Hancock Manor
The Hancock Manor
Description
The Manor was built between 1734 and 1737 by Joshua Blanchard for the wealthy merchant Thomas Hancock (1703–1764). It was the first house to be erected on the top of Beacon Hill west of the summit and stood alone with no westward neighbor until around 1768, when the portrait painter John Singleton Copley built a house farther down the slope.[2]
Thomas willed the property to his wife Lydia Henchman (1714–1776). She died childless, leaving it to her favorite nephew
The Manor's brown stone walls were massive (the front was 56' in length[3]), made of Quincy granite obtained from the surface, squared and well hammered. A balcony projected over the entrance door, upon which opened a large ornamental window. The balcony door was adorned with a cap that ended in baroque volutes. The corners and window openings were ornamented with Braintree stone, and the tiled gambrel deck roof featured a carved railing. Three dormer windows jutted out from the roof, which offered a beautiful, extensive view. The grounds were protected from the street by a low stone wall, on which was placed a light wooden fence with gateposts of the same material. A paved walk and a dozen granite steps with sandstone trim led to the mansion, situated at a little distance[4] back from the street on ground elevated above it. The approach was then through a neat garden bordered with small trees and shrubbery. Before the broad front door (garnished with pillars and an ornamental door head) was a wide stone slab at the head of a flight of stone steps. A wooden hall, designed for festive occasions, sixty feet in length, was joined to the northern wing; this was moved to Allen Street in 1818. The east wing contained a great ballroom; the west was used for the kitchen and other domestic offices; beyond this lay the coach house and adjoining stable.[5][6]
The interior comprised a nobly paneled hall, having a broad staircase with carved and twisted balusters, which divided the house in the middle and extended through on both stories from front to rear. On the landing, partway up the staircase, was the circular-headed window that looked out upon the garden and the city, with a broad and capacious window seat. On the entrance floor, at the right of the hall, was the great dining room, 17' × 25', also elaborately paneled from floor to ceiling.[6]
Miss Eliza G. Gardner, who lived in the Manor for many years, described the interior and garden as follows:
As you entered the governor's mansion, to the right was the drawing or reception room, with furniture of bird's-eye maple covered with rich damask. Out of this opened the dining-hall [...] in which Hancock gave the famous breakfast to Admiral D'Estaing and his officers. Opposite this was a smaller apartment, the usual dining-hall of the family; next adjoining were the china-room and offices, with coach-house and barn behind. At the left of the entrance was a second saloon, or family drawing-room, the walls covered with crimson paper. The upper and lower halls were hung with pictures of game, hunting-scenes, and other subjects. Passing through this hall, another flight of steps led through the garden to a small summer-house close to Mt. Vernon Street. The grounds were laid out in ornamental flower-beds bordered with
mulberry-trees, dotted the garden.[7]
Revolution and Early Republic
The Hancock Manor became the headquarters of General
It was in this center of Colonial society that Hancock entertained
When d'Estaing visited, he was under a cloud for having deserted Colonial forces in Rhode Island, but the generous Hancock nevertheless entertained him hospitably. Some forty French officers dined daily at his table, and on one occasion the unusually high number of guests forced the servants to milk the cows on Boston Common (although these belonged to other owners). Brissot was astonished that Hancock was friends with Nathaniel Balch, a humorous hatter. It appears that the dying governor called Balch to his bedside and dictated to him the minutes of his will, in which he gave the Manor to the Massachusetts government. However, he died before his will could be properly drawn up.[2][10]
In 1795, two years after John Hancock's death, the town of
Demolition and legacy
In 1859,
State action failing, the land which it occupied was sold for $125,000 on February 18, 1863, during the
The purchasers of the land, James Madison Beebe (No. 30) and Gardner Brewer (No. 29), two leading Boston merchants, erected a stately double
The Hancock Manor's demolition spurred a historic preservation movement that would help save buildings like the
A replica of the building, known as the Hancock House, was constructed in Ticonderoga, New York in 1926 from the original plans, for use as a museum; it is still in use, presently as the home of the Ticonderoga Historical Society.
See also
Notes
- ^ Also called the Hancock Mansion or the Hancock House.
- ^ a b c d Bacon 1921.
- ^ Drake 1894, p. 5.
- ^ The Manor was a good distance further back from Beacon Street until it was widened.
- ^ Drake 1873, pp. 338–39.
- ^ a b Bacon 1922, p. 39.
- ^ At Drake 1873, pp. 339–40.
- ^ a b Drake 1873, p. 340.
- ^ Drake 1873, pp. 340-41.
- ^ Drake 1873, p. 341.
- ^ Drake 1873, p. 342.
- ^ a b c Bacon 1922, p. 38.
- ^ Peter Shanley, "John Hancock’s stairs transcend Jamaica Pond", Jamaica Plain Gazette, January 18, 2013
References
- Bacon, Edwin Monroe,
- Boston: A Guide Book to the City and Vicinity. Ginn and Company, Boston, 1922.
- Rambles Around Old Boston. Little, Brown, Boston, 1921.
- Bergen, Philip. Old Boston in Early Photographs, 1850-1918. Courier Dover Publications, New York, 1990.
- Drake, Samuel Adams,
- Old Landmarks and Historic Personages of Boston. J. R. Osgood, Boston, 1873.
- Our Colonial Homes. Lee and Shepard, Boston, 1894.
- Li-Marcus, Moying. Beacon Hill: The Life & Times of a Neighborhood. Northeastern University Press, Boston, 2002.
- Technology Quarterly v. VII. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, 1894.
- The Massachusetts State House: A Guide. John Hancock Financial Services, Inc., Boston, 2001.