{"nrhp_refnum":"66000764","name":"Harding, Chester, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"16 Beacon St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Boston","county":"Suffolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.357797531000045,"lon":-71.0625377902447,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1966-10-15","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1965-12-21","areas_of_significance":["Art"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A four-story brick Federal-style row house at 16 Beacon Street in Boston, built in 1808 by Thomas Fletcher and originally known as \"Amory's Folly.\" It is now used as professional offices by the Boston Bar Association.","why_significant":"The house was the home from 1826 to 1830 of Chester Harding, one of America's most successful portrait painters of the four decades before his death in 1866. His popularity in Boston at that time was dubbed \"Harding fever\" by Gilbert Stuart. The building also retains period interior features such as an oval flying staircase.","narrative":"Sixteen Beacon Street in Boston holds a four-story brick row house built in 1808 in the Federal style by Thomas Fletcher. Its size and pretension earned it the nickname \"Amory's Folly.\" The house is best known as the home of portrait painter Chester Harding from 1826 to 1830. Largely self-taught, Harding became one of the country's most successful portraitists, and his Boston popularity was called \"Harding fever\" by Gilbert Stuart. The house changed over time. In 1885 the front was extended with a new porch and added bays, and in the 1920s it was adapted for office use. The Boston Bar Association renovated it in 1963 as its headquarters, removing some later additions and restoring the period character of the interior. Original features that survive include an oval flying staircase, egg-and-dart cornices, carved mantels with paired colonnettes, and molded door and window surrounds. Visitors are admitted by appointment.","period_of_significance":"1808, 1826-30","architect_builder":"Thomas Fletcher","architectural_style":"Federal","criteria":[],"status_note":"Renovated in 1963 for use as the Boston Bar Association's headquarters; maintained in excellent condition, used as professional offices, and open to visitors by appointment.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 01:59:00.663004-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/69/7938/63793869/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/66000764_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000764/f76f9de362-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000764/f76f9de362-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Adam Lenhardt","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chester_Harding_House_05Feb2008.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Adam Lenhardt</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chester_Harding_House_05Feb2008.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63793869","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester_Harding_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5093587"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/suffolk-county/harding-chester-house-66000764/"}