THE FIRST HARRISON GRAY OTIS HOUSE

Hamze Machmouchi

Critical Reading and Research 2

December 15th, 2015

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ABSTRACT

The Otis House is the last surviving mansion in Bowdoin Square in Boston's West End

neighborhood and also the first of the three houses built by Charles Bulfinch in 1796 for lawyer,

business man and politician Harrison Gray Otis who was instrumental in developing nearby

Beacon Hill, served in Congress, and was a mayor of Boston. The house’s design reflects the

classical proportions and delicate detail of the Federal style. It later became a clinic and a

middle-class boarding house until it was bought by William Sumner Appleton in 1916 and

restored carefully in 1960 by Abbott Lowell Cummings.

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LIST OF FIGURES

Harrison Gray Otis.........................................................................................................................10

Bowdoin Square.............................................................................................................................11

Charles Bulfinch............................................................................................................................12

Bulfinch’s house............................................................................................................................13

Elevation Plan of The First Harrison Gray Otis House.................................................................14

The Hall.........................................................................................................................................14

The Dining Room..........................................................................................................................15

The Withdrawing Room................................................................................................................15

Map of Boston in 1800..................................................................................................................16

The Parlor Room............................................................................................................................17

Mott’s Medicated Baths.................................................................................................................17

Boarding Room..............................................................................................................................18

The First Harisson Gray Otis House..............................................................................................19

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In 1796, Harrison Gray Otis (fig.1) was one of the most influential figures of its

time. He was a congressman, a prominent lawyer graduated from Harvard and a rebellious

character that fought for the Revolution. In 1786, he was a captain in the Independent Light

Infantry, a militia company formed in the shadow of Daniel Shays's Rebellion and, one year

later, a major in the Suffolk County militia. At only 30 years old, he purchased, among several

other business partners, Copley Pasture on Beacon Hill, an investment that enriched him greatly

and led to the development of Boston's most fashionable residential district. This business

transaction allowed him to build a house that represents his position in society. A house that

would show his influences, education and his financial stability to the people of Boston. Located

on 141 Cambridge Street in the prestigious neighborhood of Bowdoin Square (fig.2 and 9), the

house was exposed to the mass and was ideal for people who wanted to be noticed in society. To

be able to achieve his vision, he hired his longtime friend and architect Charles Bulfinch which

had freshly started the construction of his Massachusetts State House (1795).

Charles Bulfinch (fig.3) was born into a well off Boston family in Bowdoin

Square (fig.4) his father was a physician and a graduate of Harvard College and Edinburg

University. Bulfinch took a degree at Harvard in 1781. From 1785 until 1787, he took the “18th

century gentleman grand tour of Europe” in which he met Thomas Jefferson in Paris and famous

architect Robert Adam in England which became his greatest inspirations when he came back in

Boston. He is believed to be the first American architect by profession. All his works were in the

fashionable rococo version of the 18th-century classical style popularized in Britain by Robert

Adam from the 1760s but they were heavier and more provincial than the originals, but for that

very reason all the more acceptable. They were so well received that Bulfinch was encouraged to

erect, on speculation, a 16-house block of uniform proportion, scale, and composition in the

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manner made famous and fashionable by New Town in Edinburgh, Scotland. Eventually this

project, named Tontine Crescent and begun in 1793, was an enormous success, and it set a

pattern for similar blocks which give the Beacon Hill area of Boston its distinctive character. But

Bulfinch was caught in the brief depression following Jay's Treaty in November 1794 and could

not raise enough money to finish it immediately; he went bankrupt in January 1796. This

experience had practical results. Indeed, he wrote “My inexperience and that of my agents in

conducting business of this nature … led me to surrender all my property… and I found myself

reduced to my personal exertions for support…. "1 . He became dependent on architectural fees

for his living and fortunately, his reputation was unaffected. Harrison Gray Otis, among other

friends, rallied round, and he soon had plenty of commissions.

One of them was to design the plans (fig.5) and supervise the construction of

Harrison Gray Otis’s house. His client was a man that liked to entertain his guests and he was

great at it according to John Quincy Adams. He also was a well-travelled man that went to China

(that had recently opened its first port), among many other countries. Keeping these facts in mind

about his friend, he designed the house in a certain way that shows the grandiosity of the Otis’s

lifestyle. Indeed, when the visitors reach the front entry hall (fig.6), they will be confronted to

walls that are covered by paintings and engravings that shows their interests in politics and

entertainment and among them he high ceiling, the large and graceful staircase, the fancy

plasterwork at the cornice, meant to have an impact on. However, in spite of its grand

appearance, visitors did not spend much time in the hall, as it was unheated and almost empty of

furniture. On a more practical level, hallway space was also used for storing extra furniture. The

dining room (fig.7) on the first floor and the withdrawing room (fig.8) on the second floor were

1 Bulfinch, Charles, and Ellen Susan Bulfinch. The Life and Letters of Charles Bulfinch, Architect, with Other Family Papers. New York: B. Franklin, 1973. 45.

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more suitable rooms to entertain their visitors. Both are well heated and both are well exposed to

the sunlight. The dining room was also used as a parlor. This room was the most convenient to

host dinner parties because it led to the pantry, the kitchen, and the wine cellar. The room was

too formal to be used for simple family meals and it too much trouble to set up the large table

and heat the room for only a few people. The withdrawing room was called such because after

long dinner parties, the Otises and their guests “withdrew” to this room. It is the most elegantly

decorated room in the house, and seems to have been special to the Otises as it is the only room

to have solid mahogany doors, a really difficult to acquire type of wood. Other doors in the

house were made of less costly wood that was either painted or grained to look like mahogany.

The withdrawing room is also the only public room in the house that was designed to be used at

night. Unlike the downstairs parlor (fig.10) and dining room, this room has a chandelier. The

mirrors on the doors and walls helped to reflect the light and brighten the room during evening

parties. The furniture in this room reflects the many different kinds of activities that went on

here. Tables could also be set up and used for family meals as needed. In the winter especially,

the family probably spent most of their time in this room, as it was easier to heat one room and

use it for many activities than to heat several rooms. In contrast to the stark balance of the

architecture, the décor is much more vibrant. Bulfinch’s design for the Otis House shows typical

characteristics of the Federal style, including a heavy emphasis on symmetry, and classical

window shapes like the fanlight windows over the main entrance and on the third floor, and the

very fashionable Palladian window on the second floor. The Federal style continues from the

façade of the house into the design of the interiors. Each window has a corresponding door on

the opposite wall. This type of symmetry is made possible by false doors over the dining room

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and the withdrawing room. The Otis House is an excellent example of a high-style home in the

Federal era.

Indeed, “The use of the words "Federal style" reflects upon commonly held

axioms regarding artistic taste. It also applies to a new period in the history of American

development, when colonialism had been discarded and new ideas for government and society

made this, perhaps, the most vital period of American history. It is important to note that while

the framers of the Constitution were developing new concepts of government, they depended for

justification upon the prevailing liberal political theories of the 18th century. Developing as it did

out of the late Colonial period, Federal architecture in particular was backward looking in certain

aspects.”2 Rooted as it was in the architecture of the late Colonial era it represented a natural

stylistic evolution from that earlier and wholly provincial English mode of building. The three-

story town house, the ubiquitous block-type house with its doors in the center of the long side...

At the same time, however, the Federal style was a new mode developing new concepts of

proportion and scale and vitalizing equally new systems of ornament. In its Englishness it is

thoroughly a traditional style, but it also has moments of sparkling originality, and certain traits

which can be identified as uniquely American appear for the first time. Where most Federal style

domestic buildings were rectangular blocks, the use of interior space was anything but

symmetrical. Rooms would often be of different shapes. Neoclassical design with its

characteristic swags, urns, and Greek and Roman figures, was increasingly popular in the young

democratic country. One of the main federalist political party’s intentions was actually to build

The United States following the roman political pattern. Harrison Gray Otis was actually one to

promote it as he later became a senator.

2 Geller, L. D., and Charles Bulfinch. The Architecture of Elegance: The Tradition of Charles Bulfinch and the Plymouth Federal Savings Bank. Plymouth: Pilgrim Society, 1976. 15.

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As he was gaining more power and influence and as Bowdoin square was more

and more inhabited, Otis decided to sell his property to painter John Osborn in 1801 and moved

out into his second house that was built by Bulfinch in the same style in very refined

neighborhood of Beacon Hill until he sold it again to John Osbourne in 1806 to move out to his

third house in front of the Boston Common. The largest mansion he ever had. All of the three

houses were very similar except for their interiors and their number of stories. The first and

second houses had three stories whereas the third one had four which was something was

completely new in the United States. They all have the same type of symmetry characteristic of

the Federal Style. However, each house had different types of fanned windows, different sizes

and different type of front entries.

The first house after being bought by John and Catherine Osborn was then bought

by Doctor and Mrs. Mott, who ran a spa and medical clinic there from 1833 until 1854 (fig.11).

In 1854, the house was bought by four unmarried sisters: Ms. Williams. They then turned the

house into a prestigious boarding house (fig.12) until it was bought by William Sumner

Appleton, the founder of the Society of Preservation of New England’s Antiques (SPNEA) and

made the house its headquarters. The Neighborhood in which the house sits went through a tough

Urban Renewal where multiple historic houses (like Bulfinch’s house) were destroyed. The

house is one of the few that are still standing. However, the house moved over 42 feet and 11

inches from its original location. Bowdoin Square and its surroundings eventually became what

we know today of the West End. The “deslumming” plan voted in the 1950’s forced to move

historical immigrant communities like the Irish to build luxury condos.

The First Harrison Gray Otis house is one great example of what federal

architecture looked like back then. Bulfinch showed to the world his understanding of spaces as

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elements that coexist symmetrically. It was without any surprise that his work had such a

resonance that it made him able to shape most of what we know today of Boston. As the designer

of the Massachusetts State House, the Connecticut State House and part of the Commons

renovation, it was only a question of time before his work would reach the ear of the president

himself: James Monroe. In 1818, he was hired by the commissioner of public buildings to

replace Latrobe. He became the third architect of the Capitol. Bulfinch designed the domed

center building of the Capitol and oversaw its construction between 1818 and 1826. He died on

April the 15th, 1844 in Boston when he was 80 years old. As for Harrison Gray Otis, after the

Federal Party dissolved in 1822, he became the third mayor of Boston. He continued his

profession of lawyer until he died four years after his friend, on October 8th, 1848.

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Figure 1

Figure 2

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Figure 3

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Figure 4

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Figure 5

Figure 6

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Figure 7

Figure 8

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Figure 9

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Figure 11

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Figure 10

Figure 12

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Figure 13

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Bulfinch, Charles, and Ellen Susan Bulfinch. The Life and Letters of Charles Bulfinch, Architect, with Other Family Papers, New York: B. Franklin, 1973.

2. Geller, L. D., and Charles Bulfinch. The Architecture of Elegance: The Tradition of Charles Bulfinch and the Plymouth Federal Savings Bank. Plymouth: Pilgrim Society, 1976.

3. Kirker, Harold. The Architecture of Charles Bulfinch. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1969.

4. Kirker, Harold, and James Kirker. Bulfinch's Boston, 1787-1817. New York: Oxford University Press, 1964.

5. "Otis House." — Historic New England. Accessed December 16, 2015. http://www.historicnewengland.org/historic-properties/homes/otis-house/otis-house.

6. "Charles Bulfinch." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (December 16, 2015). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404700981.html

7. Coltman, V. (2006). Fabricating the Antique: Neoclasscism in Britain, 1760-1800. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.

8. Loughran, T. (2007). The Republic in Print: Print Culture in the Age of U.S. Nation Building, 1770–1870. New York, Columbia University Press

9. "Charles Bulfinch." Architect of the Capitol. Accessed December 16, 2015. http://www.aoc.gov/architect-of-the-capitol/charles-bulfinch.

10. Wikipedia. Accessed December 16, 2015. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_End,_Boston.

11. "Boston History in a Minute: Harrison Gray Otis House." YouTube. Accessed December 16, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQxK4DgkdDM.

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