This house was constructed for Nelson Curtis in 1862. The Curtises were the first European family in the area and remained prominent for many years. Nelson built this house on 687,000 square feet of land and originally it faced onto Perkins Street. But it was turned to face South Huntington Avenue after this new street was completed in 1896.
Nelson Curtis was the man who purchased land from the Greenough family and financed the building of Curtis Hall. Curtis Hall served as the Town Hall for West Roxbury from 1868-1874 and continues to serve the community now as a Community Center for the City of Boston.
This building was formerly the home of the Gordon-Cornwell Seminary but was redeveloped into condominiums in the mid 2000s. The seminary was started in the South End (at the Clarendon Baptist Church, also now condos) by the Rev. A.J. Gordon as the Boston Missionary Training Institute. The program that was located here was the Center for Urban Ministerial Education. It was started in the 1970s and has associations with the Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury. The program has moved over to Warren Street in Roxbury now.