Monday August 11, 2014 from 5:30 PM to 8:00 PM EDT

The Alvah Kittredge House

10 Linwood Street
Roxbury, MA 02119


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The Alvah Kittredge House Story: 
Built By a Merchant

Andrew Jackson was president and a growing railroad system was bringing together the young country when Alvah Kittredge built his Greek Revival home in the rural Roxbury Highlands in 1836. Roxbury was an independent town and early phases of the Back Bay and South Cove infill projects were beginning to change the landscape of Boston.

 

Kittredge, a civic leader in Roxbury and prominent furniture merchant, bought several acres of land for his new home on the site of what had been a Revolutionary War fort. He would live there for the next 30 years as the city grew up around him. His neighbors included William Lloyd Garrison, Edward Everett Hale, and Louis Prang.

 

Kittredge was 38 years old when he built the stately house. It symbolized how far he had come from his humble beginnings in New Hampshire. It was here that he hosted the first meetings of the new Eliot Congregational Church before it built a home on Dale Street.

 

Kittredge died in 1876 and is buried at Forest Hills Cemetery near the other founders of the garden-style cemetery. While the house retains his name and original style, it has undergone many significant changes as it passed through the hands of those who followed.