No. 5315 Knox-Webster House. Original brick lost; this brick painting is a reproduction painted by Berrio Gizzi in the 1980s.
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 name of the Knox-Webster House should include the name of Welles since the house was the mansion house of the Welles estate. General Henry Knox occupied the house in 1784 just after the Revolution, and he may have been the original builder. It was part of the estate owned by John Welles and his heirs during much of the 19th century, and it was occupied by tenants for much of this period. In 1822 Daniel Webster lived there and attended the Second Church. Many prominent Boston residents leased the estate for a summer residence, and for a period, a beer garden flourished on the grounds. It was replaced by the Henry L. Pierce School in 1892, which was itself replaced by the Codman Square branch of the Boston Public Library in the 1970s.
No. 2492 Detail from 1874 Hopkins atlas. The Welles Mansion House was located at the southeast corner of the intersection of Washington Street and Welles Avenue as shown in this detail from the 1874 Hopkins atlas.
A much younger General Henry Knox occupied the Welles mansion during the Revolution. nox is famous for his expedition to bring cannons from Fort Ticonderoga to Dorchester Heights.
No. 5015 General Henry Knox
No. 2538 An early photograph of the house in the collection of the Dorchester Historical Society with the initials EAH (Edward A. Huebener).
No. 3416 Welles Mansion. Scan from The Homes of Our Forefathers by Edwin Whitefield. Boston, 1880.