Mount Vernon Street for a Mere Six Figures
Were I a man of unlimited means, the sort who could live anywhere Beacon Hill, without a doubt I’d choose to live on Mount Vernon Street.
Say what you will about the cachet of Louisburg Square–I find the combination of cobblestones and speed bumps redundant, I hear the neighborhood association is something of a beast, and c’mon: it used to be called “Mount Whoredom” (bawdy pun no doubt intended by the coiner).
Mount Vernon Street has plenty of things that the Square simply can’t offer. The option to drive in either direction, for example. Off-street parking. Driveways. A lawn. Gardens. Shade trees that aren’t confined to a silly little park.
But what really seals the deal for me is the architecture. The brick bowfronts in Louisburg Square look OK, but are fairly anonymous; they turn up all over Boston (Back Bay, the South End, Charlestown) and once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.
Mount Vernon, on the other hand, is a veritable feast for the eyes. The novelist Henry James called it the most beautiful street in America, and it samples the full range of styles employed by one Charles Bulfinch; you might remember him from such buildings as the Massachusetts State House, Faneuil Hall, and the US Capitol Building.
The downside is that, of course, is such real estate is prohibitively expensive. But a few opportunities do occasionally arise for mere equestrians to buy in. Here are three properties on that Street of Streets asking less than one million dollars:
93 Mt. Vernon St. #A
Beacon Hill, MA 02108
Beds:1 /Baths: 1
SQ.FT.: 654
$479,000
57 Mt. Vernon St.
Beacon Hill, MA 02108
Beds:1 /Baths: 1
SQ.FT.: 913
$635,000
80 Mt. Vernon St.
Beacon Hill, MA 02108
Beds:2 /Baths: 1
SQ.FT.: 1,206
$849,000
Making the Delivery: Lowball if you Dare
