361 Beacon is located on the south side of Beacon, between Fairfield and Gloucester, with 359 Beacon to the east and 363 Beacon to the west.

361 Beacon was designed by architect Francis H. Jackson and built in 1872-1873 by Weston & Shepard, masons, one of three contiguous houses (361-363-365 Beacon) designed as a symmetrical unit with 363 Beacon in the center, one story higher and with a bay centered on the façade, flanked by 361 and 365 Beacon.

The houses were built for investment banker Henry Chapman Wainwright for speculative sale. He is shown as the owner on the original building permit application for the three houses, dated April 5, 1872.

Henry Wainwright purchased the land for 361-363-365 Beacon on April 19, 1871, from a real estate investment trust formed by John Templeman Coolidge, Franklin Evans, and Charles Henry Parker. The land was part of one of several parcels originally purchased by the trust on January 29, 1866, from the Boston Water Power Company. The trust subsequently subdivided the property into lots, which it sold to investors and builders, who then frequently resold the lots to others.

Click here for an index to the deeds for 361 Beacon, and click here for further information about the land between the south side of Beacon and Alley 416, from Fairfield to Gloucester.

On May 5, 1874, 361 Beacon was purchased from Henry Wainwright by Richard Henry Dana, Jr. He and his wife, Sarah (Watson) Dana, made it their home. They previously had lived at 43 Chestnut, and before that at 79 Marlborough.

Richard Henry Dana was an attorney and author.  In 1840, he published Two Years Before the Mast, an account of his voyage as a seaman, sailing around the Horn to California.  He also authored numerous other books and articles.  As an attorney, he was prominent in the legal defense of people involved in the protection of fugitive slaves.  He served as US Attorney for Massachusetts from 1861 to 1866, and in 1867-1868 served with William M. Evarts as counsel for federal government in the proceedings against Jefferson Davis for treason.

The Danas continued to live at 361 Beacon in 1878.  They had moved by the 1878-1879 winter season, but he continued to own the house until his death in January of 1882.

By the 1878-1879 winter season, 361 Beacon was the home of George William Pettes and his wife, Mary Rebecca Hathaway (Balch) Pettes.  They previously had lived at 116 Marlborough.

George Pettes was an editor, journalist, and advertising agent. and previously had been a chemical merchant.  He is credited with authoring American or Standard Whist (published in 1881) on the card game whist, although it may have been written by his son, George Wesley Pettes, who lived with his parents at 361 Beacon and was employed at the Boston Customs House (the book was authored by “G. W. P.” and is frequently credited to George William Pettes; however, the Book News for June, 1891, indicates that George Wesley Pettes wrote Whist in Diagrams in that year and also wrote a column on the game for the Boston Evening Transcript, both written under the name “G. W. P.”).

George and Mary Pettes continued to live at 361 Beacon during the 1881-1882 winter season, but had moved thereafter to the Longwood area of Brookline.

By the 1882-1883 winter season, it was the home of Thomas Kittredge Cummins, a commission merchant, and his wife, Mary Ann (Paschall) Cummins.  They previously had lived at 92 Charles.

Mary Ann Cummins died in July of 1885. Thomas Cummins continued to live at 361 Beacon during the 1886-1887 winter season, but moved thereafter to Milton.

By the 1887-1888 winter season, 361 Beacon was the home of John Marshall Ward, treasurer of the Boston Theatre, and his wife, Elizabeth (Tolman) Ward.  They previously had lived at 31 Gloucester.

Living with them were his mother, Amanda (Atherton) Ward, the widow of Charles Trowbridge Ward, and his sister, Catherine Dexter (Ward) Perry, the former wife of William Cabot Gorham Perry.

Amanda Ward died in January of 1888. John and Elizabeth Ward and Catherine Perry continued to live at 361 Beacon.

Catherine Perry married again in November of 1896 to Charles Shelman, a planter in Georgia.  John and Elizabeth Ward moved from 361 Beacon at about the same time.

The house was not listed in the 1897 and 1898 Blue Books.

During the 1898-1899 winter season, 361 Beacon was the home of Annie (Condon) Ellis, the wife of Thomas Ellis, from whom she was separated, and their three daughters, Ruby Agnes Ellis, Bertha K. Ellis, and Greta Maud Ellis. They previously had lived at 828 Beacon and prior to that at 328 Commonwealth.  In December of 1898, Ruby and Bertha Ellis married in a double ceremony at 361 Beacon: Ruby to William Ashbrook Bryant of New York City, and Bertha to Guy Warren Day, also of New York City.

By the 1899-1900 winter season, 361 Beacon was the home of Caroline Miller (Bigelow) Amory, the widow of George Washington Amory, and their daughters, Caroline and Constance Amory.  George W. Amory died in September of 1899.  He was a cotton buyer. They had lived separately, he at 10 Charles Street (and in Bourne) and she and their daughters at 228 Beacon.

During the 1906-1907 winter season, Caroline Amory and her daughters were living elsewhere and 361 Beacon was the home of Miss Ida Gertrude Beal and her sister, Miss Judith Drew Beal.  They previously had lived at their family home at 104 Beacon.

By the next season, Ida and Judith Beal had moved to 241 Marlborough, the home of Miss Madeleine Curtis Mixter, and Mrs. Amory and her daughters were once again living at 361 Beacon.

In November of 1907, Constance Amory married Philip Wadsworth, an architect, and moved to Milton.

In December of 1907, 361 Beacon was acquired from the Dana family by a trust established under the will of Ida and Judith Beal’s father, James Henry Beal.

Caroline Amory and her daughter, Caroline, continued to live at 361 Beacon until February of 1910, when they moved to 13 Marlborough.  By April of 1910, 361 Beacon had become the permanent home of Ida and Judith Beal.

On April 3, 1920, the trustees under James Beal’s will transferred the property to the Beal Associates Trust.

Judith Beal died in August of 1921.  Ida Beal continued to live at 361 Beacon until her death in December of 1936. She also maintained a home at Magnolia.

361 Beacon was shown as vacant in the 1937 and 1938 City Directories.

On July 23, 1938, 361 Beacon was acquired from the Beal Associates Trust by real estate dealer Henry C. Brookings, and on July 29, 1938, he conveyed it to David R. Anderson. He was an auditor.

In August of 1938, David Anderson applied for (and subsequently received) permission to convert the property from a single-family dwelling into three apartments. In August of 1939, he amended his application (and received approval) to convert the property into five units.

He and his wife, Shirley Bennett (Locke) Kennedy Anderson, lived in one of the apartments until about 1948.

On May 4, 1948, 361 Beacon was purchased from David Anderson by Joseph Charles Butera and his wife, Sylvia (Lyon) Butera. They were the owners of the Butera School of Fine Arts, which moved from 240 Huntington to 111 Beacon in about 1950.

They lived in one of the apartments at 361 Beacon until about 1952, when they moved to live at 111 Beacon.

Joseph Butera died in November of 1963.

On August 19, 1965, 361 Beacon was purchased from Sylvia Butera by Jack Eadie Molesworth, a philatelic dealer specializing in Confederate stamps. A leader of the ultra-conservative Young Americans for Freedom and a Republican State Committee member, he was an unsuccessful candidate for Congress in 1964. He and his wife, Phyllis (Carpinteri) Molesworth, lived in an apartment at 88 Beacon.

On July 29, 1975, 361 Beacon was purchased from Jack Molesworth by Kent T. Damon and Irwin H. Frankel. In May of 1986, they applied for permission to remodel the fourth floor and add a fifth floor. They subsequently abandoned the permit. In January of 1987, they applied for (and subsequently received) permission to legalize the occupancy as six (rather than five) apartments, noting that it had been the existing condition for “20-30 years.”

On April 21, 1987, Kent T. Damon and Irwin Frankel transferred the property to Donald J. Cassava, trustee of the KIRV Trust, of which they were the sole beneficiaries. On October 15, 2007, they appointed themselves as successor trustees. On July 4, 2017, the KIRV Trust, transferred 361 Beacon to Irwin H. Frankel, Kent T. Damon, Jr., and Alfred R. Casella, trustees, Kent T. Damon 2012 KTDJR Irrevocable Trust

On September 25, 2017, 361 Beacon was purchased by 361 Beacon LLC (Ty Gupta, manager of record).

The 361 Beacon LLC applied for (and subsequently received) permission to reduce the occupancy from six units to three units, renovate the building, install an interior garage accessed by a ramp in the rear, modify the fourth floor front dormer, and construct a penthouse addition and roof decks.

On July 29, 2019, the 361 Beacon LLC converted the property into three condominium units, the 361 Beacon Condominium.