Gibson House (Boston)

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The Gibson House, located at 137 Beacon Street, was built in 1860 and housed three generations of the Gibson family before it became an established museum and subsequent landmark.^[1] It was established by the widowed Catherine Hammond Gibson, possibly the first female property owner in Back Bay.^[2] The Gibson House's landmark status is due to its claim that it is the only Victorian era row house in Boston's Back Bay to maintain the integral relationship between the exterior architectural shell and the original interior plan, with its accompanying decorative schemes.^[3] Its interior is a composite of family furnishings and pieces added to make it more complete.^[4]

It has been implied that Edward Clark Cabot was the architect of the Gibson House, although there is no primary source documentation to prove this.^[5] There is, however, a contemporary newspaper account that lists Cabot as the architect of two houses between 135–141 Beacon Street, and the years 1860–1861 were a time when Cabot was not employed by an architectural firm.^[6]

Contents 1 The Tenure of Gibsons 1.1 Charles Hammond Gibson, Jr. 1.2 Interests 1.3 Values 1.4 Inferred Homosexuality 1.5 Literary Career 1.6 As House 2 A House as a Constructed Legacy 3 A House in Question 4 References 5 External links

[edit] The Tenure of Gibsons

Catherine Hammond Gibson, born in 1804, was the niece off William Dawes, the less famous patriot who rode with Paul Revere in April of 1775.^[7] She was described by her niece Hannah Palfrey Ayer as having been "all that was expected of a woman of her background, dutiful, conscientious, but not particularly outstanding."^[8]

Catherine's brother, John Hammond, introduced her to her eventual husband, John Gibson, a sugar merchant; their romance developed after Hammond and Gibson went to Quincy to ride on a new railroad, during which the cars derailed, resulting in a death, a broken leg, and, for Mr. Gibson, a dislocated jaw.^[9]

After just five years of marriage John Gibson died at sea, but not before he fathered two sons.^[10] John Gardiner Gibson, the elder, was too a maritime casualty^[11]; it is surmised that Catherine Hammond Gibson purchased Gibson House to increase the eligibility of her surviving son, Charles Hammond Gibson, after he passed his marriageable prime.^[12] It was a successful endeavor; Rosamond Warren Gibson married Charles in 1871 and bore three children, Rosamond, Mary Ethel, and Charles Hammond Gibson, Jr.^[13]

[edit] Charles Hammond Gibson, Jr.

Charles Hammond Gibson, Jr. was born at the Gibson House on November 21, 1874^[14]; a lifetime bachelor, he lived intermittently at the Gibson House until he died in 1954, with only an extended gap during the years that he was estranged from his father, 1909-16.^[15] It is inferred that this, as well as his disinheritance, was due to his bias for male companionship^[16]; it was during these years that he began his literary career.^[17]

[edit] Interests

Among his great interests were prize fighting (he idolized boxing champion Joe Louis), French architecture, and British Royalty.^[18]

[edit] Values

Charles' conservative and romantic values were entrenched in the 19th century^[19]; he viewed himself as a "prominent figure in society in New York, Newport, Philadelphia, Washington, and Baltimore" and "the chief exemplar of the ode in American letters."^[20]

[edit] Inferred Homosexuality

It has been alleged that Charles Gibson Jr. lived a flamboyant homosexual lifestyle, unorthodox for his time.^[21] He regularly walked the Public Garden in silk pajamas, and brought men back to Gibson House whom he dressed in kimonos.^[22] He employed a succession of live-in, personal menservants who were typically unmarried men of lower class. This lifestyle, it has been said, led him to be disinherited of Gibson House by his father.^[23]

[edit] Literary Career

Charles Hammond Gibson, Jr. established himself as a writer, never practicing another career.^[24] Under a pseudonym he published Two Gentlemen in Touraine in 1899, which he called a "critical and historical study of the Royal Chateaux of France and one of the standard works on the subject" in his self-authored obituary.^[25] He used his own name for the rest of his published works, which include a book called "Among French Inns," as well as several volumes of poetry and singular pieces contributed to newspapers.^[26] He wrote poetry addressed to the English Royal Family.^[27] Recordings of Charles Gibson reading his poetry are held in the Harvard University's Woodbury Collection, for which he affected old Boston intonation.^[28] Charles Hammond Gibson, Jr. neither received acclaim as a poet in his lifetime, nor did he posthumously.^[29]

[edit] As House

After his mother Rosamond Warren Gibson died in 1934, Charles Gibson, Jr. began to cultivate the house museum and Gibson Society. His formulation of the Society, which is structured to operate independently of the house museum if required.^[30], represents an attempt to construct a literary legacy. One of its purposes is to read, distribute, and publish the poetry of Charles Gibson, Jr.^[31]

[edit] A House as a Constructed Legacy

By the time he died, Charles was charging admission to view the Gibson House, and refused to let invited guests sit on the furniture's 19th century upholstery, even during tea and cocktail parties.^[32] It was already a museum in his mind.^[33] He drafted catalogues of the contents of the house; written in the third person, they already refer to the house as a museum and detail the locations of his poetry and manuscripts throughout Gibson House.^[34]

The Gibson House is more than a preservation of a Victorian period home and a memorial to his family – it forms the heritage of a man without a direct heir.^[35] It embodies Charles Gibson, Jr. himself.^[36]

[edit] A House in Question

Is this house a personal memorial to Charles H. Gibson, Jr.?

Is this house a static slice of a Victorian townhouse, as it was when the occupants left?

Is this house a place which should be continually upgraded to be a bettered Victorian house museum?

Is this house a living museum with actors relating to the period?

Is this house a Back Bay museum?^[37]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Gibson House Museum
• National Park Service (August 27, 2001). "Secretary Norton Designates the Gibson House in Massachusetts as a National Historic Landmark". Press release. Retrieved on 2008-03-10.