No. 5157 Painting of the Edward Everett House on the face of a brick from the house
Edward A. Huebener, a former Board member of the Dorchester Historical Society, was a collector of materials relating to Dorchester history including a very large collection of graphic materials, including prints and photographs, now owned by the Society. His very own contribution to this group of materials was the idea of taking a brick from a house that had been demolished and asking a local illustrator to paint a picture of the house upon the brick. The painted bricks may be viewed at the Dorchester Historical Society.
The Everett house was located at what is now Edward Everett Square. The detail below from the 1874 atlas shows the house. Columbia Road did not yet exist.
No. 21927 Detail from 1874 atlas showing the location of the house
The Everett House was built at Five Corners (now Edward Everett Square) about 1745 by Robert Oliver, a wealthy planter from Antigua. The house was acquired in the late 18th century by Oliver Everett brother of Moses Everett, the minister of the First Church, who lived on Pleasant Street. Oliver Everett was born in South Dedham, and attended Harvard College, graduating in 1779. He studied divinity and took a post at New South Church, Boston. He belonged to the liberal wing of the Congregational body and was a good friend of Dr. James Freeman of King’s Chapel who carried his congregation over to Unitarianism in 1787. Poor health caused Everett to resign in 1792. He became a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He married Lucy Hill, daughter of Alexander Hill of Boston. They already had three children when they bought the large colonial house at Five Corners which had been built by a Royalist of some distinction, Colonel Robert Oliver. Edward Everett was born here on April 1, 1794. Oliver died in 1802, leaving his wife and eight children. After Oliver?s death, Mrs. Everett moved the family to Boston.
Edward Everett (1794-1865), was an American statesman, educator, and orator, born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and educated at Harvard University and the University of Gottingen, Germany. Everett was the editor of the North American Review from 1820 until 1824. In 1825 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and served for ten years. He was governor of Massachusetts from 1836 to 1840. The following year he was appointed U.S. Minister to Great Britain, returning to the U.S. in 1845 to become president of Harvard University, a position he held from 1846 to 1849. Everett served as Secretary of State (1852-53) under President Millard Fillmore and as U.S. Senator from Massachusetts from 1853 to 1854. In 1860 he ran unsuccessfully for the vice- presidency on the ticket of the Constitutional Union party as the running mate of John Bell of Tennessee. His orations, including the one he delivered at Gettysburg just before Lincoln’s Address, were published in four volumes (1850-1892).
No. 643 Edward Everett
No. 2417 Hand-colored woodcut is from the collections of the Dorchester Historical Society
No. 10865 Everett House from Appleton’s Journal, May 31, 1873.
No. 4989 Everett House from Historic Houses & Spots by J.W. Freese. (Boston, 1898), possibly used as a model for the brick painting.
The house was later owned by George Richardson who purchased it from the widow Everett and then was owned by his brother John Richardson. The triangle, a piece of land lying between ond and Cottage Streets, which was originally part of the Oliver estate was not part of the Everett purchase but was acquired by Richardson in 1841 at auction. John Richardson bequeathed the triangle to the city of Boston to be used as a park or any other purpose except being sold for house lots. The Richardsons were great horticulturists and grew many thousands of peonies on their estate.
No. 5361 Daguerrotype of John Richardson in the possession of the Dorchester Historical Society
The following excerpt is from History of the Oliver, Vassall and Royall Houses in Dorchester, Cambridge and Medford by Robert Tracy Jackson. Boston: Reprinted from The Genealogical Magazine, 1907, p. 7.
“It is an interesting coincidence that one of the choice seedling peonies raised by Mr. John Richardson, more than a hundred years later on these grounds, is named Samuel Henshaw, in honor of the gentleman, the present Curator of the Museum of Comparative Zoology in Cambridge, who is the great-grandson of Samuel Henshaw [who was part of a committee that sold the property after it was confiscated from the loyalist John Vassall at the close of the Revolution]. The garden which is said to have been laid out by Thomas Oliver, was famous when in Mr. Richardson’s possession for the many rare and choice flowers produced in it especially peonies. Richardson’s seedling peonies ranking with the very best productions of their kind in the world. These are described in ‘The Transactions of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society.” Photograph of Samuel Henshaw peony developed by John Richardson at his house (formerly Everett House) at Edward Everett Square, published in John Richardson: His House and Garden. By Robert Tracy Jackson. Reprinted from Transactions of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society for the year 1904.
No. 9081 Richardson’s peony Samuel Henshaw