195 Beacon is located on the south side of Beacon, between Berkeley and Clarendon, with 193 Beacon to the east and 197 Beacon to the west.

195 Beacon was designed by Peabody and Stearns, architects, and built in 1871-1872, one of three contiguous houses (191-193-195 Beacon), with 193 Beacon and 195 Beacon forming a symmetrical pair. 191 Beacon and 193 Beacon were built for James Henry Blake, and 195 Beacon was built for Nathaniel W. Curtis.

The land for 191-193 Beacon was purchased by James H. Blake from William Carpenter in two transactions, 193 Beacon on December 21, 1870, and 191 Beacon on March 23, 1871. The land for 195 Beacon was purchased by Nathaniel Curtis on December 16, 1870, from Francis E. Parker, a lawyer, who had purchased it from William Carpenter on April 11, 1870. William Carpenter was a builder and it is possible that he constructed all three houses. The land had previously had several owners and originally was part of two larger parcels acquired from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on March 7, 1860, and May 2, 1860, by Norman Munson. Norman Munson and his partner, George Goss, were the contractors responsible for filling the Commonwealth’s Back Bay lands.

Click here for an index to the deeds for 195 Beacon, and click here for further information about the land between the south side of Beacon and Alley 420, from Berkeley to Clarendon.

Appendix A of Bainbridge Bunting’s Houses of Boston’s Back Bay indicates that 191-193-195 Beacon were built in 1872. Based on the wording of party wall agreements for the property it appears that the houses were begun in 1871 and nearing completion in 1872 (both the agreement on December 16, 1870, between the owners of the lot at 195 Beacon and of the house at 197 Beacon and the agreement on April 24, 1871, between the owners of the lot at 191 Beacon and of the house at 189 Beacon, indicate that construction is about to begin). This is consistent with an August 23, 1871, Boston Traveller article on work underway by Peabody and Stearns, which indicated that the three houses were “half finished.”

Nathaniel William Curtis and his wife, Sarah James (Scull) Curtis, made 195 Beacon their home. They previously had lived at 47 Chestnut. He was a commission merchant dealing in pig iron.

In November of 1873, the Curtises were joined at 195 Beacon by his nieces, Madeleine Curtis Mixter and Helen Kortright Mixter, daughters of Charles and Frances Louisa (Curtis) Mixter. Madeleine and Helen Mixter had survived the shipwreck of the Ville du Havre on November 22, 1873; their parents and grandfather, Nathaniel Curtis, were killed. Madeline and Helen Mixter continued to live with the Curtises at the time of the 1880 US Census.

By 1884, Madeleine Mixter was living at 120 Marlborough.  Helen Mixter married in June of 1888 to Randolph Morgan Appleton, a lawyer in New York City, and they lived in Hempstead, Long Island, and then in Ipswich, Massachusetts.

Nathaniel and Sarah Curtis continued to live at 195 Beacon during the 1892-1893 winter season. During the 1893-1894 winter season, they lived at the Hotel Vendome, and by 1894-1895 season, they were living at The Charlesgate at 535 Beacon.

On October 28, 1893, 195 Beacon was purchased from Nathaniel Curtis by Dr. Frederick Irving Knight, a physician specializing in throat and chest diseases. He and his wife, Louisa Armistead (Appleton) Knight, made it their home and he also maintained his medical office there. They previously had lived (and he had maintained his office) at 377 Boylston. Their daughter, Theodora Irving Knight, lived with them.

Theodora Knight married in April of 1899 to George Knight Budd Wade, a lawyer and later an investment counselor. After their marriage they lived in South Orange, New Jersey, and in Manhattan.

Louisa Knight died in August of 1901.  Frederick Knight continued to live at 195 Beacon until his death in February of 1909.

On June 1, 1909, 195 Beacon was acquired from Frederick Knight’s estate by Mary Haughton (Richardson) Jones, the wife of Dr. Daniel Fiske Jones. They previously had lived at 114 Marlborough.  By the late 1920s they also maintained a home in Matunick, Rhode Island.

Daniel Fiske Jones was a noted surgeon who specialized in colon and rectal cancer.  He maintained his medical offices at 195 Beacon.

An article by Anthony S. Patton in the Fall 2007 Massachusetts General Hospital Surgical Society Newsletter described Dr. Jones as “a brilliant surgeon who visited local hospitals in a chauffeured Pierce Arrow carrying him and his assistants. If surgery was to be done that day on a special and usually wealthy patient, his luxurious auto was followed by another large chariot with scrub nurses and other helpers.” Mary Haughton Jones was the daughter of the noted architect, Henry Hobson Richardson.

Daniel and Mary Jones raised their three children at 195 Beacon: Alison Jones, Beatrice Jones, and David Fiske Jones, Jr.

Alison Jones married in June of 1922 to Charles Allerton Coolidge, Jr., of 82 Marlborough, an attorney. After their marriage, they lived at 110 Charles. Beatrice Jones married in June of 1928 to John Vaughan Merrick. After their marriage, they lived in Middletown, Rhode Island, where he was headmaster of St. George’s School.

Daniel Jones died in September of 1937.  Mary Jones and David Fiske Jones, Jr., a real estate broker, continued to live at 195 Beacon in 1938, but had moved to an apartment at 6 Arlington by 1939.

On November 3, 1938, 195 Beacon was purchased from Mary Jones by Jacob Leroy Garber. In January of 1939, he applied for permission to convert the property from a single-family dwelling into a lodging house. He abandoned the application and re-filed it in September of 1939, including the erection of fire balconies on the front and rear to provide the required egress, and the application subsequently was approved.

J. Leroy Garber was a postal clerk and realtor.  He and his wife, Edythe (Edith) I. (Chasens) Garber, lived at 13 Haviland. In September of 1941, they purchased and moved to 350 Marlborough, which they also operated as a lodging house.

J. Leroy Garber continued to operate 195 Beacon as a lodging house until 1949.  In July of 1949, he applied for (and subsequently received) permission to convert the house into ten apartments. On February 29, 1952, he transferred the property to himself as trustee of the Byron Hall Trust.

On June 30, 1960, 195 Beacon was acquired from J. LeRoy Garber by real estate dealer and contractor Michael J. Smith. He and his wife, Georgia Constance (Rigas/Rigopoulos) Smith, lived at 322 Marlborough. On July 18, 1960, he transferred the property to the Remik Realty Corporation, of which he was the president and treasurer.

On November 23, 1960, Philip Baizen and Peter N Petritus acquired 195 Beacon from Remik Realty, and on December 9, 1960, they transferred the property to themselves as trustees of the Phylmir Realty Trust.

On January 3, 1962, 195 Beacon was acquired from the Phylmir Realty Trust by Richard S. Gallagher and his wife, Agnes B. Gallagher. They lived in Medfield. On May 1, 1964, the property was acquired from the Gallaghers by real estate dealer Edward L. Britt and his wife, Ann M. (Lynch) Britt.

The property subsequently changed hands, and on March 14, 1973, was purchased by Robert A. Keating, trustee of the 195 Beacon Street Realty Trust. On November 19, 2004, the trust transferred the property to the Mellon Trust of New England as trustee for the Thomas Francis Twomey Revocable Trust.

On September 6, 2005, the property was purchased by the 195 Beacon Street LLC (James E. Keliher, manager). On October 12, 2005, it converted the units into ten condominium units, the 195 Beacon Street Condominium.