Hi Everyone,
Is it safe to go outside yet?
Yes, we got hammered again, but in actuality, it was more like a toy hammer compared to parts of Rhode Island that saw over three feet of exceptionally fluffy wet snow. I hope you guys and other locations that were hit hard are okay.
It’s the kind that doesn’t blow so much as stick to everything, including my windows.
Snowmageddon! Monday, the 23rd, as you can see, the visibility out the windows was nil.
Today, the sun is blindingly bright, which gives me a headache. However, every few minutes, I keep hearing crashes of snow falling off the roofs and fire escapes.
Please be careful shoveling. I recommend using machinery unless you’re a fit under-35-year-old.
Okay. One of you darling readers sent me an article about a recent home sale on Beacon Hill.
46 Chestnut Street. This 9,000 square foot townhouse just sold for 22 million dollars.
Yes, there’s a glass railing, but that wouldn’t have been my choice for sure.
I read the article. The developers are very proud of their work.
Indeed, they should be, as it is without question Boston’s finest plastic surgery clinic.
And parking garage.
Yes, indeed!
The article closed with info about the double-height garage with “a staggered car lift, a rare but valuable amenity in this location.”
Otherwise, why on earth would anyone pay 22 million for this sterile property with TEN bathrooms in the heart of Beacon Hill?
Isn’t this a residential street, Laurel?
Yes, it is. Are they allowed to rent parking spots? Well, people do, so I believe it’s legal. It’s a single-family home, so there are no other parties that might object; at least not in their building.
But a few other points. While this is up there in price, it is not the most expensive residential property to have been sold, as the headline states. I found a few that sold for a lot more.
The builders also maintained that they kept the charm in this Beacon Hill townhouse.
Inside? No, unless they think that giant Tylenol shapes are charming and in keeping with 19th century architecture.
The exterior is okay; however, there is no choice but to adhere to the imposed Puritan-level strictness down to the house numbers and door knockers. Oh, you think I’m exaggerating?
No, not in this case.
Please check out this *PDF filed with the Beacon Hill architectural commission that their neighbor at 55 Chestnut had to go through.
Now, to be clear, I’m okay with the stringent restrictions for the exterior, because at least I don’t have to look at people’s horrid taste. But, couldn’t the builders create an interior that pays some respect to this home in one of the finest and oldest historic districts in the country?
I guess not. Based on what I’ve encountered with the Boston building trades, I don’t believe that it’s a matter of defiance; just that they don’t know what they don’t know.
Okay, let’s leave #46 and focus more on the gorgeous 55 Chestnut. (But do check out the real estate listing if you missed it.)
You see, over the years, I innocently photographed this beauty many times, not realizing until December 2024 that the exposed side of the home didn’t belong to the house on the corner (#57) but to the next house in, #55.
Below is 55 Chestnut, a few Decembers ago, after its renovation.
December 2021.
Above is a pic of 55 Chestnut I took in the spring of 2022 during the Beacon Hill secret garden tour. Although the window actually belongs to # 53. 55 Chestnut wraps around its neighbor (#57) on the corner of Chestnut and W Cedar Street.
Below is a map.
It doesn’t show the fenced-in garden, but my image below does.
In this photo, you can see that the house on the far right (57 Chestnut) has a different brick. That is the house on the corner. The gate is to a narrow alley between the houses on Chestnut Street and Acorn Street.
When you look at the side of the house from W. Cedar Street, it looks like the big windows belong to the house on the corner, but they don’t.
Laurel, how did you figure it out?
I made note of the house numbers, and damn it, I came up dry. However, I kept digging and eventually found some old pics of 55 Chestnut from a listing from before its last house sale.
There ya go. I’m sure I screamed when I saw those magnificent windows. And what a charming circular living room!
See, the door used to be black, and now it’s Benjamin Moore Louisburg Green per the PDF linked to further up.*
I’ve been meaning to share this info with you for some time.
It was after I took the image below, one relatively mild evening in December 2024, that I made the connection.
Oh, it’s so difficult to tell, but guys, behind THAT architectural masterpiece lies the kitchen for 55 Chestnut.
Uh, huh.
It’s still difficult to make out.
However, this is a Greek Revival home, and while the nighttime image doesn’t convey that, I could see that the kitchen is as gorgeous as one would expect.
46 Chestnut, the posh plastic surgery center across the street, is also a Greek Revival Beacon Hill townhouse.
I think what they did to 46 is awful. Yet, in their defence, it appears the looting of the original mouldings had taken place earlier when this Beacon Hill townhouse was divided up into five units. That, I understand. If folks are clueless now, it was far worse back in the mid 20th century.
Fine, they turned it back into a single-family home, but this time it’s a Mctownhouse with six bedrooms and 10 bathrooms, as previously mentioned.
Still, I am quite disappointed that this sterile dwelling with corrugated cardboard fireplace surrounds and giant space capsule shapes in abundance is anyone’s idea of what an early 19th-century Beacon Hill townhouse should look like in the 21st century.
That is… Unless they really are planning on using it as a plastic surgery clinic.
That is probably not allowed. I don’t know. You can rent your parking spaces, however.
Frankly, I would never buy such a place.
There are some other gorgeous properties, I would consider, if I could afford them.(No, not even close!)
22 Louisburg Square, (below) is one of them–an exquisite home across the square from John Kerry!
20 Chestnut has a lot of potential and a stunning kitchen that someone put a lot of thought into.
However, the “one that got away” is the magnificent co-op apartment on the flat of Beacon Hill – 101 Chestnut.
It sold last April.
The unit is the top one with the gorgeous windows.
There are windows galore and charming period details while still being a 21st-century home.
This lovely den reminds me of Steven Gambrel’s work.
Unfortunately, I feel quite strongly that 46 Chestnut “sold out.”
That is, unless the result ended up looking quite different than the artist’s renderings. That isn’t likely, as it was built on spec. It paid off, and they made a lot of money.
While I don’t think they meant any harm, if they’re restoring antique historic properties, I wish they would do better.
By better, I mean honoring the historic significance of the original home. I wish they’d research what was there and restore it to what it was, not some on-trend 21st-century abomination that Gen Beta will say, “What on earth were they thinking?”
Well, to the future humans, not yet born, I think I have your answer. They weren’t thinking. That is the problem.
Now, I’m not saying that modernity cannot be incorporated in a Beacon Hill townhouse. No, not at all, but stone masquerading as corrugated cardboard doesn’t quite cut it.
What do y’all think?
xo,
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16 Responses
My second home on the Cape, which is north of 6A in East Sandwich has the same restrictions on colors. Basically you have two colors to paint your house gray or white. Everything outside from fencing to what color stone your driveway can be must be approved by Historic. It’s so Historic areas look uniform and not out of place.
Hi Cheryl,
Thanks for weighing in! Yes, a strict limitation of paint colors is typical for most if not all historic districts. It makes sense for all the reasons you stated. While I made a brief mention about the paint colors for 55 Chestnut, across the street, this post’s main topic is about the interior of 46 Chestnut. Unfortunately interiors in historic districts, at least in this state, and I believe the entire USA aren’t governed by anything except the residential building codes. Maybe. And I’m not being in the slightest bit facetious. However, that’s a different post altogether.
I agree, but it is a step above tearing it down. That isn’t saying much though.
In high-value neighborhoods, I wish the board paid less attention to door paint colors (which are easy to change) and more to preserving basic interior details. Reminds me a bit of the time This Old House renovated a Queen Anne in Cambridge and the only thing they kept in the interior was the doorbell! Not even the staircase survived to turn it “Scandinavian Modern” style.
I should note that the walled garden you showed in this thread belongs to 57 Chestnut. my wife did a lovely job prepping it for the garden tour a year or two ago. And we love our neighbors at 55! Many thanks.
Hi Jeff,
Oh, you’re the owner of 57 Chestnut. How cool is that! Thank you for the clarification, and of course, it makes total sense. That area is my favorite part of Beacon Hill. It’s funny. I was at an event at the Vincent Club on Wednesday and the topic of #46 came up in conversation, but not by me.
This unfortunate disaster is what I refer to as “Hotel Style”. The people who choose to live in such spaces probably have never lived in a home that felt like one. I’ve heard some refer to their family homes as “the place” but never use the word home. Sterile, antiseptic, cold, lifeless institutional like spaces. Thank you, Laurel, for your never ending advocacy of that which makes us a civil society.
An abomination!
The plastic surgery clinic is worse that boring–it is unlivable. That’s the thing about having a very modern home–absolutely NOTHING can be out of place. There can be no book and cup of tea on a side table (not that there is a side table. It is almost more of an art installation than a place people can live. Can you imagine children growing up in that setting? Sterile anhedonia are the words that come to mind.
I like a modern piece now and again–an art deco floor lamp mixed in with more traditional shapes. It can create a lovely kind of tension. This thing is abominable, personality-free, and joyless.
Agree with you. Money does not necessarily buy good taste. At least they maintained the exterior . altho…. I see in one of the pictures the bad taste trend of too many doodads.
Of course, I agree with you Laurel. And the strangely rounded furniture I am seeing everywhere just doesn’t cut it. Although I do not like modern (whatever that means in this moment), I can really appreciate it when done well.
In my opinion, just as everything in our culture has deteriorated, style and grace is gone. Nearly everyone wears polyester clothing and the top brands make plenty of it at over thousand dollars a outfit.
Just as you need moldings, I need cotton, linen, wool and even rayon which is made from wood using modern processing. Try to find a coat that is not polyester. Even the ones advertised as wool have lots of polyester in them.
So why the end of grace? Again, in my opinion, the hardening of the economic system has pushed people beyond their physical and psychological limits. And ugly is cheaper to make. The vast majority of products are hideous in one way or another, and of course, they do not last.
People born after the turn of the 21st century have seen little to no grace and style in the culture that confronts them.
I recently learned that the ugly concrete buildings erected during my childhood were justified by the Brutalist movement. To which I say, these buildings are indeed brutal and not fit for living things. Let AI live in brutalist buildings.
Now they are everywhere and some of them are being turned into warehouses for ‘aliens.’ See the connection? Brutal spaces lead to brutality.
If civilization survives this current catastrophe, this 150 year period from 1900 to 2050 will be studied for thousands of years as the period when humans mostly went crazy and ruined everything around them, creating piles of garbage and pollution under the justification that we need to keep the oil and the economy pumping. (Not that anyone wants a failing economy, but the lack of imagination about how to run a global society is stunning.)
sorry for my soap box
Hello Laurel, I had to look twice at the 55 Chestnut living room to see if that was your face in the painting over the fireplace.
Of course I agree with you about these abominable “restorations.” People need look no further than your blog to see how historic renovations can be accomplished attractively and sensitively. I especially hate the excuse that there were earlier alterations so the current people “had no choice.”
The Ephemeral New York blog recently featured a surviving clapboard house in New York that got the same treatment–charming on the outside, unadulterated, hideous, inappropriate schlock on the inside:
https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2026/02/23/the-story-of-harlems-last-remaining-wood-clapboard-house-built-at-the-dawn-of-the-gilded-age/
–Jim
These people are completely without taste. They took an utterly gorgeous home and absolutely ruined it. They bought a beautiful home more for the location rather than the love of it for itself, and turned it into a 1980-ish nightmare. If they wanted that “soft contemporary” they should have bought one. I have never understood why people buy a home and totally change the structure of the interior – I don’t mean like your renovation which kept to the proper style; I am referring to the type seen on HGTV – unless the place is a complete wreck and that is why you bought it. Otherwise I don’t see the point of buying something if you don’t like the bones of the place to begin with.
This “trend” is so depressing and disturbing. Gone from a silk purse to a sow’s ear. This nod toward nebulous shapes of modernity is evident in some iconic accommodations in my favorite European cities also. I was thrilled to book a suite in Venice overlooking the canal and across from the grand opera house. Guess what they stuck in the middle of our bedroom sitting area in front of the balcony … a nest bathtub!
Sad that they felt compelled to insert something so trendy, impractical and visually jarring in the midst of this historically correct and otherwise beautifully decorated space.
It’s so very disturbing that these homes are being ruined and “modernized” with no knowledge or appreciation of their historic status. It’s happening all over the country, and the more upscale the neighborhood, the worse it is. My little village in southwestern Nassau County, NY, was developed in the 1920s and 1930s. The original homes are charming–brick and shingle Colonials and Tudors, with some late 19th Century farmhouses and Victorians. Every one different, no cookie-cutter homes. However, as housing prices escalate and more people with money vie for these homes they are either being renovated/opened up/grayed out, or torn down completely and replaced with huge ugly soulless places. I’ve been here over 40 years, and have done lots of renovations and additions to make the house livable for the 21st century, but all in keeping with the period. I shudder to think what the next buyer will do to it 🙁
Don’t give up Laurel! Set yourself up with a city planning/building/development committee.
Laurel, I am in total agreement with your review. Maybe the owner-developer is planning a boutique hotel or an Air B&B? It has all the charm of a modern hotel and none of a private home.