Gibson House Museum

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Gibson House
National Register of Historic Places
National Historic Landmark
Historic District Contributing Property
The house in 2008

The house in 2008

Gibson House Museum (Massachusetts)
Paris plan pointer b jms.svg
location Boston , Massachusetts , United States
Coordinates 42 ° 21 '17.6 "  N , 71 ° 4' 28.2"  W Coordinates: 42 ° 21 '17.6 "  N , 71 ° 4' 28.2"  W.
Built 1860
architect Edward Clarke Cabot
Architectural style Second Empire
NRHP number 01001048
Data
The NRHP added August 7, 2001
Declared as an  NHL August 7, 2001
Declared as  CP August 14, 1973

The Gibson House Museum (hist. Charles Gibson Jr. House ) is a former residence and now a museum at 137 Beacon Street in the Boston district of Back Bay in the state of Massachusetts in the United States . The 19th century building is one of the few surviving examples of Victorian townhouses in very good condition and was entered on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001 as a National Historic Landmark under the name Gibson House . Since 1973 it has been the Contributing Property of the Back Bay Historic District .

architecture

The building, completed in 1860 in the style of the Second Empire , was designed by Edward Clarke Cabot and is located on a 6.7 m wide and 34 m deep lot. In the immediate vicinity, house number 135, is a twin building with identical architecture.

Outdoor areas

The four-storey house, measuring around 6.7 m by 17.7 m, is set back around 6 m from the street and is connected to it by a bluestone sidewalk . The road-side facade is in the lower part of red-brown sandstone , however, from the first floor of red bricks and corresponds to a 1996 carried out until 1999 restoration in its current appearance to the original state in 1860. The top floor is the mansard roof integrated, the in the direction of the street with slate tiles in shed roofing and on the other side - in the direction of the inner courtyard - is covered with copper plates .

The entrance is located in the middle and is reached via seven sandstone steps. Directly above it is an octagonal bay window on the first floor that protrudes slightly. It is made of wood, but has been painted to match the surrounding sandstone. The roof of the bay window is covered with copper. Two windows can be seen from the street on the second floor and three windows on the third. On the fourth floor the roof is broken through by a single, centrally arranged dormer .

Although the building has the style of the French Empire on cursory examination, on closer examination a multitude of architectural styles can be discovered which Cabot has incorporated and which make the building as a whole individual. Thus, the input flanking columns with stylized example, Lotus - capitals of the Egyptian Revival associate. Since there are only a few decorations, the building looks comparatively simple on the outside, especially in contrast to other houses from this era.

Indoor areas

The room layout inside the building has remained almost unchanged since its construction despite minor adjustments on the top two floors at the end of the 1950s. The interior furnishings, largely preserved in the original, therefore still represent the status of Victorian America between 1860 and 1916.

Basement

The basement , which can be accessed from the back of the building, has a ceiling height of 2.75 m and contains the kitchen, storage rooms, a staff toilet, a boiler room with oven and a fully equipped laundry with drying room. Architecturally, this floor is purely functional and has no special features. In the 1980s, the floors were picked up, re-laid and colored in order to come as close as possible to their original state.

During this measure it was discovered that in the kitchen at the beginning of the 1960s the soapstone washbasin had been moved from the south to the west side, so that it is now to the left of the stove. The hot water tank is to the right of this. A pantry is hidden behind a door in the north wall, from where a food elevator leads to the butler's sideboard on the ground floor. Above the door to the hallway hang 11 originally preserved call bells operated by ropes and pulleys, which were used to call for the staff. Each of the bells makes a different tone and has its own number. An electronic version installed later is to the left of it.

The laundry room contains a boiler as well as devices for washing textiles and heating irons. The heat generated by the fire underneath the boiler was passed on to the neighboring drying room via a barred duct. In the hallway you can see the pipes that carried warm air to the upper floors. A small iron door in the east wall leads to the boiler room, whose original furnace was replaced in the 1930s. Probably in the 1950s in the course of the rededication as a museum, the heating operation was switched from coal to oil.

In the 1950s, a gas-powered water heater was installed in a storage room below the stairs to the ground floor to supply the museum staff with hot water on the upper floors.

ground floor

Stairway in the foyer of the house

On the 3.35 m high ground floor, the spacious entrance hall and dining room determine the picture. The largest part of the wooden elements consists of black walnut , which has darkened due to the long-term influence of light and wear and tear. The windows have inside shutters , the ceilings are plastered white. Almost all door handles on this level are made of silver glass ; the entrance door is fitted with brass handles, and individual handles are made of black enamel . A red Wilton carpet from the age of Edward VII , with small-scale damascene , is laid on the floor and on the steps leading to the first floor . The originally cream-colored base tone of the wallpaper has turned gray in some places due to the effects of light.

The dining room is largely in its original condition from the 1860s and contains the oldest pieces of furniture in the house. However, the wallpaper and flooring were renewed during renovations in the 1890s. A double door made of black walnut leads into the room from the entrance hall, and the carved fireplace surround on the west side of the room is also made of this wood. In the middle there is a brass chandelier hanging from the ceiling. On the northeast side a door leads to a porcelain cabinet, on the northwest side to the butler's sideboard.

Below the stairs is the toilet, the floor of which is covered with oak and which has high black walnut paneling . The walls above the paneling are plastered and painted pea green. The toilet seat , toilet lid and cistern are made of mahogany , the wash basin is clad in marble.

First floor

The first floor is symmetrically divided and houses the music room and the library, which are separated from one another by a corridor in which the same carpeting is laid as on the first floor. The cream-colored ceilings have a heavy but unadorned cornice and rise around 3.8 m, which makes the floor the highest in the house. All doors on this floor also have silver glass handles. Above the stairs there is a round window in the ceiling, from the center of which a chandelier hangs.

The library in the front part of the house has a bay window in the north wall and a fire grate for coal on the west side. The wallpaper is identical to the one in the dining room. The music room also has a bay window that is integrated into the south wall of the building. The room has a wraparound, white painted Linkrusta - Lambris . The floor is covered with light wood, the walls are covered with wallpaper with vertical stripes in yellow and rose. A brass and crystal chandelier hangs from the ceiling in the center of the room. The music room was completely redesigned in the 1890s by Rosamond Warren Gibson and therefore no longer corresponds to the condition immediately after the house was built.

Second story

The family's bedrooms are on the second, 3.35 m high floor. On this level, oak was used instead of black walnut, with the room layout being identical to the first floor. The street-side room initially served as a bedroom and was converted into a study by Charles Hammond Gibson, Jr. in 1916 after his father died. The changes made include the dark red wallpaper. The room has a cream-colored linoleum lambris and an oak-framed fireplace on the west side.

The rear room contains a bedroom, which also has a fireplace on the west side, which is framed with mahogany wood in the style of the Colonial Revival . It was renovated in the 1890s and equipped with the current wallpaper and green carpeting. The replica bamboo bed was a wedding present from their parents to Rosamond and Charles Gibson, Sr. in 1871. The bedroom was renovated again in the 1960s. The bathroom can be reached from both rooms and the hallway, the oak flooring of which has been preserved in the original. The toilet cistern is clad with lacquered chestnut wood. The toilet, sink and bath tub are from the 1890s.

Third floor

The third floor is 3.2 m high and has a similar distribution as the two floors below. The room on the street side occupies the entire width of the house and was presumably used as a children's room in the past. On the west side there is a black walnut fireplace with a black marble floor. The bathroom is not in the original condition and contains a modern bathtub and shower. The rear third of the level is occupied by two separate bedrooms, of which the eastern one is slightly larger. Both rooms can be combined by opening two sliding doors made of oak. The west bedroom has a simple white marble fireplace decorated with green tiles.

Fourth floor

The top floor contains four bedrooms of different sizes, a kitchen and a bathroom and is the lowest in the house with a ceiling height of 2.5 m. In contrast to the other floors, the rooms here are not connected to one another and can only be accessed via the hallway. The woodwork is made of oak. In the bathroom, the roof can be reached via a ladder.

Interior decoration

Most of the furnishings in the house were originally owned by the Gibson family and were either inherited or newly acquired. Some furniture was designed for the first time to match the rest of the woodwork, while others were purchased specifically for the house. There are also various antiques from the Gibson, Hammond, Crowninshield and Warren families.

Heirlooms

The furnishings visible today come from the most varied of eras. Charles Hammond Gibson, Jr. worked with others to bring heirlooms back to the house and donate to the museum; in addition, he bought other Victorian items. As a result, some furnishings are older than the house itself, including the Abraham Gibson-made Willard clock in the entrance hall, the Regency chairs in the dining room, and three Federal-style chairs in the music room. The concert grand piano by Steinway & Sons from 1872, which was once in existence , was initially exchanged for a square piano from 1860 in the early phase of the museum's foundation, but later replaced by the current piano by Chickering & Sons from 1880, which in appearance comes close to the original Steinway grand piano. The Japanese dresser in the library was a gift from Gibson's uncle, John Collins Warren .

Built-in furniture

It could not be clarified with certainty whether individual built-in furniture was ordered according to the specifications of the architect Edward Clarke Cabot or specially designed. For example, the black walnut serving table in the dining room was specially selected because its design reflects the archways and fireplace surrounds on the lower floors. This also applies to two bookshelves in the library that are next to the fireplace.

Furniture groups

A furniture group from 1860 in the style of the Tudor Revival , which used to be in the music room, is now spread across the entire house. It consists of two cupboards, a red and gold couch with two armchairs, a large mirror and several chests. However, best documented is the 15-piece bedroom interior on the second floor, which was a wedding gift to Rosamond Warren Gibson from her mother in 1871.

Works of art

Paintings and art prints are scattered throughout the house and hang where the family has placed them. The oil paintings show family portraits, landscape paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries, and copies of older masterpieces. For example, a portrait of Abraham Gardiner Gibson (c. 1814) attributed to Alvin Fisher hang at the foot of the stairs in the entrance area and a portrait of Samuel Hammond (c. 1830) made by Chester Harding in the dining room.

In the Victorian era, copies of famous paintings were very popular, mostly acquired while traveling around Europe. In the music room you can see the painting “Cleopatra Dissolving the Pearl” by Guido Reni and the “Flora” painted by Tizian , both of which were made in the 19th century. A copy of “The five oldest children of Karl I” by Anthony van Dyck hangs above the piano . There is a self-portrait of Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun on a table in the library , and at the top of the staircase in the entrance area is Gilbert Stuart's “Portrait of George Washington at Dorchester Heights” .

Two landscape paintings by Samuel T. Coleman hang in the entrance area with “Roman Landscape” and “Canale Grande - Venice”, while in the dining room there is an unsigned hunting scene and two Italian landscapes dated 1720. In the music room you can see two seascapes by a pupil of Claude Joseph Vernet , a landscape painting by a pupil of Nicolas Poussin and the painting “The Choral Singers” by William Morris Hunt .

There are also two engravings by Edwin Landseer and some pencil drawings made by AC Finnety showing members of the family in the library . In the study a means depends mezzotint created portrait of Joseph Warren in the 1770s, and in the bedroom on the second floor are a lithograph of a mythological scene of William-Adolphe Bouguereau from the late 19th century and the pencil drawing of a farmer's wife of Jean-François Millet from the year 1857 can be seen.

The museum also has a large collection of daguerreotypes owned by the Jonathan Mason Warren family, as well as a variety of photographs. Charles Hammond Gibson, Jr. also collected correspondence with prominent figures; for example, the library has a framed invitation to the White House for Alice Roosevelt Longworth's wedding , issued in 1906 . Various art objects such as 19th century porcelain and some clocks, such as the French clock in the dining room that Benjamin Williams Crowninshield passed on to his granddaughter Rosamond Warren Gibson, are part of the extensive collection.

  • "Flora", 1515-1520

  • “The five oldest children of Charles I”, 1637

  • "Portrait of George Washington at Dorchester Heights", 1806

Historical meaning

The Gibson House is a rare, up befindliches still in very good condition Victorian townhouse and offers a view into the urban life of the upper middle class during the Civil War and the First World War . Not only the interior furnishings, which have largely been preserved in the original, but also the architecture represent ways of life and technological advances of their time.

Three generations of the Gibson family lived in the house between 1860 and 1954. As early as the 1930s, Charles Hammond Gibson, Jr., the grandson of the first owner, decided to keep the family home as a Victorian relic and home to his literary work. In 1957 - three years after his death - it was opened as a house museum and is open to the public up to the second floor.

The Gibson family

Catherine Hammond Gibson (1804-1888) lived as the first owner from 1860 until her death in 1888 in the house. In 1833 she married the sugar trader John Gardiner Gibson, who died five years later by sea from Cuba to Europe. They had two sons, John Gardiner Gibson, Jr. and Charles Hammond Gibson. In 1856, John Gardiner Gibson, Jr. died in a shipwreck in New York Harbor at the age of 21. After her mother's death in 1860, Catherine Gibson moved to the new Back Bay district, which was still under construction.

The plot for their new house had been on September 1, 1859 3969 US dollars (now about 126,000 US dollars) from land speculators John L. Gardner - the husband of Isabella Stewart Gardner - acquired. Charles Hammond Gibson, Sr. (1836-1916) attended Phillips Exeter Academy and lived in the house from 1860 until his death. In 1871 he married Rosamond Warren, daughter of Boston surgeon Jonathan Mason Warren and Annie Crowninshield Warren, whose father had been United States Secretary of the Navy under US Presidents James Madison and James Monroe ; her great-uncle was General Joseph Warren, killed in the Battle of Bunker Hill . Charles was buried in the family vault at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge after his death in 1916 .

Charles and Rosamond had three children, Mary Ethel (1873-1938), Charles Hammond Jr. (1874-1954) and Rosamond (1878-1953), who also lived in the house as the third generation. Mary Ethel married in 1911 and moved out, as did Rosamond in 1916. Only lifelong bachelor Charles Hammond Gibson, Jr. remained there until his death and began converting the house into a museum and museum after his mother's death in 1934 founded the Gibson Society . He graduated from St. Paul's School in New Hampshire and from the MIT School of Architecture and Planning and traveled through Europe, where he assisted Alfred Harmsworth in London in 1894 in the preparations for a polar expedition. In addition, he did research in the British Museum and in France for planned publications. He worked as a writer until his death and published, among other things, volumes of poetry.

Gibson was an honorary member of the Boston Parks and Recreation Commission and played a controversial role in the beautification of Boston Common in the 1910s . He failed in his attempt to get a copy of the Petit Trianon in Versailles through; The compromise solution found at the time consists of an octagonal granite object in the style of Beaux Arts architecture that is still standing today . Charles Hammond Gibson, Jr. died on November 17, 1954.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Gibson House Museum  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: Massachusetts. National Park Service , accessed August 10, 2019.
  2. ↑ a b c cf. Hessney et al., P. 5.
  3. ↑ a b cf. Hessney et al., P. 6.
  4. ↑ a b c cf. Hessney et al., P. 7.
  5. ↑ a b c cf. Hessney et al., P. 8.
  6. ↑ a b cf. Hessney et al., P. 9.
  7. ↑ a b cf. Hessney et al., P. 10.
  8. ↑ a b cf. Hessney et al., P. 11.
  9. ↑ a b cf. Hessney et al., P. 12.
  10. ↑ a b c d cf. Hessney et al., P. 13.
  11. ↑ a b c cf. Hessney et al., P. 14.
  12. ↑ a b c cf. Hessney et al., P. 18.
  13. ↑ a b c cf. Hessney et al., P. 19.