281 Beacon is located on the south side of Beacon, between Dartmouth and Exeter, with 279 Beacon to the east and 283 Beacon to the west.

281 Beacon was designed by Peabody and Stearns, architects, and built in 1881 by I. and H. M. Harmon, masons and builders, for merchant, cotton manufacturer, and real estate developer Charles William Freeland, for speculative sale, one of six contiguous houses built in the same style: 271-273-275-277 Beacon built in 1876-1877 and 279-281 Beacon built in 1881. 271-277 Beacon form a symmetrical group, with the bays of 271-273 Beacon on the west side of each house, and the bays of 275-277 Beacon on the east side of each house. Both 279-281 Beacon have bays on the east side of the house.

The land on which 271-281 Beacon were built was purchased by Charles W. Freeland from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in several parcels: Four 25 foot wide lots to the east on May 26, 1874, and a 50 foot wide lot to the west on October 30, 1877. 271 Beacon is 26 feet wide, 273-275-277-279 Beacon are each 25 feet wide, and 281 Beacon is 24 feet wide.

Click here for an index to the deeds for 281 Beacon, and click here for further information about the land between the south side of Beacon and Alley 418, from Dartmouth to Exeter.

The original building permit application for 279-281 Beacon was filed on March 15, 1877. It was abandoned and two new applications, one for each house, were filed on April 14, 1881. Construction probably started soon thereafter.

281 Beacon was not listed in the 1881-1884 Blue Books.

Charles Freeland died in December of 1883.

In February of 1884, real estate dealers John Jeffries & Sons offered both 279 Beacon and 281 Beacon for sale, the Boston Evening Transcript advertisement noting that the two houses had been “built under the supervision of Mr. Ivory Harmon” with “parlors and dining-room on first floor,” and “must be sold to close an estate.”

On June 11, 1884, 279 Beacon was purchased from Charles Freeland’s estate by Miss Mary H. Bartlett. She and her sister, Caroline Bartlett, made it their home. They previously had lived at the Hotel Vendome.

Mary and Caroline Bartlett were the daughters of Enoch Bartlett, a Boston shipping and dry goods merchant and horticulturalist, after whom the Bartlett pear was named.

Caroline Bartlett died in February of 1890. Mary Bartlett continued to live at 281 Beacon during the 1890-1891 winter season, but then moved back to the Hotel Vendome.

On May 12, 1891, 281 Beacon was purchased from Mary Bartlett by Richard Montgomery Field. He and his wife, Cynthia A. (Endicott) Field, made it their home. They previously had lived at The Thorndike at 91-92 Boylston.

Richard M. Field was manager of the Boston Museum on Tremont Street.  It was primarily a theatre, but also featured a wax museum, natural history museum, and fine arts gallery.

They continued to live at 281 Beacon during the 1895-1896 winter season, but moved soon thereafter to an apartment at The Tuileries at 270 Commonwealth.

On May 1, 1896, 281 Beacon was purchased from Richard Field by Alfred Perkins Rockwell. He and his wife, Katharine Virginia (Foote) Rockwell, made it their home. They also maintained a home, Easterly, in Manchester, Massachusetts. Their daughter, Katharine Diana Ward Rockwell (called Diana), lived with them; she was their only surviving child.

A former professor of mining at MIT, he served as Chairman of the Boston Fire Commission from about 1873 to 1875, president of the Eastern Railroad from 1876 to 1879, and treasurer of the Great Falls Manufacturing Company, a textile firm, from 1879 to 1886, when he retired.

During the 1900-1901 winter season, the Rockwells were living elsewhere and 281 Beacon was the home of Col. Henry Sturgis Russell and his wife, Mary Hathaway (Forbes) Russell.  They previously had lived at 403 Beacon.  They also maintained a residence, Home Farm, in Milton.  Col. Russell was Boston Fire Commissioner; he formerly had been a shipping merchant in the East India and China trade in his father-in-law’s firm, John Murray Forbes & Co., and had served as president of the Continental Telephone Company.

By 1901-1902 winter season, the Russells had moved to 217 Beacon and 281 Beacon was once again the Rockwells’ home.

Katharine Virginia Rockwell died in March of 1902 and Alfred Rockwell died in December of 1903. Diana Rockwell continued to live at 281 Beacon until her marriage in August of 1907 to Eliot Sumner. After their marriage, they lived in Baltimore.

The house was not listed in the 1908 Blue Book.

On April 16, 1908, 281 Beacon was acquired from Alfred Rockwell’s estate by wholesale dry goods merchant George Lewis, as trustee of a trust he established for the benefit of his wife, Marian (Gray) Lewis, and their children, Marian and George. He and his wife made it their home. They previously had lived in Chestnut Hill. They also maintained a home in Dark Harbor, Maine.

In May of 1908, before they moved from Chestnut Hill to 281 Beacon, their daughter Marian married to Malcolm Bowditch Stone of 365 Marlborough, a cotton manufacturer.  After their marriage, they lived in Brookline.

George Lewis, Jr., an investment banker, married in September of 1926 to Muriel Gurdon Saltonstall of Chestnut Hill. After their marriage, they lived in Sherborn.

George Lewis died in 1943.  Marian Lewis continued to live at 281 Beacon until shortly before her death in March of 1964.

On October 29, 1963, 281 Beacon was purchased from the trust established by George Lewis by John H. Ayvazian, Jr., Nubar J. Dinjian, George Najarian, and Thomas Moranian, trustees of the Penwood Realty Trust. In December of 1961, they had purchased 279 Beacon.

In October of 1963, Penwood Realty applied for (and subsequently received) permission to convert 281 Beacon from a single-family dwelling into ten apartments.  It similarly had remodeled 279 Beacon the previous year.  In January of 1964, it amended the plans for 281 Beacon to remove the second floor and build two floors between the current first and third floors, making it a five story building.  Plans for the remodeling, drawn by architect Leon Furr, are included in the City of Boston Blueprints Collection in the Boston City Archives (reference BIN R-254).

On April 7, 1969, Penwood Realty transferred 279 Beacon and 281 Beacon to Marguerite (Moranian) Dinjian, wife of Nubar Dinjian.

On February 9, 1979, 279 Beacon and 281 Beacon were acquired from Marguerite Dinjian by Malcolm MacPhail and Peter A. Mead, trustees of the 279-281 Beacon Street Realty Trust.

On June 8, 1979, they converted the properties into nineteen condominium units, nine at 279 Beacon and ten at 281 Beacon, the 279-281 Beacon Street Condominium.