175 Beacon Street

175 Beacon Street was built ca. 1866 for lace and embroidery dealer Andrew Carrico Mudge and his wife, Cornelia Adelaide (Hawkes) Mudge. On January 27, 1866, he entered into a party wall agreement with Henry Whitwell, owner of the land at 177 Beacon, and presumably construction began soon thereafter. It appears that the Mudges never lived at 175 Beacon. In 1868, the were boarders at 39 Somerset, and in 1869 they lived in Brookline. By 1870, they were living at 122 Marlborough Street.

By 1870, 175 Beacon was the home of Penfield Bull Goodsell and his wife, Julia (Perley) Goodsell. In 1869, they had lived at 614 Tremont. He is shown as the owner of 175 Beacon on the 1874 Hopkins map.

Penfield Goodsell was a physician by training, but in the late 1860s and 1870s was a wholesale dealer in kid gloves and coral goods. In the late 1860s, he also was publisher of The Gazette. By 1885, he had become a physician once again.

Julia Goodsell died in 1870. Penfield Goodsell continued to live at 175 Beacon and, it appears, accepted lodgers. His adopted son, Evelyn Louis Bonn (who took the name Evelyn Bonn Goodsell) lived with him.

By 1872, attorney Elias Gilbert Merwin and his wife, Anne Mary (Childs) Merwin lived with Penfield Goodsell at 175 Beacon. By 1873, the Merwins had moved to a newly-built home at 126 Commonwealth Avenue.

By 1875, Penfield Goodsell's mother, Elizabeth (Bull) Goodsell was living with him and Evelyn Goodsell.

Penfield Goodsell continued to live at 175 Beacon in 1878.

By 1879, 175 Beacon was the home of banker Richard Tucker Parker. In 1878, he and his wife, Martha (Thorndike) Parker, had lived at 85 Beacon; Martha Parker died in March of 1878, and he moved to 175 Beacon soon thereafter. He is shown as the owner on the 1883 and 1888 Bromley maps. He also maintained a second home in Beverly.

Richard Parker continued to live at 175 Beacon in 1892.

By 1893, it was the home of Dr Orran George Cilley and his wife, Mary Jane (Haines) Cilley. He was a physician.

At the time of the 1900 US Census, the Cilleys were living in Hamilton, and 175 Beacon was temporarily the home of Ernest Douglas and his wife, Grace (Parsons) Douglas. They had been married in October of 1899. He was an organist, composer of liturgical music, and music teacher, and by 1906 was organist and choirmaster at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Los Angeles.

They had moved by the 1900-1901 winter season, and 175 Beacon was once again Orran and Mary Cilley's home. They continued to live there in 1907.

By 1908, 175 Beacon was the home of upholsterer and furniturer manufacturer William C. Safford and his wife, Harriet (Denison) Safford. They had been married in about 1907, and 175 Beacon probably was their first home together. Harriet Safford is shown as the owner on the 1908 Bromley map. They continued to live there in 1911.

The house was not listed in the 1913 and 1915 Blue Books. Harriet Safford continued to be shown as the owner on the 1917 Bromley map.

By 1917, it was the home of Mr. and Mrs. Courtland Richardson.

By 1920, it was leased by Franklin Warren Hobbs and his wife, Jane Hallett (Whitman) Hobbs. Franklin Hobbs was president of Arlington Mills. By 1922, they had moved to 128 Beacon.

175 Beacon was not listed in the 1922 Blue Book.

By 1923, it was the home of department store heir Harold L. Chalifoux and his wife, Elizabeth Alice (Burrage) Chalifoux. The previous year, they had lived at 63 Commonwealth Avenue. They also maintained a home in Beverly. By 1924, they had moved to 367 Beacon.

By 1924, 175 Beacon was the home of Joseph Grafton Minot and his wife, Honora Elizabeth Temple (Winthrop) Minot. Honora E. T. Minot is shown as the owner on the 1928 Bromley map.

Joseph Minot was treasurer of the Tudor Company, a shipping merchant specializing in the worldwide shipping of ice. He had succeeded his father, Charles Henry Minot, in that position.

Honora Minot's niece, Miss Honora Mason, lived with them until her marriage in May of 1927 to John Lloyd Winston (Honora Mason's parents, Philip Dana Mason and Mary Emma (Winthrop) Mason, had both died when she was an infant).

The Minots continued to live at 175 Beacon in 1928.

The house was not listed in the 1929 Blue Book.

By 1930, it was the home of Rt. Rev. Charles Lewis Slattery, Bishop of Massachusetts, and his wife, Sarah (Lawrence) Slattery, daughter of Rt. Rev. William Lawrence, Charles Slattery's predecessor as Bishop of Massachusetts. They had lived at 290 Marlborough Street in 1929.

Charles Slattery died in March 1930. Sarah Slattery continued to live at 175 Beacon and is shown as the owner on the 1938 Bromley map.

In the late 1930s, Sarah Slattery became active in the Oxford Group and its successor the Moral Re-Armament, an organization dedicated to international cooperation.

She continued to live at 175 Beacon in 1947.

In June of 1948, she applied for permission to convert the house from a single-family dwelling into a music school. The application was denied and she subsequently abandoned her appeal.

In August of 1950, she filed a new application to convert the house into a lodging house. It appears that she may have sold the house at about this time, inasmuch as one month later, Rennie Reda filed another application. That application was granted, and by August of 1951, the lodging house was being operated by Beryl Smith Kennedy.

Sarah Slattery describes her decision to sell 175 Beacon in her memoirs, I Choose: "For some time I had been wondering about selling my house at 175 Beacon Street and giving the proceeds to Moral Re-Armament - which I believed was filling a world need so well. MRA was giving me an opportunity to help in carrying out my husband's ideals, and an empty, idle house, I felt, was not a good investment. Except for two years when it had been rented to friends, everything in the house had been simply collecting dust, and many of my possessions could be well used elsewhere."

By 1961, 175 Beacon was owned by John E. Hicks and his wife, Anna Louise (Day) Hicks. They operated it as a lodging house, known as Hammond House.

Louise Day Hicks was elected to the Boston School Committee in 1961 and was an outspoken opponent of using busing to integrate Boston's schools. In 1967, she was an unsuccessful candidate for Mayor, but in 1969 was elected to the City Council. In 1970, she was elected to the US Congress, but was defeated for re-election in 1972, She was reelected to the City Council in 1973 and 1975, but then lost two successive bids in 1977 and 1981.

In July of 1962, John Hicks applied for, and subsequently received, permission to convert the house into a dormitory, and from 1963 to about 1968, it was operated as a dormitory for Burdett College.

By 1973, 175 Beacon had converted into nine apartments.

The property subsequently changed hands several times, and in February of 1980 was purchased by James M. Dangelo. In November of 1984, he remodeled the property and reduced the number of apartments to seven.

175 Beacon continued to be an apartment house in 2008.