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For $7.35m, a 22-room Beacon Hill home

Megan O’Brien

Boston.com Contributor

February 23, 2021 5:00 pm

Perched on Beacon Hill, this week’s featured luxury home offers 22 rooms across six floors and a rich history to boot. 

George Ballantyne of Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty listed 59 Mount Vernon St. on Feb. 10 for $7,350,000. The six-bedroom property clocks in at 6,860 square feet on 0.08 of an acre, with four full bathrooms and one half bath. 

Also known as The Adam Wallace Thaxter Jr. House, the estate was constructed for a Boston merchant of the same name by architect Edward Shaw in 1837. Thaxter was a principal in the Commercial Wharf firm Bates & Co., according to information provided by the realtor. Thaxter later served as vice president of Boston Five Cents Savings Bank and was on the building committee for the 1853 addition to the Massachusetts State House. It is the same Adam W. Thaxter Jr. who ran for Boston mayor in 1851 and lost to Thomas Aspinwall Davis.

The home was later occupied by Dr. Jacob Bigelow, who played a large role in the creation of Mount Auburn Cemetery, and Thomas Bailey Aldrich, a writer and editor of The Atlantic Monthly. Aldrich’s family lived in the home until 1979.

Since then, the home has been restored and maintained by the current owners. The space is peppered with architectural delights, such as intricate molding, built-ins, an octagonal observation room on the top floor, and a curved staircase. A cage elevator serves the first four levels. The home also shows off Greek Revival flair — a pair of Ionic pillars flank the entrance, and a set of pilasters in the same style adorn the first-floor sitting room. 

A short walk away is the sun-drenched kitchen, which sits under a peaked skylight that runs the length of the room. The space offers built-in breakfast area seating, a sound system, and direct access to the rear patio. Upstairs, double parlors are connected by pocket doors, and the library is dressed up with pink walls and a fireplace (one of about a dozen in the home). The primary bedroom, with two walk-in closets, is on the third floor, while the fourth level nestles a morning bar between two bedrooms. On the fifth level, there’s a family room complete with a kitchenette.

See more photos of the home below: