ca.1862) was located on Franklin Street in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1808 the church became the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. It was designed by Charles Bulfinch and was the first church built for the city's Roman Catholics.
Franklin Place, designed by Charles Bulfinch and built in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1793–95, included a row of sixteen three-story brick townhouses that extended in a 480-foot curve, a small garden, and four double houses. Constructed early in Bulfinch's career, Franklin Place came after he had seen the possibilities of modern architecture in Europe and had determined to reshape his native city. It was the first important urban housing scheme undertaken in the United States, and the city's first row-house complex. However, years of decline and the push of industry into the area forced its demolition in 1858.
The Samuel Gridley and Julia Ward Howe House is a historic rowhouse at 13 Chestnut Street in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1974 for its association with the social reform couple, Julia Ward Howe and Samuel Gridley Howe. The Howes lived in the house, which was likely designed by renowned Boston architect Charles Bulfinch, from 1863 to 1866. It has served as the temporary official residence of the British Consul General to New England since 2016.
The First Harrison Gray Otis House is a historic house museum and National Historic Landmark at 141 Cambridge Street in the West End of Boston, Massachusetts. The house, built in 1795–96, was the first of three houses designed by Charles Bulfinch and built for Massachusetts politician Harrison Gray Otis. It is notable as one of the earliest three-story brick houses that came to represent the Federal style of architecture, and its interiors show the influence of Robert Adam. The house is now the headquarters of Historic New England, a regional preservation organization, and is open year-round for tours.
James Swan was an early American patriot and financier based in Boston in the 18th and 19th centuries. He was a member of the Sons of Liberty and participated in the Boston Tea Party. Swan was twice wounded at the Battle of Bunker Hill, he next became secretary of the Massachusetts Board of War and the legislature. During the time he held that office, he drew heavily on his private funds to aid the Continental Army, which was then in dire need of funds to arm and equip the soldiers who were arriving in Boston from all parts of New England. In 1795, Swan, acting as agent for France, helped refinance the United States’ debt to France, which amounted to 2,024,900 dollars. The US government gave him, as agent for France, newly issued US Government interest-bearing shares equal in value to the amount due on the French debt. Swan then arranged the sale of the shares to investors and the payment of the proceeds to France. In effect, the US replaced its debt to France with the US’s obligations under the new shares owned by private investors. The United States no longer owed money to foreign governments, although it continued to owe money to private investors both in the United States and in Europe. This allowed the young United States to place itself on a sound financial footing. On principles of loyalty, he spent 22 years—more than a quarter of his life—in the Paris Sainte-Pélagie Prison.
Hepzibah Swan née Clarke was an American socialite of Boston, Massachusetts. She was a wealthy and well connected heiress who was among the most cosmopolitan, intelligent, and erudite of ladies in Federal Boston. Madame Swan was said to be charismatic, not least because of her wealth but also in good measure because of her effusive personal charm. Lifelong friends included revolutionary war heroes Henry Knox, Henry Jackson, Charles Bulfinch, Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton, and Harrison Otis.
Cornelius Coolidge was a real estate developer in early 19th-century Boston, Massachusetts, who constructed buildings in Boston's Beacon Hill neighborhood, and elsewhere. As a young man he had been involved in maritime trade, and not always within the prescribed laws. During the War of 1812, the brig Dispatch owned by Coolidge and Francis Oliver was captured outside Boston Harbor by the Salem privateer Castigator on suspicion of having been trading with the enemy. Coolidge and Oliver manned two boats with 45 armed men, rowed down the harbor, and regained their brig after an exchange of gunfire. However, the brig was restored to the privateers by the district court.
The Amory–Ticknor House is a historic house at 9–10 Park Street and 22–22A Beacon Street in Boston, Massachusetts. It was built in 1804 by businessman Thomas Coffin Amory, and later owned by scholar George Ticknor. It sits atop Beacon Hill, across from the Massachusetts State House on Beacon Street and the Boston Common on Park Street. Numerous tenants have occupied various parts of the house through the years, including Samuel Dexter, Christopher Gore, John Jeffries, Harrison Gray Otis, Anna Ticknor's Society to Encourage Studies at Home, and temporarily in 1824, the Marquis de Lafayette.
Mount Vernon Church in Boston, Massachusetts, was a Congregational church located on Beacon Hill (1844–1891) and later in Back Bay (1892–present).