No. 6507 34 Adams Street, hotograph May 19, 2005.
Date of construction: 1803
Based on note from Judith Sargent Murray in 1803.
The building at 34 Adams Street was used as Mrs. Saunders and Miss Beach’s Academy, a school for young women at the corner of Adams Street and East Street. The building fronts on Adams Street with East Street on the left of the building.
The following is from: Boston Landmarks 1977 Survey:
Estimated date of constructed 1800. It is on the 1831 map. Built ca. 1804, an undated photo at the Bostonian Society.
5 bay 2 room deep Federal house. 2 interior chimney, back porch, similar in form to 54, 56, 32 East Street. Doric entry porch.
MACRIS
BOS.5598
circa 1804
architect: William Pope
Owners from atlases:
1831 Saunders
1850 J Kettell
1874 J Kellett
1884 Martha A May
1889 Martha May
1894 Martha R May
1898 Martha R May
1904 Martha R May
1910 Mary F May
1918 Annie A Hern
1933 Annie A Hern
deed
June 16, 1804 from Frederick Pope and William Pope to Clementina Beach 20.172
consideration $4,500 1/4 acre and 5 rods
Sept. 15, 1817 from J. F. Saunders to Clementina Beach 57.85
September 15, 1817 from Clementiana Beach to Judith F. Saunders 53.282
Dec. 18, 1846 from Elizabeth Dolliver to Clemntina Beach 169.146 release of any interest she may have had in the land as heir of Amasa Stetson.
Although the house that Mrs. Saunders and Miss Beach chose for their school is now much altered, it still stands at the corner of Adams and East Streets. The women purchased the house from William and Frederick Pope, lumber merchants based in Dorchester. Saunders had already operated a school in her hometown of Gloucester and was known for her exceptionally skillful teaching of needlework as early as 1802. She had no children, and little is known of her husband Thomas Bradbury Saunders who died in 1810. Her well-known cousin Judith Sargent Murray helped Saunders and Beach with the description of their new venture
I drew up the following preamble, and subjoined terms … Informed that the Town of Dorchester is destitute of a Seminary for Young Ladies, and impressed with reports of a high idea of the salubrity of the air, eligibility of the situation, and liberal urbanity of the inhabitants—two ladies, the one a native of America and the other born and educated in England …propose forming an academy in that place, where they will receive young Ladies as boarders upon terms hereafter to be committed—They engage to teach Reading, English, Grammar, Writing, Arithmetic, the French language, Geography, including the use of Globes, needle work in all its branches, painting, and hair work upon ivory …[1]
and in finding a house for their new academy in 1803.
Passing out of church yesterday I caught Doctor Townsend’s eye, and requesting a moment’s attention, I obtained a promise that he would call upon me this morning….He is highly in favour of your contemplated purchase, and pronounces the house better built than any within his knowledge, the materials were well prepared, and put together, in the best manner …[2]
Judith Sargent Murray, a poet and essayist whose work was published in the Massachusetts Magazine, encouraged the two women in their establishment of the school. She placed advertisements, helped them to secure the property and helped in recruiting students. Murray herself was a promoter of female abilities and believed in improved educational opportunities for women.
I am especially gratified by that attention to the female mind, so unequivocally evinced in the encouragement given to the many seminaries for young Ladies … this assurance gives new ardor to my wishes, that the guardians of young persons may become acquainted with the advantages attendant upon the Academy lately opened in Dorchester. A salubrious air in the vicinity of a house of worship, and the neighborhood of a meritorious and celebrated Clergyman, are capital points in the selection of a residence for children. The Academy at Dorchester unites these privileges, and the occasional resort of genteel people to this healthful recess, may under the management of the judicious preceptress, conduce much to the forming the manners of those young Ladies who are designed to figure in the great world.[3]
The two women bought the house for their Academy from Frederick and William Pope, lumber merchants in Dorchester, on June 16, 1804, although they must have moved in prior to that. They advertised in the Columbian Centinel and the Boston Independent Chronicle in March, 1803.[4]
Note: The picture in Landmarks of the Old Bay State by William R. Comer. (Norwood: Published by the Author, 1911) is the wrong house – it is of 8 Church Street
From Anthony Sammarco:
Hi Earl,
Actually the house in Landmarks of the Old Bay State is on the other side of the Common, at the corner of Bowdoin Street (a former funeral home.) It too was probably built by Frederick and William Pope, owners of the Pope Lumber Company, as they built on speculation as the academy was and the now lost house to its right on Adams Street.
[1] Letter dated November 29, 1802: Judith Sargent Murray to Judith F. Saunders in Judith Sargent Murray Papers, Letter Book 12, Microfilm, Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Courtesy of Bonnie Smith.
[2] Letter dated November 28, 1803: Judith Sargent Murray to Saunders and Beach in Judith Sargent Murray Papers, Letter Book 12, Microfilm, Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Courtesy of Bonnie Smith.
[3] Letter dated March 23, 1803: Judith Sargent Murray to Judith F. Saunders in Judith Sargent Murray Papers, Letter Book 12, Microfilm, Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Courtesy of Bonnie Smith.
[4] Betty Ring. “Mrs. Saunders’ and Miss Beach’s Academy, Dorchester.” in The Magazine Antiques, August 1976, p. 302-312