This article is about the museum in Boston, Massachusetts. For other uses, see Gibson House (disambiguation).

The Gibson House Museum is an historic house museum located at 137 Beacon Street in the Back Bay, Boston, Massachusetts. It preserves the 1860 building occupied by three generations of the Gibson family.

History

The widowed Catherine Hammond Gibson purchased the newly filled in land for $3, 696 in 1859 in order to move away from Beacon Hill.[4] Edward Clarke Cabot designed the building which was finished by 1860 in the Italian Renaissance style with an exterior of brownstone and red brick.[1] She passed it on to her son Charles Hammond Gibson.

Charles married Rosamond Warren in 1871 and brought her to live at number 137.[5] Rosamond was from a very distinguished Boston family and after Catherine's death in 1888 redecorated the house with Japanese wallpapers.[5]

After Charles Hammond Gibson, Jr., Catherine Hammond Gibson's grandson died in 1954, the house became a museum in 1957, and in 2001 was declared a National Historic Landmark. The Gibson House's landmark status is due to its claim that it is the only Victorian era row house in Boston's Back Bay to maintain the integral relationship between the exterior architectural shell and the original interior plan, with its accompanying decorative schemes.[6] Its interior is a composite of family furnishings and pieces added to make it more complete.[7]


Museum

The museum is not well known and runs on a $100,000 yearly budget.[4]

Gallery

  • Closer view of the museum as photographed from sidewalk

  • Informational commemorative plaque affixed to the building

References

  1. ^ a b "Gibson House Museum History". Gibson House Museum. The Gibson Society, Inc. Retrieved 2009-08-08. 
  2. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2007-01-23. 
  3. ^ "Gibson House". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Retrieved 2008-02-01. 
  4. ^ a b Collins, Monica (December 18, 2005). "A lonely outpost of Back Bay past". Boston Globe. Retrieved 2009-08-08. 
  5. ^ a b "Gibson House Museum History" http://www.thegibsonhouse.org/history.asp Accessed on 7/17/2013
  6. ^ A study report of Gibson House Museum: 137 Beacon Street, Boston, Massachusetts / written by Catherine L. Seiberling; based in part on research by Stephen Jerome; Publisher: Boston: Gibson House, c1991, book 4, p. 2
  7. ^ A study report of Gibson House Museum: 137 Beacon Street, Boston, Massachusetts / written by Catherine L. Seiberling; based in part on research by Stephen Jerome; Publisher: Boston: Gibson House, c1991, book 3, p. 52

External links

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