Loring–Greenough House

Loring-Greenough House
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
South and west facades
Location	12 South St., Boston, Massachusetts
Area	1.8 acres (0.73 ha)
Built	1760
Architectural style	Colonial
NRHP reference No.	72000544
Added to NRHP	April 26, 1972

The Loring-Greenough House is the last surviving 18th century residence in Sumner Hill, a historic section of Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, a neighborhood of Boston. It is located at 12 South Street on Monument Square at the edge of Sumner Hill.

This mid-Georgian mansion was built as a country residence and farmstead in 1760 for wealthy British naval officer Commodore Joshua Loring on the original site of John Polley's estate established in the 1650s. Originally, the Loring-Greenough house was situated on a 60-acre (240,000 m²) estate. Loring, a Loyalist prior to the American Revolution, abandoned the house in 1774, just prior to the conflict, and he fled from Boston in 1776. The house was confiscated by colonial forces and in 1776 served as a headquarters for General Nathaniel Greene and, soon after, a hospital for Continental Army soldiers following the Battle of Bunker Hill.

In 1780, the house was sold to Isaac Sears, the rebel leader from New York, and was then purchased in 1784 by Ann Doane, a rich widow, who soon after married David Stoddard Greenough. Their descendants lived here for five generations until 1924. At that time the Jamaica Plain Tuesday Club (until 1993 a ladies'-only club and today a community group) purchased the house, along with almost two acres of landscaped grounds, to convert it into a museum and save it from development.

The Loring-Greenough House is a very well-preserved structure of almost 4,500 square feet (420 m²), on property that includes sweeping lawns, historic flower beds, handsome trees, and the two-and-one-half-story house itself. The property is fenced and gated with wrought-iron restricting access except for times when the building is open to the public. The Tuesday Club has been careful to preserve the house and grounds over many decades. The most recent restoration occurred with a $350,000 grant and included painting and other repairs.

The Loring-Greenough property is now a historic house museum still owned and operated by the Tuesday Club, which offers tours and other events throughout the year. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a Massachusetts Landmark and a Boston Landmark.

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External links

• Official site
• Joshua Loring article Jamaica Plain Historical Society