{"nrhp_refnum":"74002044","name":"Howe, Samuel Gridley and Julia Ward, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"13 Chestnut St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Boston","county":"Suffolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.357886403000066,"lon":-71.0668362983011,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1974-09-13","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1974-05-30","areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A four-story, three-bay brick row house at 13 Chestnut Street on Beacon Hill, Boston, built in 1804-1805 by Hepsibah Swan as one of three \"Swan houses\" attributed to Charles Bulfinch.","why_significant":"The house was the residence of Samuel Gridley Howe and Julia Ward Howe from 1863 to 1866, and is described as the most historically significant of the surviving houses in which they lived. During those years Julia wrote \"The Battle Hymn of the Republic\" and Samuel began leading the Massachusetts Board of State Charities. It is also architecturally notable as the least altered of the Swan houses.","narrative":"Number 13 Chestnut Street on Beacon Hill is a four-story, three-bay brick row house with a Georgian doorway, arched window recesses on the first story and wrought-iron balconies on the second. Hepsibah Swan built it in 1804-1805 as a wedding present for a daughter, one of three adjoining houses long linked to Charles Bulfinch. It later became the home of John Turner Sargent and, afterward, John Singer Sargent. Its listing rests chiefly on the years 1863 to 1866, when Samuel Gridley Howe, a leader in educating the blind and in state charity reform, lived here with his wife, Julia Ward Howe. In 1863 Julia wrote \"The Battle Hymn of the Republic,\" and in 1865 Samuel began leading the Massachusetts Board of State Charities. The Boston Radical Club later met in the house. Its interiors, including marble mantels and an elliptical staircase, remain well preserved, and it is still a single-family residence.","period_of_significance":"1863-1866","architect_builder":"Attributed to Charles Bulfinch (undocumented); built by Hepsibah Swan","architectural_style":"Georgian doorway; Bulfinch-attributed row house","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition marked good, altered, original site; remains a single-family private residence with interiors little changed.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:53.857746-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/67/7938/63793867/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/74002044_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74002044/c6d2322df2-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74002044/c6d2322df2-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Jameslwoodward","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Samuel_Gridley_and_Julia_Ward_Howe_House_Boston_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Jameslwoodward</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:Samuel_Gridley_and_Julia_Ward_Howe_House_Boston_MA.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"66000130","name":"Beacon Hill Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/massachusetts/beacon-hill-historic-district-66000130/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63793867","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Gridley_and_Julia_Ward_Howe_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7411540"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/suffolk-county/howe-samuel-gridley-and-julia-ward-house-74002044/"}