The Hancock Manor was a house located at 30 Beacon Street on
Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts
Beacon Hill is a historic Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, and the hill upon which the Massachusetts State House resides. The term "Beacon Hill" is used locally as a metonym to refer to the state government or the ...
. It stood near the southwest corner of what are today the grounds of the
Massachusetts State House
The Massachusetts State House, also known as the Massachusetts Statehouse or the New State House, is the List of state capitols in the United States, state capitol and seat of government for the Massachusetts, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, lo ...
.
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
John Singleton Copley (July 3, 1738 – September 9, 1815) was an Anglo-American painter, active in both colonial America and England. He was probably born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Richard and Mary Singleton Copley, both Anglo-Irish. Afte ...
built a house further down the slope.
[Bacon 1921.]
![1768 BostonCommon byChristianRemick](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/1768_BostonCommon_byChristianRemick.png)
Thomas willed the property to his wife Lydia Henchman (1714–1776). She died childless, leaving it to her favorite nephew
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second ...
. In its heyday it was considered the finest house in the entire
Province of Massachusetts Bay
The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a colony in British America which became one of the Thirteen Colonies, thirteen original states of the United States. It was chartered on October 7, 1691, by William III of England, William III and Mary II ...
and belonged to Boston's richest family. A three-story granite mansion, it overlooked the pastureland of
Boston Common
The Boston Common (also known as the Common) is a public park in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest city park in the United States. Boston Common consists of of land bounded by Tremont Street (139 Tremont St.), Park Street, Beacon ...
. It was surrounded by a family estate that included various outbuildings, gardens, orchards, fruit-tree nurseries, and pastures, and extended from today's Joy Street on the west to Park Street on the east and from
Beacon Street
Beacon Street is a major thoroughfare in Boston, Massachusetts and its western suburbs Brookline and Newton. It passes through many of Boston's central and western neighborhoods, including Beacon Hill, Back Bay, Fenway–Kenmore, the Boston Uni ...
on the south to near Derne Street on the north. The family farm went up the side of the then existing peak of Beacon Hill where the State House annex now stands.
Slaves
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
lived on the property.
The Manor's brown stone walls were massive (the front was 56' in length), 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
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
volute
A volute is a spiral, scroll-like ornament that forms the basis of the Ionic order, found in the capital of the Ionic column. It was later incorporated into Corinthian order and Composite column capitals. Four are normally to be found on an Ion ...
s. The corners and window openings were ornamented with
Braintree stone, and the tiled
gambrel
A gambrel or gambrel roof is a usually symmetrical two-sided roof with two slopes on each side. (The usual architectural term in eighteenth-century England and North America was "Dutch roof".) The upper slope is positioned at a shallow angle, w ...
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
gatepost
A gatepost is a structure used to support gates or crossbars which control entry to an area, such as a field or driveway.
Purpose
If the gatepost is utilitarian in purpose then gateposts will be made as strictly functional structures; however ...
s of the same material. A paved walk and a dozen granite steps with sandstone trim led to the mansion, situated at a little distance 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.
[Bacon 1922, p. 39.]
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.
Miss Eliza G. Gardner, who lived in the Manor for many years, described the interior and garden as follows:
Revolution and Early Republic
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
soldiers pillaged the house about the time of the
Battle of Lexington
The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. The battles were fought on April 19, 1775, in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord ...
in April 1775; they also broke down and mutilated the fences for firewood, until a complaint by the selectmen caused
General Gage
General Thomas Gage (10 March 1718/192 April 1787) was a British Army general officer and colonial official best known for his many years of service in North America, including his role as British commander-in-chief in the early days of t ...
to send
Percy
The English surname Percy is of Norman origin, coming from Normandy to England, United Kingdom. It was from the House of Percy, Norman lords of Northumberland, derives from the village of Percy-en-Auge in Normandy. From there, it came into use ...
to occupy it. He remained there for some time during the
Siege of Boston
The siege of Boston (April 19, 1775 – March 17, 1776) was the opening phase of the American Revolutionary War. New England militiamen prevented the movement by land of the British Army, which was garrisoned in what was then the peninsular town ...
. That March, British officers had allegedly set an example to their men by hacking the fences with their swords, breaking windows, etc. A few days later Hancock was again disturbed by the redcoats, who refused to leave the premises at his request and mockingly told him his possessions would soon be theirs.
[Drake 1873, p. 340.]
The Hancock Manor became the headquarters of General
Henry Clinton while he remained in Boston; he took command at
Charlestown in September 1775. Both house and stables were in part occupied by the wounded from
Bunker Hill. The house, however, remained relatively intact during the occupation, the furniture showing little signs of damage and the paintings none.
It was in this center of Colonial society that Hancock entertained
d'Estaing in 1778,
Lafayette
Lafayette or La Fayette may refer to:
People
* Lafayette (name), a list of people with the surname Lafayette or La Fayette or the given name Lafayette
* House of La Fayette, a French noble family
** Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757â ...
in 1781,
George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
in 1789,
Jacques Pierre Brissot
Jacques Pierre Brissot (, 15 January 1754 – 31 October 1793), who assumed the name of de Warville (an English version of "d'Ouarville", a hamlet in the village of Lèves where his father owned property), was a leading member of the Girondins dur ...
, and later Lords Stanley and Wortley, and Labouchière and
Bougainville. Hancock himself continued to live in the Manor while
Governor
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
; indeed it was called the "seat of his Excellency the Governor" at the time.
When d'Estaing visited, he was under a cloud for having deserted Colonial forces in
Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...
, 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.
In 1795, two years after John Hancock's death, the town of
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
purchased most of the estate for
£4,000 and designated the pasture land as the site of the state's future capitol.
Demolition and legacy
In 1859,
Governor
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
Nathaniel Banks
Nathaniel Prentice (or Prentiss) Banks (January 30, 1816 – September 1, 1894) was an American politician from Massachusetts and a Union general during the Civil War. A millworker by background, Banks was prominent in local debating societies, ...
proposed that the Commonwealth should purchase it for a governor's mansion, and the heirs offered it at a low valuation of
$100,000. An influential joint committee of the
Legislature
A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its p ...
reported favorably upon the measure, but it met with strong opposition from the rural districts and was defeated. A suggestion was also offered to make it a museum for the collection of
Revolutionary
A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective, to refer to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor.
...
relics. Though it had fallen into neglect, the house was excellently preserved: the interior woodwork was sound, the chamber of Lafayette remained as when he slept in it, the apartment in which Hancock died was intact; the audience hall was the same in which Washington, d'Estaing, Brissot, Percy, and many more had stood; the entrance hall, in which Hancock's body had lain in state for eight days, continued to open upon the broad staircase. It contained many of the furnishings and decorations of his time, with the family portraits by Copley and
Smybert.
State action failing, the land which it occupied was sold for $125,000 on February 18, 1863, during the
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
. For some months it served as a museum of historical relics and efforts were made by the city to secure objects found inside the building. The heirs offered the mansion, with the pictures and some other objects of historical interest, as a free gift, with the intent of preserving it as a memento of Colonial and Revolutionary history. A scheme for its removal and re-erection elsewhere failed; the Legislature did not want to invest $12,000 to have the house transferred to another location. On June 16, 1863, at one o'clock, the Hancock Manor was sold at
public auction
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...
and was purchased for $230. The terms of the sale were cash down and the purchaser, Willard Dalrymple, had ten days to have everything removed. The building was torn down despite public outcry and souvenirs of it were actively sought as it fell. The knocker on the front door was given to
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (; August 29, 1809 – October 7, 1894) was an American physician, poet, and polymath based in Boston. Grouped among the fireside poets, he was acclaimed by his peers as one of the best writers of the day. His most fa ...
, a friend of the Hancock family, who placed it on his home in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
, where it remained until it too was demolished. The flight of stone steps which led up to the entrance was purchased at the
public auction
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...
and relocated to the outside of
Pinebank Mansion in Jamaica Plain.
[Bacon 1922, p. 38.] The mansion was demolished in 2007, but the steps were kept and refurbished the following year.
[Peter Shanley]
"John Hancock’s stairs transcend Jamaica Pond"
''Jamaica Plain Gazette'', January 18, 2013
The purchasers of the land, James Madison Beebe (No. 30) and Gardner Brewer (No. 29), two leading Boston merchants, erected a stately double
brownstone
Brownstone is a brown Triassic–Jurassic sandstone that was historically a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States and Canada to refer to a townhouse clad in this or any other aesthetically similar material.
Type ...
house for their occupancy. ''Messrs.
Ginn and Company
Pearson Education is a British-owned education publishing and assessment service to schools and corporations, as well for students directly. Pearson owns educational media brands including Addison–Wesley, Peachpit, Prentice Hall, eCollege, ...
'' publishers became established at No. 29 in 1901. For fifteen years their business offices fully occupied the spacious interior of the former Brewer residence which stood on the site of the Hancock Manor. In 1916 the marble extension of the
Bulfinch Front of the State House to the west, and the taking of the surrounding grounds, necessitated the elimination of Hancock Avenue (a footway connecting Beacon and Mt. Vernon streets) and the removal of several of the houses, including 29 and 30 Beacon St.
The Hancock Manor's demolition spurred a historic preservation movement that would help save buildings like the
Old South Meeting House
The Old South Meeting House is a historic Congregational church building located at the corner of Milk and Washington Streets in the Downtown Crossing area of Boston, Massachusetts, built in 1729. It gained fame as the organizing point for th ...
, the
Old State House and the
Hancock-Clarke House within the next few decades. An 18" x 21" bronze plaque, located on the iron wall below the State House's marble west wing, indicates the mansion's former location. It reads: "Here stood the residence of John Hancock, a prominent and patriotic Merchant of Boston, the first Signer of the Declaration of American Independence, and First Governor of Massachusetts, under the State Constitution".
![Hancock House Ticonderoga, New York Dec 11](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Hancock_House_Ticonderoga%2C_New_York_Dec_11.jpg)
A replica of the building, known as the
Hancock House, was constructed in
Ticonderoga, New York
Ticonderoga (, moh, Tekaniataró:ken) is a town in Essex County, New York, United States. The population was 5,042 at the 2010 census. The name comes from the Mohawk ''tekontaró:ken'', meaning "it is at the junction of two waterways".
The Tow ...
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
*
Hancock House (Ticonderoga, New York)
The Hancock House is an historic structure in Ticonderoga, New York. It is a replica of the Hancock Manor on Boston's Beacon Hill that was the residence of Thomas Hancock, the uncle of Founding Father John Hancock. ''Note:'' This includes
The ...
Notes
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
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
, Boston, 1894.
*''The Massachusetts State House: A Guide''. John Hancock Financial Services, Inc., Boston, 2001.
{{John Hancock
Houses completed in 1737
Demolished buildings and structures in Boston
Houses in Boston
Beacon Hill, Boston
18th century in Boston
19th century in Boston
Buildings and structures demolished in 1916
Homes of United States Founding Fathers