Off the Bricks

Bad Ends · STOP 07 · Beacon Hill

The Common's maintenance fund came from the murdered man's son.

Some of the money that keeps up Boston Common came from the son of a murder victim. George Francis Parkman, whose father was killed at Harvard Medical College in 1849, lived out his life with his mother and sister in a corner house on Beacon Street, as virtual recluses, a 1970 history says. He left about $5 million to the city's parks. A tablet on the house says thank you.

This is stop 7 of Bad Ends. Walk it - any two stops are free.

The plate

The Son Paid

Collected on site

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Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors

33 Beacon Street, at Joy Street
Directions

1

The widow paid $40,000 for the house in 1853. The 1970 history says the family lived frugally, 'allowing no stranger to enter.'

More footnotes on the story card, in the app.

Money, Plaque hunt, Works after dark

In these collections: After Dark

Near Park Street · Near Boylston · Near Downtown Crossing · Near Bowdoin · Near Chinatown · Near Government Center

Sources (5)