Gibson House

Edward C. Cabot designed the group of four houses at 135–141 Beacon Street in 1860 for four different clients. Catherine Gibson's house assumes exceptional importance as it has been preserved as a museum. Except for some modest redecoration done at the end of the nineteenth century, the house provides a remarkable opportunity to view a Boston town house of the period. Notwithstanding the relatively small size of the house, there is a grand entrance hall with piers supporting round arches reminiscent of Cabot and George Minot Dexter's Boston Athenaeum (BH7). The exterior of the four houses was designed as a block of paired units. Those at 139–141 received the simplest exterior decoration; numbers 135–137 were given a ground story of ashlar sandstone, a second-story bay window, and a picturesque roof treatment created by a broad mansard and paired segmental-arched dormers to distinguish the facade of each from its neighbors.