226 Beacon is located on the north side of Beacon, between Clarendon and Dartmouth, with 222-224 Beacon to the east and 228 Beacon to the west.

226 Beacon was built ca. 1864 for dry goods merchant and cotton broker George Phineas Upham, one of two contiguous houses (226-228 Beacon) designed as a symmetrical pair. He and his wife, Sarah (Sprague) Upham, lived at 122 Beacon.

George Upham purchased the land for 226-228 Beacon on June 3, 1863, from the Boston and Roxbury Mill Corporation. His business partner, William Warren Tucker, purchased the land for 230 Beacon on the same day.

Click here for an index to the deeds for 226 Beacon, and click here for further information on the land on the north side of Beacon, including the Storrow Memorial Embankment on the Esplanade.

By 1865, 226 Beacon was the home of George Upham’s mother, Mary Avery (Baldwin) Upham, the widow of Phineas Upham, who also had been a commission merchant and cotton broker. She previously had lived at 19 Mt. Vernon and before that at 23 Mt. Vernon. She continued to live at 226 Beacon until her death in May of 1872.

On November 23, 1872, 226 Beacon was purchased from George Upham by Marshall Sears Scudder. He and his wife, Rebecca Coit (Blatchford) Scudder, made ot their home. They also maintained a home in Grantville. John Samuel Blatchford, Mrs. Scudder’s first cousin (the son of her uncle, John Blatchford), lived with them.

Marshall Scudder was treasurer of the Walworth Manufacturing Company, manufacturers of heating equipment and systems.  He died in August of 1875.  Rebecca Scudder and John Blatchford moved soon thereafter to the Hotel Pelham (southwest corner of Boylston and Tremont).

On June 24, 1876, Marshall Scudder’s executors offered 226 Beacon for sale at public auction.  In its June 20, 1876, advertisement for the sale in the Boston Post, auctioneer Samuel Hatch & Co. described the house in some detail: “On the basement floor, kitchen with large closets, laundry with set soapstone tubs, furnace, range, etc.; on the entrance floor is a large hall finished in black walnut, retiring room, dining room with china closets, hot and cold water, etc.; on the floors above, reached by easy flights of stairs, in black walnut, are two parlors with tinted ceilings, marble mantels, four chambers with ample closet and dressing rooms, set bowls, bath rooms, water closets, etc.; three sleeping rooms and four closets on the upper flight.”

The successful bidder at the auction was attorney Charles Eustis Hubbard, who took title to the property from Marshall Scudder’s estate that same day. He was Rebecca (Blatchford) Scudder’s half-brother, their mother, Mary Anne (Coit) Blatchford Hubbard, having married first to Henry Blatchford and then to Samuel Hubbard. Charles Eustis Hubbard and his wife, Caroline Dennie (Tracy) Hubbard, lived at 339 Marlborough.

226 Beacon was leased briefly in 1876 by cotton buyer and dry goods merchant George Wellman Wright and his wife, Georgianna (Buckham) Wright. They had lived at 208 Beacon in 1875, and maintained their primary residence at their home, Pine Hill, in Duxbury.

On September 23, 1876, 226 Beacon was acquired from Charles Hubbard by Adeline Locke (Clark) Haskell, the wife of wholesale grocer Jacob McGaw Haskell. They previously had lived at 24 Concord Square. They also maintained a home in Swampscott.

The Haskells’ three surviving children lived with them: Waldo Clark Haskell, Edmund Mayhew Haskell, and Adeline Mayhew Haskell.

Edmund Haskell married in January of 1885 to Serena (Rena) Robinson Haskins. After their marriage, they lived in the South, returning Boston in about 1898. He was a cotton buyer. They lived in an apartment at the Hotel Royal at 295-297 Beacon until about1900, when they moved to Medford.

Jacob Haskell died in November of 1906 and Waldo Haskell died later the same month.

Adeline Haskell continued to live at 226 Beacon with their daughter, Adeline, and on March 30, 1907, she transferred the property into both of their names. They also maintained a home in North Beverly.

Adeline (Clark) Haskell died in January of 1918. Adeline Mayhew Haskell continued to live at 226 Beacon and in North Beverly.

In May of 1930, she applied for (and subsequently received) permission to convert the stables at the rear of the property into a garage.

Adeline Haskell continued to live at 226 Beacon until her death in September of 1944. She died intestate and her estate, including 226 Beacon, was inherited the children of her brother, Edmund, who had died in 1924: Helen Hall (Haskell) Freeman, the widow of Harold Heald Freeman, and Edmund Ralph Haskell.

On December 13, 1944, Edmund Ralph Haskell and his wife, Helen F. (Glancy) Haskell, acquired his sister’s interest in 226 Beacon and made it their home. They also maintained a home in Ipswich. He was a civil engineer. They continued to live there until about 1961.

On June 13, 1962, 226 Beacon was acquired from the Haskells by John H. Ayvazian, Jr., Nubar J. Dinjian, and George Najarian, trustees of the Penwood Realty Trust. In October of 1962, they filed for (and subsequently received) permission to convert the property into eight apartments, including lowering the front entrance to street level. The remodeling was designed by architect Leon L. Furr. In April of 1963, it amended the plans to add construction of a one story heater house at the rear of the property, replacing the former garage, which had been torn down.

On April 7, 1969, the Penwood Realty Trust transferred 226 Beacon to Nubar Dinjian’s wife, Marguerite (Moranian) Dinjian. On April 10, 1969, she entered into an agreement with Snelling Robinson Brainard and David V. Harkins, trustees of the Beacon Street Improvement Trust, granting them an option to purchase 226 Beacon on or before February 16, 1970. They owned 228-230-232 Beacon and held an option to purchase 234 Beacon.

In November of 1969, the Beacon Street Improvement Trust filed for permission to tear down 222-224-226-228-230-232-234 Beacon and replace them with a 32-story, steel framed and brick clad tower at the northeast corner of Beacon and Dartmouth. The building would have had 96 units and a 100 car garage. A companion, 36-story building was proposed at the same time on the northwest corner of Beacon and Dartmouth, replacing 236-238-240-242-244-246 Beacon. The proposed twin-tower project met with strong opposition by residents and was abandoned after the City established height limits on all buildings in the residential portion of the Back Bay.

On February 21, 1973, 226 Beacon was acquired from Marguerite Dinjian by Betty Bishop, and on February 23, 1973, she converted the property into eight condominium units, the 226 Beacon Street Condominium.