09-27-08 Boston
Built in 1859-60, the Gibson House stands as the historic house museum of the Back Bay. In 2001, the National Park Service declared the Gibson House a National Historic Landmark. It is unique as an unspoiled single-family residence that retains its kitchen, scullery, butler’s pantry and water closets, as well as formal rooms and private family quarters, filled with the Gibsons’ original furniture and personal possessions. Visitors enjoy a glimpse of the lives of a well-to-do Boston family and their domestic staff.
The Gibson House and the Back Bay
In 1860 when construction on the Gibson House was completed, the population of Boston was 177,902, making it the fourth largest city in the United States. In 1855, to accommodate the city’s growth, Boston began what is still one of the most ambitious urban development projects ever undertaken: the filling in of the Mud Flats or “Back Bay” west of the Public Garden. This urban development project lasted until 1886, by which time 400 acres of new land had been created.
Urban planner Arthur Gilman was influenced by the French style of long boulevards with extensive vistas—a radical departure from the narrow streets and English style of residential squares and crescents found on Beacon Hill, the North End, and the newer South End. At first, people were suspicious of the “New Land,” but the area soon became a popular and fashionable residential neighborhood. Homes in the Back Bay were equipped with the most up-to-date conveniences including gas lighting and running water provided by public gas lines and a 96-mile water and sewer system. Back Bay also began to attract numerous churches, schools and cultural institutions. In addition to the Arlington Street Church and Trinity Church, Back Bay became home to the Museum of Fine Arts, the Boston Public Library, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with the nation’s first School of Architecture.
The Story of the Gibson Family at 137 Beacon Street
The Gibson family story begins with the pioneering move of the widow Catherine Hammond Gibson and her son, Charles Hammond Gibson, from the top of Beacon Hill to the just-developing flats of the Back Bay. In the 1860s, Back Bay was in the early stages of transformation from a malodorous marsh to the most fashionable residential neighborhood in the city. The filling of the Back Bay was the largest public works project of its time. Catherine was among the first to venture into this raw wasteland, and was one of very few women to own a house in the “New Land,” as it was called.
Designed in the Italian Renaissance style by the noted Boston architect Edward Clarke Cabot, the house is built of brownstone and red brick. Its interiors are both tasteful and ornate, with black-walnut woodwork, elegant wallpapers, imported carpets, and an abundance of furniture, paintings, sculpture, photographs, silver, porcelain, curios, and 18th-century family heirlooms.
