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"Just to the west of the Massachusetts
State House, stood the former home of patriot
John Hancock. The
house was built in 1737, and torn down in 1863, to make way
for a new wing of the State House. It is a tragedy that the building was
demolished, as it would have been a historic treasure for the city, and
a huge tourist attraction. John Andrew wrote about the home in 1857
(edited): "Governor Hancock's house, on Beacon Street, fronts to the south
and presents a quaint and picturesque appearance, embosomed, as it is, with
shrubs, evergreens, trees, and flowers. It is built of hewn stone, and
raised about thirteen feet above the street, with the ascent being through a
garden.
There it stands, beside its modern neighbors, like a venerable grandsire
surrounded by his children's children, commanding respectful attention, and
even admiration. The front is fifty six feet in breadth, and terminates in
two lofty stories. Formerly there was a delightful garden behind the house,
ascending gradually to the highlands in the rear. In Hancock's time we are
told, that in front of the edifice a 'hundred cows daily fed' on the
Common.
The home was a brave place for hospitality in olden times, when the east
wing formed a spacious hall, and the west wing was appropriated to domestic
purposes; the whole embracing, with the stables, coach-house, and other
offices, an extent of two hundred and twenty feet.
There was also a glacis or incline, in the days when
Thomas Hancock, the Governor's father, resided there; but garden, glacis,
stables, and coach-houses, have long made way for streets and houses. The
interior of the home is better preserved; and beneath its ancient roof
reside the descendents of the Governor. It is a pity that it should ever be
razed to the ground; but it is to be feared that, by and by, the place which
it now knows, will know it no more."
The house was demolished five years later.
The house of John Hancock's brother
Ebenezer still
stands on Marshall Street near Faneuil Hall.
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