Take the sidewalk on the left over to Pinebank Promontory.
This is the Pinebank Promontory which for most of the nineteenth century was the location of one of the homes of the Perkins family. The Perkins family were China merchants and philanthropists. The first incarnation of Pinebank was built in 1802 by China trade merchant James Perkins (1761-1822). The first Pinebank was a 2 and a half story wooden Federal style home with shutters and a large porch. It served as a summer house for the scholarly James who was the senior member of the family firm. His primary residence was downtown on Pearl Street which he donated to the Boston Athenaeum upon his death. The Perkins family pivoted to the China trade after their previous trading routes (enslaved individuals and other goods) were disrupted by the Haitian Revolution. The China Trade was very lucrative and one of the principal elements was smuggling in opium (which the Chinese government outlawed).
James' grandson, Edward N. Perkins, tore the first Pinebank down in 1848 and built a year-round house. The second incarnation of Pinebank was a substantial three-storied affair with a mansard roof by the French architect, Jean Lemoulnier, who worked in Boston in the 1840s. Lemoulnier also built the Deacon House in the South End, considered the most palatial house ever built in Boston. (Only the best for the Perkins family!) The house faced the Pond with a small terrace and a balconied front entrance with fancy iron work decorating the roofline.
When Pinebank II was burned out in February 1868 due to a chimney fire, Perkins started all over again on the still usable foundation. The prominent firm of Sturgis & Brigham designed the third Pinebank in 1870. It was a glorious red brick Ruskinian Gothic “cottage”. It was decorated with imported English terracotta panels. A theme which they also employed in their next project, the first home of the Museum of Fine Arts, which was located on Copley Square where the Copley Plaza Hotel now stands.
Pinebank was so nice that Olmsted allowed it to remain on the shores of the Pond. In fact he included Pinebank in his plans as a refectory (a refreshment stand) for the park. The house became the property of the Parks Department of the City of Boston. Fire visited the site in 1895, destroying the roof and much of the interior. Noted City architect Edmund March Wheelwright designed a new roof, remodeled the interior, and added a larger terrace. Until July 1913 the remodeled Pinebank served as headquarters for the Park Department. Then the City granted Pinebank's free use for ten years to the newly founded Children's Museum. There were natural history and ethnological lectures and exhibits targeted to children. Eventually, nominal rent was arranged with the City, and the Museum prospered with the help of its neighbor, Mayor Curley. In 1935 the second ten-year lease came to an end. The Museum Trustees confronted the question of renewal. Pinebank needed major repairs and the building really was too small. Also, in that timeframe the fact that automobiles were denied access to the site became a major factor.
Fortunately the Museum was able to purchase the former Morse/Milton estate on the Jamaicaway in January 1936 and moved to another site on the Pond. (We’ll see that near the end of the tour.) On July 15 1936, Pinebank was completely empty and officially returned to the Parks Department, which used it to store records. Henceforth it was a white elephant. In the 1970s the house was briefly used as a center for arts courses but a fire in 1978 gutted the interior preventing any further use. In 1982 another fire finished off any wood in the interior. The house continued to molder and after decades of debate about what to do with it, in 2008 the City disassembled the remains of the majestic house. They are buried on the site, in case someone in the future has the means to reassemble it. The footprint of the house is now outlined in stone and the signs tell the story.
Take the stairs on the far side of the site back down the path next to the Pond.