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Gibson House Review
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Gibson House
- Address: 137 Beacon St., Back Bay, Boston, MA | Map It
- Phone: 617/267-6338
- www.thegibsonhouse.org
- Category: Houses/Mansions
- Location: Back Bay
Fodor's Review:
Through the foresight of an eccentric bon vivant, this house provides an authentic glimpse into daily life in Boston's Victorian era. One of the first Back Bay residences (1859), the Gibson House is relatively modest in comparison with some of the grand mansions built during the decades that followed; yet its furnishings, from its circa-1790 Willard clock to the raised and gilded wallpaper to the multipiece faux-bamboo bedroom set, seem sumptuous to modern eyes. Unlike other Back Bay houses, the Gibson family home has been preserved with all its Victorian fixtures and furniture intact. That's the legacy of Charles Gibson Jr., a poet, travel writer, and horticulturist who continued to appear in formal attire -- morning coat, spats, and a walking stick -- well into the 1940s when he dined daily at the Ritz nearby. As early as 1936, Gibson was roping off furniture and envisioning a museum for the house his grandmother built. His dream was realized in 1957, three years after he died. You can see a full-course setting with a China-trade dinner service in the ornate dining room and discover the elaborate system of servants' bells in the 19th-century basement kitchen. The house serves as the meeting place for the New England chapter of the Victorian Society in America; it was also used as an interior for the 1984 Merchant-Ivory film The Bostonians. Though the sign out front instructs visitors not to ring the bell until the stroke of the hour, you will have better luck catching the beginning of the tour if you arrive a few minutes early and ring forcefully.
- Cost: $7
- Open: Tours Wed.-Sun. at 1, 2, and 3 and by appointment
- Metro: Arlington
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