Special to Sun
The Nichols House Museum will debut a new tour on Sept. 25 at 6 p.m., ‘Creation, Evolution, Preservation: The Metamorphosis of 55 Mount Vernon Street.’
The Nichols House Museum at 55 Mt. Vernon St.
This architecture-focused tour covers the entire history of the building, from its construction in 1804, through the Nichols family’s residency, to the museum era. Visitors will take an in-depth look at the structure, identifying changes owners made over time and why, including exploring some areas not visited on the general tour.
“So many of us love examining old buildings,” said the museum’s Public Engagement Manager, Camille Arbogast. “We wanted to give visitors the opportunity to have that experience at the museum.”
The tour was created by Steve O’Donnell, a museum guide and Beacon Hill resident.
“As an amateur historian, I am interested in Boston family histories and how these families lived their lives day to day<” he said. “As someone who leads tours at the Nichols House Museum, I have become curious about how the architecture of the home (external and internal) has changed over time as a result of the owner’s tastes and needs. Working with a number of sources including a historic structure report of the Nichols House Museum published in 2013, we’ve put together a tour that I believe guests will find quite intriguing.”
Among the highlights O’Donnell thinks guests might enjoy: “One thing that may fascinate guests is how efficiently the space in this small home was used by the sizable number of people living and/or working here (a family of five and a live-in and daily worker population of 6-8 workers). Also interesting is discovering, behind the seemingly eclectic appearance of the home’s interior, that there is some consistent decorative philosophy that guided Rose Nichols’ decisions about how the home would look.”
The building at 55 Mount Vernon St. was built as part of the Mount Vernon Proprietor’s development of the South Slope of Beacon Hill. The design is attributed to Charles Bulfinch, Boston’s star architect of the day. Commissioned by one of the proprietors, Jonathan Mason, as a home for one of his daughters, his descendants owned the home until 1885, when it was sold to the Nichols family. The eldest Nichols daughter, Rose, inherited the house in the 1930s and later willed it to be a museum. It has been open to the public since 1961.
“We love how 55 Mount Vernon Street has been both consciously preserved and modernized,” said Arbogast. “Each of the home’s owners cared for it, the Nichols were especially aware of its historic value, but they also updated it to accommodate changing technology.”
For those who want to know more about the Nichols family, general museum tours are offered Tuesday through Sunday mornings. The Nichols House will also host an open house on Saturday, Sept. 21, which will feature a focus on the Nichols family’s involvement in the Women’s Suffrage Movement. More information about tours and events can be found on its website, nicholshousemuseum.org