First Harrison Gray Otis House
- Architect
- Charles Bulfinch
- Year
- 1795
- Style
- Federal
- City
- Boston, MA
- Collections
- bulfinch’s bostonfederal boston
The First Harrison Gray Otis House at 141 Cambridge Street was built in 1795-96 as the first of three houses Charles Bulfinch designed for Massachusetts politician Harrison Gray Otis. One of the earliest three-story brick houses to establish the Federal style in America, it is now a National Historic Landmark and serves as headquarters for the preservation group Historic New England, open year-round for tours.
the building
Facade and entrance. The five-bay brick facade rises three stories with elegant string courses marking each level. The graceful entrance seen today was added after 1801, topped by a Palladian window and, above that, a lunette.
A short top floor. The third floor is noticeably compressed, with ceilings just over six feet tall, a proportion typical of the era's service and secondary floors even on an otherwise formal house.
Central hall plan. Inside, the house follows a traditional central hall plan, with two rooms arranged on either side of the entrance hall - a simpler layout than the two later Otis houses Bulfinch would go on to design.
Borrowed design. Bulfinch is said to have based the house on a William Bingham house he saw in Philadelphia in 1789, which itself derived from a house in London - a chain of borrowing typical of how Federal-era architects adapted precedent across the Atlantic.
the style
The Otis House is considered one of the earliest three-story brick houses to represent the American Federal style, with interiors showing the influence of the English designer Robert Adam. It was, by design, the simplest of the three houses Bulfinch built for Otis.
More on Federalthe architect
Charles Bulfinch was the leading American architect of the Federal era and a formative figure in Boston's built landscape. The First Harrison Gray Otis House was his first commission for Otis, followed by two further houses for the same client as Otis's wealth and status grew.
significance
The house is a National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It now serves as the headquarters of Historic New England, a regional preservation organization, and operates as a house museum open for tours year-round.
nearby
- Old West Church
- African Meeting House
- Charles Sumner House
- Government Service Center
- Nichols House Museum
- Ether Dome