290 Beacon is located on the north side of Beacon, between Exeter and Fairfield, with 286-288 Beacon to the east and 292 Beacon to the west.

290 Beacon was built ca. 1869, three stories in Height (two stories and mansarded third floor) plus basement on a 38 foot wide lot. 286-288 Beacon were built at the same time, a symmetrical pair of houses five stories in height (four stories and a mansarded fifth floor) plus basement on 20 foot wide lots. As originally built, 286-288 Beacon and 290 Beacon shared the same design for their entrance porticos, fenestration, and cornices.

290 Beacon was built as the home of coal dealer Howard Snelling and his wife, Anna Lothrop (Rodman) Snelling and 288 Beacon was built by the Snellings as an investment. Both were built on land purchased by Anna Snelling on January 18, 1869, from the Boston and Roxbury Mill Corporation. 286 Beacon was built for George Middleton Barnard, Jr., and his wife, Ellen Hooper (Russell) Barnard, on land Ellen Barnard purchased from the corporation on April 30, 1869.  George Barnard was Howard Snelling’s first cousin, once removed (George Barnard’s maternal grandfather, William Tilden, was the brother of Howard Snelling’s mother, Caroline (Tilden) Snellling).

Bainbridge Bunting’s Houses of Boston’s Back Bay does not attribute 286-288 Beacon and 290 Beacon to specific architects. However, a January 2, 1869, Boston Post article on current building projects in the city includes “a 2½ story dwelling 38×60 on Beacon street west of Berkeley street, by Faulkner and Clark [sic], costing about $20,000.” 290 Beacon is the only house on either side of Beacon in the Back Bay built on a 38 foot lot and, therefore, appears to be the house referenced in the Post article. The article also mentions “two four-story dwellings, 20×60, erected by Messrs. Faulkner & Clarke, at a cost of about $56,000.” Given the dimensions of 286-288 Beacon, the similarities in design, and the common ownership of 288 and 290 Beacon, it appears likely that 286-288 Beacon were the houses referenced by the Post and, therefore, that all three were designed by Faulkner and Clarke.

Click here for an index to the deeds for 290 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 late 1869, Howard and Anna (Rodman) Snelling had made 290 Beacon their home. They previously had lived at 9 Allston on Beacon Hill. They continued to live at 290 Beacon in 1870, but moved thereafter to Lincoln.

On July 23, 1870, 290 Beacon was purchased from Anna Snelling by Caroline Augusta (Battelle) Chickering, the wife of piano manufacturer Thomas Edward Chickering. They previously had lived at 210 Beacon.

Thomas Chickering died in February of 1871. Caroline Chickering continued to live at 290 Beacon with their daughter, Lillian, who married in February of 1882 to Gordon Prince, a real estate trustee. After their marriage, Gordon and Lillian Prince lived at 290 Beacon with her mother. They also maintained a home, Foregate, in West Manchester, Massachusetts.

Caroline Chickering died in April of 1900.  Gordon and Lillian Prince continued to live at 290 Beacon for the rest of their lives.  He died in June of 1902 and she died in October of 1917.  Their sole surviving son, Gordon Chickering Prince, a trustee, continued to live with his mother until shortly before his marriage in May of 1924 to Anna Agassiz of 135 Commonwealth.  After their marriage, they lived at 344 Marlborough.

290 Beacon was not listed in the 1923 Boston Blue Book.

During the 1923-1924 winter season, it was the home of cotton merchant Evans R. Dick, Jr., and his wife Joan Cotton (Tuckerman) Dick.  In 1920, they had lived in Philadelphia.  They had moved to 100 Pinckney by 1925.

On May 23, 1924, 290 Beacon was purchased from Gordon C. Prince by Alice (Willard) Dorr, the wife of Arthur Everett Dorr. They previously had lived in Dorchester. He was a wholesale and retail grocery merchant. They also maintained a home at North Scituate.

In June of 1924, Arthur Dorr filed for (and subsequently received) permission to remodel 290 Beacon and convert it from a single-family home into a three-family home, including adding additional bay windows at the rear.  It appears that it was at this time that a separate front entrance was added, numbered 290-A Beacon, for the unit on the lower level of the house.  The remodeling was designed by architect Edward B. Stratton.

When it was built, 290 Beacon included a wooden stable at the rear, on Back Street, spanning most of the width of the property. The stable subsequently was converted into a garage, probably between 1917 and 1922 (it is marked as a stable on the 1917 Bromley map but not on the 1922 map). After 290 Beacon was acquired by the Dorrs (and possibly before) it also incorporated living space (in 1958, an executor of Alice Dorr’s estate filed an affidavit indicating that “the garage apartment or apartments located at the rear of said property were continually used or occupied from time to time since 1924 by one or more employees of the said Alice W. Dorr and her late husband, Arthur E. Dorr”). In 2017, the garage was remodeled with a brick veneer and new garage doors on the Back Street façade and stucco veneer on the other façades.

Arthur and Alice Dorr continued to live at 290 Beacon for the rest of their lives.  He died in December of 1956 and she died in March of 1958.

After the remodeling in the mid-1920s, 290-A Beacon became the home of Jerome Carruth Smith and his wife, Anne (Morton) Smith.  They had married in January of 1925 and 290-A Beacon probably was their first home together.  He previously had lived at 270 Newbury.  Herbert Farnsworth, his son by his first marriage, to Ethel Gertrude Simonds (who died in December of 1922), lived with them (Herbert Farnsworth was born Herbert Simonds Smith but took the surname Farnsworth; Jerome Smith’s mother was Harriet Elizabeth Farnsworth).

A lawyer and former stockbroker, Jerome Smith was treasurer of a cold storage company.

They continued to live at 290-A Beacon during the 1929-1930 winter season, but moved soon thereafter to an apartment at 274 Beacon.

By 1933, 290-A Beacon was the home of banker Frank Cheever Nichols and his wife, Christel Marie (Wettlaufer) Nichols.  They previously had lived in Swampscott, where they continued to maintain a home. They continued to live at 290-A Beacon during the 1935-1936  winter season but moved thereafter.

By 1934, 290-A Beacon also was the home of Miss Marion Louise Decrow.  She previously had lived at 13 Algonquin.  She was owner and president of James Bliss & Co., ship chandlers, which she inherited from her father, Israel Emerson Decrow, who died in 1931. She continued to live at 290 Beacon in 1958 but moved thereafter to an apartment at 250 Beacon. She was an executor of Alice Dorr’s estate.

On September 24, 1958, 290 Beacon was purchased from Alice Dorr’s estate by Dr. Howard Cartnick Reith (born Howard Cartnick) and his wife, Frances Ellen (Eleanor) Lillian (Gardner) Reith.  They lived in Winthrop and he maintained his office at 370 Commonwealth. They also owned a lodging house at 330 Commonwealth and apartment buildings at 244 Beacon, 246 Beacon, and 345 Commonwealth.

In October of 1958, Howard Reith filed for (and subsequently received) permission to model the basement of 290 Beacon, increasing the number of apartments in the building from three to five, and also to legalize the existing apartment in the garage.  In January of 1959, he filed for (and subsequently received) permission to add an additional story to the building, with a mansard roof, and increase the number of units from five to six.

Both the basement remodeling and the fourth floor addition were designed by architect Saul Moffie. Plans for both are included in the City of Boston Blueprints Collection in the Boston City Archives (reference BIN R-204 and R-205).

After the remodeling was completed, the Reiths moved to an apartment at 290 Beacon.

On September 27, 1963. the Reiths transferred 290 Beacon and their other Back Bay properties to the Reith Realty Corporation. They divorced in the mid-1960s. He moved back to Winthrop and she continued to live at 290 Beacon until her death in March of 1968.

On October 30, 1970, 290 Beacon was acquired from the Reith Realty Corporation (of which Howard Reith remained the president) by real estate dealer George P. Demeter, as trustee of the Demeter Realty Trust.

In December of 1980, George Demeter filed for permission to construct a penthouse, having already begun work on the addition. In March of 1981, two abutters filed a petition with the Board of Appeal arguing that the penthouse had been built before the permit had been issued and violated the zoning code. Ultimately, the penthouse was allowed to remain.

In July of 1981, George Demeter filed for (and subsequently received) permission to “revise” the lower entrance (290-A Beacon).

In September of 1994, he filed for (and subsequently received) permission to “legalize penthouse unit per court order” and to combine the penthouse and fifth floor units, reducing the number of units from six to five.

On January 31, 2001, George Demeter transferred 290 Beacon to his former wife, Ellen Marie Demeter. The transfer was made pursuant to their 1998 divorce decree. On December 10, 2001, Ellen Marie Demeter transferred 290 Beacon to the 290 Beacon LLC, which she managed.

On October 16, 2003, 290 Beacon LLC converted the property into five condominium units (including one located in the former garage), the 290 Beacon Condominium.