First Harrison Gray Otis House
| First Harrison Gray Otis House | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| National Register of Historic Places | |||
| National Historic Landmark | |||
| Historic District Contributing Property | |||
 The building in 2005 |
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| location | Boston , Massachusetts , United States | ||
| Coordinates | 42 ° 21 '41.3 " N , 71 ° 4' 0.3" W | ||
| Built | 1795/96 | ||
| architect | Charles Bulfinch | ||
| Architectural style | Federal style , Adam style | ||
| NRHP number | 70000539 | ||
| Data | |||
| The NRHP added | December 30, 1970 | ||
| Declared as an NHL | December 30, 1970 | ||
| Declared as CP | October 15, 1966 | ||
The First Harrison Gray Otis House (also Otis House Museum ) is the first of three former homes of the namesake Harrison Gray Otis in Boston in the state of Massachusetts in the United States . It was built from 1795 to 1796 and is now a house museum . It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 30, 1970 as a National Historic Landmark and has been a Contributing Property of the Beacon Hill Historic District since 1966 .
architecture
The house built by Charles Bulfinch in the late 18th century is now seen as the prototype for a number of Adam- style, analogue buildings in New England . The interior design is also one of the first to be influenced by Robert Adam .
Outdoor areas
The three-storey house has a rectangular floor plan of around 14.6 m × 9.8 m and has a flat hipped roof with a tall chimney on each of the narrow sides. The building was constructed from bricks arranged in the Flemish Association . The south-facing front is designed symmetrically with a centrally placed entrance, above which there is a reconstructed window in the style of Palladianism on both sides on the first floor .
The windows have stone lintels and benches and are bordered at the top by flat arches, each of which has a visible keystone . The upper floors are highlighted by a cornice and show that the first floor is significantly higher than the second, where the bedrooms are located. The roof overhang is provided with a wooden cornice that is decorated with conical ornaments .
Indoor areas
Inside there are two rooms to the left and right of the wide entrance hall, in which a large dining room, the pantry, a reception room and a study are housed. A staircase leads from the entrance hall to the floor above, which has the same room layout and houses a large salon and two bedrooms. There are four more bedrooms on the top floor.
The salon is the largest room in the house and is extremely elegant. It has a low lambris and an ornate cornice. The fireplace surrounds are decorated with an Adamic frieze , and the entablature above the door is also in Adam style. The wallpaper is a reproduction of the original made in the 1960s. On the northwest rear of the building there is a square extension with an edge length of around 5.5 m, which was originally only one floor high, but is now as high as the main building and on the ground floor level contained the kitchen.
history
Harrison Gray Otis acquired the land on which the building that is named after him was erected in 1793. Construction began on June 17, 1795 and was completed in early 1796. 1797's house with a value of 8000 was US dollar (now about 166,000 US dollars) rated. Charles Bulfinch settled in the construction of the building from the home of William Bingham in Philadelphia inspiration, which he had visited the 1789th This in turn is based on the Manchester House in London . Otis lived in the house until 1801 and then sold it to Thomas Osborn.
The building's facade underwent major changes in the 18th century and was in disrepair when the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (now Historic New England ) took ownership in 1916 and began extensive restoration work by its founder, William Sumner Appleton personally supervised. The restoration could not be completed until 1920 due to the size required. The main changes include the removal of the roof over the entrance and the reconstruction of the Palladian windows.
As part of the expansion of Cambridge Street, the house was moved back around 12 m in 1926. In 1960 Abbott Lowell Cummings commissioned new restorations, including the reconstruction of the wooden cornice, the removal of dormer windows and the renewal of the wallpaper in the salon. Further restoration work followed later, so that the building largely corresponds to its original appearance today.
See also
- List of National Historic Landmarks in Boston
- List of entries on the National Register of Historic Places in northern Boston
literature
- Charles W. Snell: National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form. (PDF) National Park Service , July 14, 1970, accessed September 28, 2016 .
