Mt. Vernon Street

Mt. Vernon Street Review

Mt. Vernon Street, along with Chestnut Street, has some of Beacon Hill's most distinguished addresses. Mt. Vernon is the grander of the two, however, with houses set back farther and rising taller; it even has a freestanding mansion, the second Harrison Gray Otis House, at No. 85. Henry James once wrote that Mt. Vernon Street was "the only respectable street in America," and he must have known, as he lived with his brother William at No. 131 in the 1860s. He was just one of many literary luminaries who resided here, including Julia Ward Howe, who composed "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and lived at No. 32, and the poet Robert Frost, who lived at No. 88.