Second Harrison Gray Otis House
- Architect
- Charles Bulfinch
- Year
- 1802
- Style
- Federal
- City
- Boston, MA
- Collections
- bulfinch’s bostonfederal boston
Charles Bulfinch designed three houses in Boston for the Federalist lawyer and politician Harrison Gray Otis, and this second one, built in 1800-1802 at 85 Mount Vernon Street, is a large square Federal-style mansion on Beacon Hill. It stands three stories tall with brick walls laid in Flemish bond, set on a lawn behind a semicircular cobblestone drive — a rare surviving piece of the Mount Vernon Proprietors' original vision for developing Beacon Hill.
the building
A cobblestone survivor. The house keeps its semicircular cobblestone drive and lawn, one of the few physical remnants left of how the Mount Vernon Proprietors originally imagined Beacon Hill's residential development would look.
Bulfinch's recessed plan. Inside, Bulfinch laid out the first floor using the recessed room arrangement that became characteristic of his work.
the style
Built in the Federal style, the house uses Flemish-bond brickwork and a formal, symmetrical plan typical of Bulfinch's Boston townhouses for wealthy clients of the early republic.
More on Federalthe architect
Charles Bulfinch designed all three of the Boston houses built for Harrison Gray Otis; this is the second, following the first Otis House of 1796 on Cambridge Street and preceding a third.
significance
The Second Harrison Gray Otis House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
nearby
- Nichols House Museum
- David Sears House
- Nathan Appleton Residence
- Francis Parkman House
- Headquarters House
- William C. Nell House