Noah Sturtevant House (Trinity Neighborhood House)

Eagle Hill, on the western edge of which stands 406 Meridian Street, was the third of five sections laid out by the East Boston Company, this one intended for the rising middle class. Originally, freestanding suburban villas were the expected occupants of this neighborhood. Noah Sturtevant, a prominent East Boston businessman, built the Greek Revival brick house at 406 Meridian Street, one of the finest survivors of this initial phase of development. Its neighbor, the Victorian Gothic McLean House at 408 Meridian Street (1878, NRD) shows the perpetuation of this ideal for the first three decades of development. As Eagle Hill segued from a Yankee middle-class to an Irish working-class environment, detached villas were replaced by row houses and duplexes. A further indication of this change occurred in 1917 when the Trinity Neighborhood House purchased the Noah Sturtevant House. Founded in 1881 as one of the earliest settlement house organizations in Boston, the Trinity Neighborhood House and Day Nursery provided childcare for working mothers and other social services in the South End. In 1906, the Trinity Neighborhood House moved to East Boston and acquired this building. A Boston landmark, the house now provides elderly housing.