Ames-Webster Mansion in Boston is magnificent

One of Boston’s grandest homes in the Back Bay, the Ames-Webster mansion at 306 Dartmouth St., is offered for sale for $18 million.

Tracy Campion of Campion and Company Fine Homes Real Estate has listed this incredible property that boasts an equally impressive history.

It has had few owners, and as a result, the exquisite interior of this magnificent French Academic-style home has hardly been altered.

Its brick exterior includes sandstone ornamentation. On one panel is the head of a lion with the encircled date of 1882. Slate covers the mansard roof that is topped with cast iron cresting.

Today it houses a collection of boutique professional offices, but in the late 19th and a good part of the 20th century, it was a palatial single-family home for two prominent families.

It has 50 rooms and 28 fireplaces within its 26,000-square-foot interior.

Originally, the residence on this site was smaller.

Stephen Van Rensselaer Thayer, a young, newly married banker, commissioned the prominent architectural firm of Peabody and Stearns to design this home in 1870.

The great reception hall, which has an 18-foot-high coffered ceiling, ornately carved woodwork and an expansive stone fireplace anchored by a pair of carved lions, measures 63 by 18 feet.

COURTESY PHOTOS / BRUCE T. MARTIN

He died a year later at the age of 24, and Charles Whitney acquired the house who, in turn several years later, sold it to Frederick Lothrop Ames.

(Ames was treasurer of the family-owned Ames Shovel Company and helped expand the Union Pacific Railroad, eventually becoming an investor in 75 railroads.)

In 1882 Ames engaged John Hubbard Sturgis of the firm of Sturgis and Brigham to enlarge the home, adding a four-story tower and a porte cochère enclosed by intricate wrought iron gates.

Next to the porte cochère is the recessed main entry, which opens into an elegant vestibule completely tiled with tiny glass mosaics, surrounded by marble. Marble stairs lead up to the eye-popping reception hall.

“The ample proportions of the great living hall, 18 by 63 feet with an 18-foot ceiling, are augmented by a grand staircase which rises through three stories,” writes Bainbridge Bunting in his “Houses of Back Bay, An Architectural History, 1840-1917.”

The walls of the great hall are quarter-sawn oak and feature intricate carvings that continue along the elaborate balustrade that includes cherubs and seahorses and other creatures.

Against one wall is a huge fireplace with an 8-foot-wide mantelpiece of sandstone, decorated with a pair of lions, and an elaborate oak overmantel that extends to the coffered ceiling with oak beams.

The mahogany paneled dining room features a coffered ceiling with gilt trim and an orangery.

The stairwell is open to the third floor, and at the top of the tower is a stunning stained glass domed skylight designed by the famous John La Farge.

Surrounding the opalescent glass are Moroccan-themed canvas murals by French artist Benjamin Constant, painted with rich colors of gold and red and blue.

Through the porte cochère, arriving guests would enter a side door to an elevator, ascend to the second floor and walk down the wide staircase to make their grand entrance.

On the second landing is a Jacobean fireplace flanked by windows of colored glass. (The original La Farge stained glass windows were donated to the St. Louis Art Museum.)

Also on the landing is a small door cut into the wood paneling that leads to a gallery above the music room.

Musicians would enter through this passage to give afternoon concerts.

Stained glass artist John La Farge designed the stunning skylight in the tower at 306 Dartmouth St. Murals painted by Benjamin Constant surround the opalescent glass.

The music room features a high ceiling with beautiful moldings with gilt accents; carved ornamentation of musical instruments along the edge of the balcony that complement designs on the ceiling are gilded too.

Next to the music room off the reception hall is the library, which overlooks both Dartmouth Street and Commonwealth Avenue. It has more paneling, built-in shelving and lincrusta wall coverings.

A large reception room between the library and dining room has a three-window bay that bathes the room with natural light. An elegant crystal chandelier and complementing sconces illuminate the room at night.

This room has paneled wainscoting, decorations between the ceiling and moldings and a handsome fireplace with a carved wood mantelpiece and a red marble surround. The floor is oak.

The dining room is distinctive too. Rich mahogany paneling surrounds this room, which is carpeted. Another fireplace with a mirrored overmantel is against an interior wall, and on another wall is a custom-built sideboard with storage drawers and mirrors.

The coffered ceiling has a smaller grid, which is accented with gold. But what is most spectacular in this room is the orangery with eight glass windows, an ornate dome and a tile floor.

Above it, as seen from outside, is another level of the conservatory enclosed by leaded glass.

A reception room at the end of the great hall has a beautiful crystal chandelier and lovely decorations above the crown molding.

A secret door in the paneling, near the fireplace, opens to a butler’s pantry and to a staircase to the kitchen on the lower level.

On this level are several rooms now used as offices. In one is an old coal stove; another space has floor-to-ceiling wood cabinets with glass fronts.

An exit door opens onto a brick courtyard and parking spaces.

The third floor features another hand-painted mural in the stair hall, off which are a complex of offices. Many of these rooms have smaller, less ornate fireplaces.

The top floor that was reserved for servants has been converted to a conference room and offices.

“With the added and rare advantage of its dual permit status – both commercial and residential – this mansion is perfect for use as a magnificently appointed foundation or corporate headquarters or as an exquisite-single-family home,” says Campion.

The vestibule is adorned with tiny glass mosaics with a Byzantine theme. Steps to the great hall are marble.

The finishes in this home are museum-quality, she says. 

Indeed, this home was like a museum. Frederick Lothrop Ames appreciated art, and among his collection were two portraits by Rembrandt – “Portrait of a Man Wearing a Blue Hat” and “Portrait of a Woman Wearing a Gold Chain” - and paintings by Millet, Troyon, Corot and others.

According to the Museum of Fine Arts, Ames loaned paintings as well as tapestries, jade and crystal in the summertime to the young museum, also designed by Sturgis and Brigham. Then it was located in Copley Square.

Less is written about the subsequent homeowner, Edwin Sibley Webster. He was one of the founders of Stone & Webster, which at one time was an engineering giant. Webster acquired Monet’s “Camille Monet and a Child in the Artist’s Garden in Argenteuil.”

It hangs in the museum as an anonymous donation in memory of Mr. and Mrs. Edwin S. Webster. Ames’ widow, Rebecca Blair Ames, donated the two Rembrandts to the museum in her husband’s name.

Reality Realty Trust acquired the property in the 1970s, and working with CBT Architects, repurposed the building for commercial space, saving the exquisite architectural details. Like previous owners, the present one is exhibiting lovely art as well.

DETAILS

Address: Ames-Webster Mansion, 306 Dartmouth St., Back Bay

Age: 1872; 1882; 1971; recent updates

Price: $18 million

Taxes: $135,365

Features of building: Fifty-room brick mansion with 28 fireplaces; at one time had 10 bedrooms; exquisite hand-crafted oak and mahogany woodwork; parquet and oak flooring; conservatory overlooking Commonwealth Avenue Mall.

Close by: Back Bay restaurants, shops and galleries on Newbury and Boylston streets, at Copley Place and Prudential Center; Boston Public Library, Green Line at Copley MBTA station; Orange Line, commuter rail and Amtrak at Back Bay Station; easy access to Massachusetts Avenue, Storrow Drive, Mass. Turnpike (Route 90).

Contact: Tracy Campion, Campion and Company Fine Real Estate, 172 Newbury St., Boston, MA 02116. Phones; 617-236-0711 (office) or 617-851-3506 (cell). 

This property may be seen by appointment.