Holbrook, Dr. Amos, House

Moved ( - Unexposed * Original Site Surrounded by spacious lawns and ancient trees, the Amos Holbrook house is set back from the road at the apex of a curved driveway. Built in 1800, the Holbrook House is white clapboard over brick on the facade, with a protrusion signifying the belt course. The remaining elevations are brick. A two-story building with a five bay facade, it has a hip roof with two chimneys set in on each side. The lintels are brick (painted white) and the structure rests on a dressed granite foundation. The original building consisted only of the conventional arrangement of central hall and eight rooms, but it has had many later alterations.

In 1872, a brick service appendage, in the conforming Federal style, was added to the west elevation, causing it to become three bays wide. Of the appendage, which has one chimney, the north and south sides are five bays wide; the west side is three bays wide; the east side, projecting from the rear of the original structure, is two bays wide. The columned and balustraded front porch was also added in 1872, as were additional dormers on both sides of the hip roof. In 1907 a five-bay semi-octagonal wing was added to the rear southeast elevation of the original structure and the rear chimney relocated. A one-story Doric columned porch was added to the remaining three-bay south side of the original structure, between the two wings.

In 1935 all of the sash, which had at various times been altered, were returned to the original six over eight. The dining room retains the original trompe l'oeil ceiling and wall frescoes, as does the hall on both the first and second floors.

The Amos Holbrook House stands on the summit of Milton Hill. With its surrounding five acres of land, it is situated on what formerly was the estate of Thomas Hutchinson, the last royal governor of Massachusetts. Beginning in 1743 until he fled Ämerica for England in 1774, Governor Hutchinson attended in particular to the cultivation of his trees, some of which are believed to be extant on the property. The house was built in 1800 by DI.Amos Holbrook (1754-1842) who had been a Revolutionary War surgeon. On his return to Milton in 1777, Holbrook instigated the first attempt by an American community to establish a campaign for local small pox inoculation. The initiation of the Milton program resulted in the first state law for the betterment of community health.

Am eminent man in his profession, Holbrook ientertained General Lafayette in 1824 in the house. The trompe l'oeil architectural frescoes are believed to be contemporary with the house and traditionally said to be done by Italian craftsmen. They are considered by architectural historians to be unique, for their time, in America. Today these frescoes are in a remarkable state of preservation, with only a few signs of their age, and certain areas that have been repainted. The finely carved American Adam mantelpieces, door overpanels and mouldings highly compliment the frescoes. The Museum of the American China Trade purchased the Holbrook property in 1973 in order to preserve the house and save it from demolition and the subsequent development of tract housing.

The property, along with that of the adjacent Museum of the American China Trade (The Robert B.Forbes House, National Historic Landmark) is located across Adams Street from a preserved 14 acre open space that runs down to the Neponset Estuary.