Back Bay mansion awaits a visionary
A mansion in the Back Bay with a storied history awaits a transformation. Back Bay mansions with storied histories don’t often come up for sale.
Jeannemarie Conley of Otis & Ahearn Real Estate is marketing this doublewide, 50-foot-across house – brick with twin bowfront façade – for $20 million.
The address of this once-in-a-lifetime property in the heart of downtown Boston is 15 Commonwealth Ave., on the first block from the Public Garden and across the mall from the Taj Hotel and its residences.
Since 1952, the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute Inc., a professional group that uses the mansion for business purposes – offices, conferences, presentations and the like – has owned the building. No one has lived here for more than 50 years.
With the sale, the hope is that the buyer will create a single-family dream home – with bedrooms for children, guests and staff. The place is palatial, with five floors and enough outdoor area for 13 private parking spaces.
The building itself melds into the historic district and looks very Boston. Actually, it was constructed in the mid-1800s when the Back Bay was a vast landfill project.
The first owner of this land, created from a muddy swamp with dirt and rocks brought in from Needham, was Samuel Hooper, a merchant and political figure, who bought the parcel for $72,878.18 (sums in pre-inflation dollars take the breath away).
William Packman built the grand home, designed by Snell and Gregerson; subsequently, the land and manse were sold to Oliver Ames who came from a prosperous Easton family involved with railroads and construction.
Reportedly, President Abraham Lincoln prevailed on the Ames family to bolster the Union Army during the Civil War.
When you climb the steps to enter 15 Commonwealth Ave., the history is apparent in the architecture and the fact that not much has changed here for a long time.
The elegant stairway with a carved balustrade and wainscoting is wide enough for hoop skirts. A skylight illuminates the stairs.
An architectural commission vigilantly standing guard against any unsightly exterior changes guides the look of the Back Bay. Surely, the building has benefited from its oversight.
The entrance has a definite Victorian flavor. The queen herself could have walked here. Certainly, the princes and princesses of Boston society must have tripped the light fantastic through these doors in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Enter the manse and the style is overwhelming with intricate inlaid herringboned patterns on the wood floors, delicate carving and details all over the walls and ceilings with plaster ornamentation.
In its historic form, the innards of 15 Commonwealth are a wonder to behold in terms of craftsmanship and artistry. Few people live like this anymore. Still, with the proper resources, there’s no reason you can’t revive the lifestyle.
The first floor rooms are the former drawing room, the library, the den and the dining room with a serving pantry.
A large staircase from the first floor to the third floor, with a skylight at the roof level, lights the stairs.
When the house was a working showplace, the upper floors contained five bedrooms and five baths for family use. The house had 11 fireplaces.
One fireplace still comes decorated with the Ames family’s coat of arms: three roses in a diagonal from left to right.
If God is in the details, the interior ornamentation of the woodwork and moldings is quite heavenly.
A staircase rises from the foyer, with a newel post that is decorated with acanthus leaves.
The old library is paneled in burled walnut with elaborate decorative details, including the use of the scallop shell and carved musical symbols – a banjo, a clarinet, a flute, a violin and a tambourine.
The ceilings feature intricate plaster friezes with classic egg and dart patterns of the Greek Revival style, with many cherubs or angels frolicking.
This house fits into the original plan for the Back Bay that called for brownstone mansions, akin to the style in Paris.
A new owner of course could preserve all this wondrous interior art or gut and start from scratch.
The house is an enormous shell for creation of a special space.
The main sitting room is most emblematic of the museum-quality surroundings with its great room quality and marble fireplace.
The second floor alone, with its sweeping 50-foot expanse, would be an ideal area to create a dream kitchen looking out on the sunny side of Commonwealth Avenue through immense windows. The floor is also big enough for formal and informal dining rooms.
Go up a floor and there is ideal space for a sumptuous master suite with “his” and “her” everything – bathrooms, closets, dressing rooms. And there is enough room for many other bedrooms, guest suites, staff lounges, whatever on this level as well as the floor above.
Space is the luxury at 15 Commonwealth Ave., where there are five floors and 15,000-plus square feet to sprawl.
Nowhere is the extravagant space more apparent than on the grand stairway that connects the second and third floors with the first. A magnificent skylight lights the stairs, while the wainscoting and banisters add a regal air.
Whoever lives in this house might want to build an elevator. For now, the stairway is a gracious reminder of all who built their dreams and walked here.
DETAILS
Address: 15 Commonwealth Ave., Back Bay
Price: $20 million
Size: 15,000 +/- square feet
Age: 1867
Taxes: Currently tax-exempt; assessed for $5,590,500. FY 2009 tax rate is $10.38 per $1,000 valuation.
Features of property: A five-story Victorian mansion in French Academic style with double bowfronts and mansard green copper roof on sunny side of street; seven fireplaces; marble and intricate inlaid wood floors; decorative carving on wooden wall panels and moldings throughout; plaster ceilings with much bas relief of cherubs and fruit; original sconces and hardware; oak doors; 13 spaces behind building available for parking.
Close by: The Public Garden, the Esplanade and Hatch Shell, Back Bay restaurants, shops and galleries on Newbury and Boylston streets and Beacon Hill’s Charles Street; Park Square, Boston Public Library and Copley Square; within walking distance of MBTA Green Line at Arlington Street or Red and Green Lines at Park Street, Orange Line, commuter rail and Amtrak at Back Bay station; easy access to Storrow Drive and connecting highways.
Contact: Jeannemarie Conley, Otis & Ahearn Real Estate, 200 Newbury St., Fourth Floor, Boston, MA 02116. Phones: 617-267-3500 (office) or 617-312-3991 (cell).
Web site: www.otisahearn.com.
This property may be seen by appointment.
