CultureNOW - Park Place: Charles Bulfinch and Peter Vanderwarker

Park Place

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ABOUT THE HISTORIC PHOTOGRAPHS
It's remarkable how often it happens. A rich American builds a house intended as a family seat for generations to come, only to vacate it within a short time. In both photos, we're looking down Park Street from the corner of Beacon. The Thomas Amory house stands at the left. When it was completed in 1804, it was the biggest contemporary house in Boston. It was designed by the greatest architect of the day, Charles Bulfinch, who had built the Massachusetts State House and would design Harvard's University Hall and the US Capitol.

But the owner went broke. Tradition says Amory got word of his bankruptcy only a few hours before he greeted guests for a house warming.

The mansion was briefly used as a boarding house, then in 1806 divided. Its Warhol moment of fame came in 1824, when the Marquis de Lafayette, hero of the American Revolution, visited Boston in his old age. He lodged in a part of the house that was, at the time, being used as a club, and he.addressed a cheering throng from a balcony. A later resident of half of the mansion was Harvard professor George Ticknor, a scholar of Spanish literature. Today the mansion is usually known as the Amory-Ticknor House.

The older photo shows it pretty much as Bulfinch originally designed it. The architectural style is
Federal, so named because it flourished during the first years of American federal government, from around 1790 to 1815. Federal is derived from the work of the great Scots architect Robert Adam. Brits call it Adam style. It's understated design of great refinement, with simple flat shapes but delicate detail.

In the new photo, all is changed. Starting in 1884, the Amory-Ticknor ,was rebuilt. A triple dormer now pokes up from the roof. Elaborate oriel windows seem pasted onto the facade. Storefronts wrap the house at street level. Once again, the source was a superstar British architect Richard Norman Shaw, whose influential style was clearly being imitated.

Today the once reserved i aristocratic house is a full participant in the life of the city. The restaurant No.9 Park fills much of the lower part. Fox 25 News occupies the corner office. Lawyers work upstairs.

The Amory-Ticknor raises a critical question about historic preservation. Some say Bulfinch's masterpiece should be stripped of its additions and restored to its pristine state. We don't think so. We like the Amory-Ticknor the way it is, with its layering up of different motifs from different eras, all jostling comfortably in one richly historic building.

-Robert Campbell and Peter Vanderwarker, "CITYSCAPES - Park Place", Boston Globe, 22 May 2005

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Location

Park Street & Beacon Street
Boston, MA 02108
United States

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