303 Beacon is located on the south side of Beacon, between Exeter and Fairfield, with 301 Beacon to the east and 305 Beacon to the west.

303 Beacon was designed and built ca. 1871 by Frederick B. Pope for speculative sale, one of four houses built as two symmetrical pairs (303-305 Beacon and 307-309 Beacon), and one of fourteen contiguous houses (303-305-307-309-311-313-315-317-319-321-323-325-327-329 Beacon) Frederick Pope designed and built in the early 1870s. 303 Beacon was built with one more story than the other thirteen houses.

Frederick Pope purchased the land for 303-305-307-309 Beacon on May 31, 1871, from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The original parcel was 75 feet wide, and the total frontage of the four houses was 74 feet. Frederick Pope sold the remaining one foot strip, on the east end of the parcel, in May of 1871 and it subsequently was combined with the lot further east on which 301 Beacon was built.

Click here for an index to the deeds for 303 Beacon, and click here for further information about the land between the south side of Beacon and Alley 417, from Exeter to Fairfield.

Frederick Pope offered 303 Beacon for sale in December of 1871. It did not sell and he continued to advertise it in 1872.  In a May 25, 1872, advertisement in the Boston Evening Transcript, he described the house as “four stories basement and French roof; six stories finished; 19×62. Three stories finished in natural wood.”

303 Beacon remained unsold but appears to have been occupied in 1872 by James A. Gribben, who is listed there in the 1872 City Directory.

On November 1, 1872, 303 Beacon was purchased from Frederick Pope by John Hicks Rogers. He and his wife, Lucy Catherine (Smith) Rogers, made it their home. They previously had lived at 15 Kingston.

John Rogers was a shoe and leather dealer and also president of the Freeman’s National Bank.

Lucy Rogers died in September of 1874.  John Rogers continued to live at 303 Beacon with their unmarried children: Catharine Langdon Rogers; Henry Munroe Rogers, an attorney; Langdon S. Rogers, a salesman; Clara Bates Rogers; and Lucy Sumner Rogers.

Henry Rogers married in April of 1878 to Clara Kathleen Barnett and they moved to 309 Beacon.  Langdon Rogers continued to live at 303 Beacon until shortly before his death (in Philadelphia) in February of 1884.

John Rogers died in August of 1887.  Catharine, Clara, and Lucy Rogers continued to live at 303 Beacon during the 1887-1888 winter season, but moved thereafter.

On June 19, 1888, 303 Beacon was purchased from John Rogers’s estate by James Ripley Hooper, a dry goods commission merchant. He and his wife, Gertrude Fellowes (Williams) Hooper, made it their home. They previously had lived in the Longwood district of Brookline. They also maintained a home in Hull.

The Hoopers raised their five children at 303 Beacon: Ethel Gertrude Hooper, Adeline Denny Hooper, James Ripley Hooper, Jr., Roger Fellowes Hooper, and Gertrude Hooper.

Ethel Hooper married in November of 1897 to Henry Sturgis Grew, II, of 185 Marlborough, a banker. After their marriage, they lived in an apartment at 330 Dartmouth and then at 254 Marlborough.

The Hoopers continued to live at 303 Beacon during the 1906-1907 winter season, but moved thereafter to 478 Beacon.

On April 10, 1907, 303 Beacon was purchased from James Hooper by Amelia Maria (Ely) Howe, the wife of Dr. Walter Clarke Howe, a surgeon who also maintained his medical offices there. They previously had lived at the Hotel Westminster (southeast corner of St. James and Trinity Place) and he had maintained his offices at 101 Newbury.

Walter Howe died in August of 1931, and Amelia Howe died in November of 1932.

The house was not listed in the 1932 Blue Book.

By the 1932-1933 winter season, 303 Beacon was leased from Amelia Howe’s estate by Miss Elizabeth Preitenwieser, who operated it as a lodging house. She continued to live there during the 1934-1935 season, but moved thereafter to 223 Beacon.

On April 8, 1935, the Suffolk Savings Bank for Seamen and Others foreclosed on a mortgage given by James Hooper and assumed by Amelia Howe when she bought the property.

The bank took possession of the property and in May of 1935, it applied for (and subsequently received) permission to convert the property from a single-family dwelling into six apartments.

On May 29, 1940, 303 Beacon was acquired from the Suffolk Savings Bank by Miss Beatrice Antonetta Bortone, one of eight Back Bay properties she acquired from the bank at the same time.  She was a bookkeeper with Leopold Morse & Co., wholesale and retail clothiers.  She lived in Wayland with her parents, Anthony C. Bortone and Maria (Larocca) Bortone.  In 1946, she married Albert DeStefano.  After their marriage, they lived in Newton.

On August 28, 1957, 303 Beacon was acquired from Beatrice (Bortone) DeStefano by real estate dealer Overton W. Oglivie, who also acquired most of her other Back Bay properties on the same day.

On March 6, 1958, 303 Beacon and several other properties were acquired from Overton Ogilvie by Charles M. Rhodes. Five days later, the properties were acquired from him by real estate dealer and future hotel owner Isaac M. Saunders and his sons, Roger A. Saunders and Donald L. Saunders.

The property changed hands and on October 29, 1975, was acquired by G & M Associates, Inc., which also owned 305 Beacon. Maureen C. (Buchanan) Mitchell, the widow of Christopher Mitchell, was president and treasurer of G & M Associates and lived in one of the apartments at 305 Beacon.

Maureen Mitchell subsequently remarried to Derek H. Irwin. On December 18, 1986, G & M Associates transferred 303 Beacon and 305 Beacon to her, and on the same day she transferred both properties to herself as trustee of the 664 Massachusetts Avenue Trust. On August 13, 2002, her son, Christopher C. Mitchell, trustee of the Mitchell Realty Trust (successor to the 664 Massachusetts Realty Trust), transferred 303 Beacon to the Mitchell 303 Beacon Street LLC and 305 Beacon to the Mitchell 305 Beacon Street LLC.

303 Beacon continued to be assessed as a four- to six-family dwelling in 2021.