BenjaminCrowninshield

Crowninshield Home, Estate of the Day

Filed under: Estates

Homes like this in Boston don't come on the market too often. This stately brick townhouse is located on Beacon Street opposite the Public Garden. The home was built in 1846 for former Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Crowninshield and must have been the height of fashion and luxury at the time. The home went through a major renovation in 1990. The renovation seems to have included the large kitchen that has French doors opening out onto the garden. Other features include a library, a billiard room with a wet bar, a dining room with a dumb waiter and a caterer's kitchen. The top floor includes a large modern gym that includes a hot tub and steam shower. There is also a roof deck with great Back Bay skyline views.The listing says that there is outdoor parking on a private street. This might mean some major parking hassles in the winter, but what you are paying for here are all the vintage details, the curlicued plaster medallions on the ceiling, nine Tiffany-designed stained glass windows and some of the most gorgeous woodwork I have ever seen. The staircase alone is worthy of poetry and those tufted velvet built-in seats next to the huge fireplace are so evocative of the time period this house was built in that they seem to be part of an oil painting.. There are five bedrooms total and ten fireplaces. There are some strange quirks, too, such as a rather coffin-like bathtub. But with an old beauty of a house like this, you have to embrace the quirks. It is listed at $6.9 million.

Gallery: Crowninshield Home