176-180 Beacon Street

176-180 Beacon Street

180 Beacon Street was designed by S. J. Kessler and build in 1964-1965, a seventeen-story plus penthouse apartment house.

The original permit for the building was submitted on March 16, 1964 (an earlier permit, for a sixteen story building, had been submitted on June 22, 1961, but was subsequently abandoned).  As originally, submitted, the building was 154 feet, 9 inches high, just within the 155 foot height limit in effect at that time.  On August 10, 1965, the applicant filed to add a penthouse, and in October of 1965, the Board of Appeal approved a variance allowing the additional floor.

As constructed, the building had 132 apartments: 130 units on floors 2 through 17, the penthouse, and a superintendent's unit.  Over the years since then, the number of units declined as apartments were combined.

In their AIA Guide to Boston, Susan and Michael Southworth comment that "all of the design standards established by the Back Bay's fine Victorian architecture were violated with this building's height, bulk, and extensive use of metal and glass.  Ornament is studiously avoided, and the elegant, cool entry court is uncharacteristically walled off from the street."

180 Beacon was converted into condominiums on November 15, 1971.

180 Beacon replaced three townhouses at 176, 178, and 180 Beacon.

176 Beacon was built ca. 1863 as the home of East India shipping merchant Robert C. Mackay and his wife, Charlotte Laura (Lodge) Mackay.  He had built 172-174 Beacon ca. 1861, and they had lived at 174 Beacon prior to the completion of 176 Beacon.  They continued to live at 176 Beacon until about 1880, when they moved to a new home they had built at 220 Commonwealth Avenue.

By 1882, 176 Beacon was the home of attorney and law professor John Chipman Gray and his wife, Anna Sophia Lyman (Mason) Gray.  They had lived at 83 Marlborough Street in 1880.  He died in February of 1915.  Anna Gray continued to live at 176 Beacon until about 1932.  By 1935, the house had become a multiple dwelling, either a lodging house or apartments.

The 1938 Bromley Atlas shows Philip Fowler as the owner of this house.

178-180 Beacon were built ca. 1862 for Benjamin Tyler Reed.  His son and daughter-in-law, John Hooper Reed and Sarah Byers (Post) Reed, lived at 178 Beacon, and he and his wife, Mary S. (Coolidge) Reed, lived at 180 Beacon.

Benjamin Reed was a shipping merchant trading largely in Russia, an investor in railroads and various manufacturing firms.  John Hooper Reed was treasurer of the Bay State Iron Company, in which his father was a major investor.

Benjamin Reed died in March of 1874.  In his will, he left 180 Beacon to his wife for the remainder of her life, and, after her decease, to the Episcopal Theological School (which he had helped to found).  Mary Reed continued to live at 180 Beacon until her death in March of 1904.

John and Sarah Reed lived at 178 Beacon until her death in February of 1877.  John Reed moved by 1879, but the house remained the property of his father’s estate.

By 1880, 178 Beacon was the home of attorney William Goodwin Russell and his wife, Mary Ellen (Hedge) Russell.  Mary Ellen Russell died in September of 1886.  William Russell continued to live at 178 Beacon until his death in February of 1896.

The Russells' daughter, Marion, continued to live at 178 Beacon and, in October of 1897, she married stockbroker William Smith Townsend.  They lived at 178 Beacon until about 1902.  By 1903, they had purchased and moved to 255 Marlborough Street.

By late 1903, 178 Beacon was the home of Dr. John Bapst Blake and his wife, Anne (Hastings) Blake.  He was a surgeon and was a professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School.

In August of 1904, Eben Dyer Jordan, Jr., son of the founder of Jordan, Marsh and Company, purchased 178 Beacon from Benjamin Reed's Estate, and 180 Beacon from the Episcopal Theological School.  According to an August 16, 1904, Boston Globe article, Eben Jordan's original intent was to raze the two houses and build "one of the finest private residences in the Back Bay.”  However, he apparently changed his plans and decided to continue to lease 178 Beacon to Dr. and Mrs. Blake, and to lease 180 Beacon to the De Merritte School.

178 Beacon remained the Blakes’ home until late 1908, when they moved to 161 Beacon, and by 1909, 178 Beacon had been acquired by Miss Harriet Gray.  She continued to live there until her death in March of 1923.  By 1924, it became the home of Joseph E. Doherty, a ship broker (and former wholesale liquor dealer), and his wife, Mary (Flynn) Doherty.  They had lived at 114 Bay State Road in 1920.  The continued to live at 178 Beacon in 1938, and probably later.

The 1938 Bromley Atlas shows Mary Doherty as the owner of this house.

180 Beacon remained the De Merritte School until late 1908, and by 1909 had become the home of banker William Endicott, III (called William Endicott, Jr.) and his wife Helen Southworth (Shaw) Endicott.  In 1908, they had lived at 165 Beacon.  Helen Endicott died in September of 1910 and William Endicott moved soon thereafter. 

By 1912, 180 Beacon was the home of Thomas Brattle Gannett, Jr., also a banker, and his wife, Dorothy (Draper) Gannett.  They continued to live there until about 1914, when they moved to 150 Beacon, Dorothy Gannett's family home, after the death of her parents (her mother, Nannie (Bristow) Gannett died in September of 1913 and her father, former Governor Eben Sumner Draper, died in April of 1914).

By 1917, 180 Beacon was the home of Annie Lee (Allen) Chauvenet, widow of St. Louis attorney Louis Chauvenet.  She had lived at 25 Commonwealth Avenue in 1915. 

In April of 1917, 180 Beacon became the home of Constance Savage (Keith) Lowell, the widow of Percival Lawrence Lowell, who had died in November of 1916.  Percival Lowell was a noted astronomer and Orientologist.  He founded the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, where he conducted extensive research on Mars and other planets.  Constance Lowell also maintained summer homes in York, Maine, and Newport.  She continued to live at 180 Beacon in 1937, and probably later.

The 1938 Bromley Atlas shows Guy Lowell as the owner of this house.

By 1950, 180 Beacon was owned by William Tudor Gardiner and his wife, Margaret (Thomas) Gardiner.  William Gardner was an attorney and had served as Governor of Maine from 1928 through 1932.

By 1964, 176-178-180 Beacon were all owned by Max Wasserman.  On May 6, 1964, he applied for (and subsequently received) permission to demolish all three buildings.