Mather-Eliot House, 350 Hanover Street, Boston, Mass.

Abdalian, Leon H., 1884-1967 · July 31, 1930

Few persons in Boston are aware of the great interest belonging to this fragment of an ancient wooden dwelling, crowded almost out of sight by the large brick buildings, at the north corner of Hanover and Bennet Streets. This was the house built by Increase Mather in 1677, after he was driven from North Square by the great fire which burnt his church and residence there. Here he remained until his death, in 1723. His son, Cotton Mather, spent several years of his boyhood and youth here, and afterwards moved into a large brick house nearby on Hanover Street, which he bought in 1688, and which was not taken down till four years ago, although, like the house of his father, it underwent several changes in our time. It would be fame enough for any house to have been the home of the Mathers, but it was reserved for this one to the be abode, for an equally long time, of Andrew and John Eliot, father and son, ministers in succession of the New North from 1742 till 1813. It is safe to say that no other house in Boston has sheltered for so long a time four such distinguished doctors of divinity.