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Decorative drawing: the front elevation of a nineteenth-century American timber-framed building, its clapboards,.... Not a photograph of this place.

Prescott House, 55 Beacon Street, Boston

Prescott House, 55 Beacon Street, Boston, Suffolk County, MA. Surveyed as HABS MA-1323, with a 256-word written history.

From the record

“The William Hickling Prescott House, at 55 Beacon Street, and the adjacent 54 Beacon Street, were built by for the Boston merchant, James Smith Colburn.”

Written record, HABS MA-1323 survey. Machine-read text.

surveyed by the federal HABS program as HABS MA-1323 · the record runs 256 words · one of 264 surveyed structures published for this county.

Sources: the survey record at the Library of Congress

Significance

176 words

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS MA-1323. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The William Hickling Prescott House, at 55 Beacon Street, and the adjacent 54 Beacon Street, were built by for the Boston merchant, James Smith Colburn. These Federal period twin houses overlook Boston Common, and have been attributed to Asher Benjamin (or possibly Peter Banner). William Hickling Prescott, a historian trained at Harvard, lived at No. 55 from until He was one of the first English-speaking historians to write about the Spanish Empire, researching not only the monarchs but also the conquests of Mexico and Peru. After Prescott died in his widow stayed in the house until her death in At that time her nephew, Franklin Gordon Dexter, bought the property. The Dexter family replaced the original spiral staircase with the present colonial revival staircase.

In the house was purchased by the Massachusetts chapter of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America. Materials: There are field measurements for No. 55 Beacon Street dating from June of 1 Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System (MAORIS), Inventory No. BOS.4089; and the website for the Colonial Dames, nscda.org, accessed

In context

Boston, Massachusetts The place record: every map, photograph and survey of this town.
Suffolk County, Massachusetts 165 topographic sheets across the county.
Library of Congress record The original filed report as the survey filed it.

Also surveyed in Boston

24 of 217 records shown

The federal surveyors worked through Boston building by building. These are the other structures they measured and filed a report on, longest report first.

SheetStructure SurveyReport
Boston Elevated Railway, photograph filed with the federal surveyBoston Elevated RailwayHAER MASS,13-BOST,127-34,555 words
Charlestown Navy YardHAER MA-90-326,428 words
Boston Government Service CenterHABS MA-135624,952 words
B. F. Keith Memorial Theatre, photograph filed with the federal surveyB. F. Keith Memorial TheatreHABS MASS,13-BOST,69-23,514 words
East Boston Steam Pump Station, photograph filed with the federal surveyEast Boston Steam Pump StationHAER MASS,13-BOST,138-19,247 words
Harvard Bridge, photograph filed with the federal surveyHarvard BridgeHAER MASS,13-BOST,79-14,362 words
Fenway Court, photograph filed with the federal surveyFenway CourtHABS MA-133413,845 words
Charles Street Jail Complex, photograph filed with the federal surveyCharles Street Jail ComplexHABS MASS,13-BOST,143A-11,650 words
Deer Island Pumping Station, photograph filed with the federal surveyDeer Island Pumping StationHAER MASS,13-BOST,137-9,553 words
Deer Island Pumping Station, photograph filed with the federal surveyDeer Island Pumping StationHABS MASS,13-BOST,132-9,107 words
Northern Avenue Swing Bridge, photograph filed with the federal surveyNorthern Avenue Swing BridgeHAER MASS,13-BOST,84-8,275 words
Summer Street Retractile Bridge, photograph filed with the federal surveySummer Street Retractile BridgeHAER MASS,13-BOST,87-8,144 words
Charlestown Navy Yard, photograph filed with the federal surveyCharlestown Navy YardHAER MA-90-307,907 words
Broadway Bridge, photograph filed with the federal surveyBroadway BridgeHAER MASS,13-BOST,135-7,746 words
New York, photograph filed with the federal surveyNew YorkHAER MASS,13-BOST,82-7,687 words
Deer Island House of Correction, photograph filed with the federal surveyDeer Island House of CorrectionHABS MASS,13-BOST,144A-7,466 words
Deer Island House of Correction, photograph filed with the federal surveyDeer Island House of CorrectionHABS MASS,13-BOST,144B-6,420 words
Franklin Park Zoo, photograph filed with the federal surveyFranklin Park ZooHABS MA-13166,293 words
South Station Tower No. 1 & Interlocking System, photograph filed with the federal surveySouth Station Tower No. 1 & Interlocking SystemHAER MASS,13-BOST,86-5,502 words
Summer Street Bridge, photograph filed with the federal surveySummer Street BridgeHAER MASS,13-BOST,139-5,482 words
Congress Street Bascule Bridge, photograph filed with the federal surveyCongress Street Bascule BridgeHAER MASS,13-BOST,77-5,232 words
Anderson Electric Company, photograph filed with the federal surveyAnderson Electric CompanyHABS MASS,13-BOST,142-4,832 words
72 Marlborough Street, photograph filed with the federal survey72 Marlborough StreetHAER MASS,13-BOST,72-4,792 words
Charlestown Navy Yard, photograph filed with the federal surveyCharlestown Navy YardHAER MA-90-694,488 words

Provenance

  • Written history. Quoted verbatim from HABS MA-1323. United States federal work, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
  • Text capture. Machine-read from the scanned typescript filed with the survey, so spelling and spacing follow the original page.
  • How this page is made. Documentary passages are quoted from linked records; page labels and counts are clearly marked as presentation or calculations.