The Williams Sisters
The Williams Sisters occupied the Otis House in the mid 19th century, operating the grand Bulfinch Mansion as a boarding house.
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Topic: Yankees & Brahmins
Early settlers of New England, Boston Brahmins, wealthy persons not officially in the Brahmin class, others typically identified as Yankees
Henry Whitney
Henry Whitney was the president and founder of the West End Street Railway Company during the Gilded Age. He led the company to expand across Boston, and was integral to Boston completing North America’s first subway lines, the precursor to today’s MBTA.
William K. Porter’s “Half Century in the West End”
William K. Porter was an old West Ender who had made millions in real estate by the early twentieth century. Although Porter and his family moved to Commonwealth Avenue in 1906, he continued to manage a livery stable and all of his properties in the West End.
Elizabeth Peabody
Elizabeth Peabody was a teacher, publisher, and writer, who introduced kindergarten in the United States on Pickney Street.
George Parkman
George Parkman was a prominent businessman and philanthropist in Boston. He is best known for donating land to Harvard Medical College (now part of MGH) and his murder in that very location.
Samuel Parkman
Samuel Parkman, Esquire, was a prominent businessman in Boston. Samuel commissioned a notable portrait of George Washington, the bell of Old South Church, and a Bulfinch mansion.
John Osborn
John Osborn was a painter, paint dealer, and member of the Ancient & Honorable Artillery Company who purchased the first Harrison Grey Otis House from Otis when he moved to Mt. Vernon Street in 1801.
Thomas Hodson’s Gravel Quarry and the Reshaping of Beacon Hill
Thomas Hodson’s quarry extracted gravel from the north slope of Beacon Hill in the middle of the eighteenth century. This provoked public outrage, but the excavation of Beacon Hill for the expansion of Boston was too difficult to stop.