Pinebank Mansion was a Queen Anne style house sited on a hill overlooking

Jamaica Pond Jamaica Pond is a kettle lake, part of the Emerald Necklace of parks in Boston designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. The pond and park are in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, close to the border of Brookline. It is the source of the Mud ...

in Boston, Massachusetts. Built in 1868 by

John Hubbard Sturgis John Hubbard Sturgis (August 5, 1834 – February 14, 1888)Boit, Robert Apthorp p. 207 was an American architect and builder who was active in the New England area during the late 19th century. His most prominent works included Codman House, Li ...

, it was the only mansion retained by

Frederick Law Olmsted Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the USA. Olmsted was famous for co- ...

in his plans for the

Emerald Necklace The Emerald Necklace consists of a chain of parks linked by parkways and waterways in Boston and Brookline, Massachusetts. It was designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, and gets its name from the way the planned chain appears ...

park system. It was the only original structure remaining in the park system at the time of its demolition in 2007.

History

Perkins family home

The Queen-Anne Style Pinebank is the third house that sat on the site overlooking Jamaica Pond. The first house was built as a

summer home A summer house or summerhouse has traditionally referred to a building or shelter used for relaxation in warm weather. This would often take the form of a small, roofed building on the grounds of a larger one, but could also be built in a garden ...

in 1806 by James Perkins, senior partner in the

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Trade shipping firms of James and

Thomas Handasyd Perkins Colonel Thomas Handasyd Perkins, also known as T. H. Perkins (December 15, 1764 – January 11, 1854), was an American merchant, slave trader, smuggler and philanthropist from a wealthy Boston Brahmin family. Starting with bequests from his grand ...

. His grandson, Edward Newton “Ned” Perkins, replaced the first house in 1848 with an elegant mansard-roofed home for year-round use. After this burned down in 1868, Ned instructed his cousin and architect

to build the third Pinebank house.

City of Boston

The city of Boston acquired Pinebank in 1892. It was damaged by a fire in 1895 and rebuilt, then used as the headquarters of the Boston Parks Commission. In 1913, Pinebank became the first home of

Boston Children's Museum Boston Children's Museum is a children's museum in Boston, Massachusetts, dedicated to the education of children. Located on Children's Wharf along the Fort Point Channel, Boston Children's Museum is the second oldest children's museum in the Unit ...

, and served in that role until 1936. From 1936 to 1970, it was occupied by the engineering department of the Boston Parks Commission. From 1970 to 1975, Pinebank was used for a city-sponsored community arts program. After that, fires in 1976 and 1978 destroyed the interior and seriously damaged the roof. In 1978, Pinebank Mansion was listed on the State and

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

as part of the Olmsted Park System and in 1996, Historic Massachusetts listed Pinebank as one of the state's top ten most endangered historic places.

Demolition and afterward

The city released a

structural analysis Structural analysis is a branch of Solid Mechanics which uses simplified models for solids like bars, beams and shells for engineering decision making. Its main objective is to determine the effect of loads on the physical structures and thei ...

report that concluded that the building was unsalvageable on January 10, 2006 and expected the building to be demolished within the year. The Boston Landmarks Commission unanimously approved the demolition in a full vote on September 26, 2006. At that meeting, three different memorial designs were presented by Victor Walker of Walker Kluesing Design Group. On December 19, 2006, the city's Inspectional Services Department ordered the Parks and Recreation Department to demolish the building, citing that the structure was a safety hazard. Demolition began on January 3, 2007. Some of the structure's debris was entombed in a vault in the foundation, to be used as reference material if the mansion is one day rebuilt. The memorial design chosen delineates the mansion's perimeter in

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

, set flush with the ground, and the outline filled with grass. The front of the house will be marked with a low brick, granite-topped wall that can be used as a bench, and up to three metal signs will contain information on the former building. The exterior steps, purchased at auction when

Hancock Manor The Hancock Manor was a house located at 30 Beacon Street on Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts. It stood near the southwest corner of what are today the grounds of the Massachusetts State House. Description The Manor was built between 1734 and 17 ...

was demolished and installed in 1864, were refurbished in 2008. A short flight of stairs was added, along with handrails.

References

External links

Friends of Pinebank
* * Virtual tour by th
Emerald Necklace Conservancy
{{coord, 42.319629, -71.119545, display=title Houses completed in 1870 Houses in Boston Jamaica Plain, Boston Demolished buildings and structures in Boston Emerald Necklace Buildings and structures demolished in 2007