Decided this house needed a post of its own. After three nights on Cape Cod, five of us in one hotel room, it was a good thing that Suzanne had found this sweet little house as our ‘home’ for the time we were in Boston. Because five of us in one room is just…well, it’s not good. Too cramped, no room, too much noise, not enough space. Ugh.
Anyway, Suzanne found The Skinny House on VRBO. At roughly the same cost as a hotel room during our stay (hotel room costs were outrageous…every college in the are is moving in this week and hotels are priced accordingly) we had prime accommodations in a historic district and in fact were able to live in some architectural history as well!
It certainly will probably be the only house we stay in that has a wikipedia entry! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinny_House_(Boston)
Oh forget it….I’m just going to put most of the Boston Globe article that is referenced in the wikipedia entry here!
Living sideways
By Jim Cronin, Globe Correspondent | February 13, 2005
The second thing you notice about the North End house is that it has no front door.
To enter, you walk down a narrow alleyway, open a side door, and promptly climb a steep set of stairs, which open into the kitchen. A 3-foot-by-6-foot kitchen.
Which is next to a very tiny dining room and, on that floor, nothing else.
Which has a lot to do with the first thing you notice as you stand outside: It's incredibly narrow.
At its widest point on Hull Street, the house spans 10.4 feet. In the rear, it tapers to 9.25 feet on the outside, while the interior rear walls are a mere 8.4 feet wide.
Inside the four-story building, the walls are no more than 9.2 feet wide.
The place has the "uncontested distinction of being the narrowest house in Boston," says "The Boston Society of Architects' AIA Guide to Boston." With its figurative belt tightly buckled, the home's thinnest point is 6.2 feet across, letting an occupant touch opposing walls.
Its owners, Jennifer Simonic and Spencer Welton, live a vertical life.
"We can't have any ballroom dancing," said Simonic, who, with her husband, bought the home four years ago. "We had a party of 10 one New Year's Eve, and when one person has to go to the bathroom, everyone has to move."
Living in the house also has a public component. "We've had people just walk into our backyard and sit at our picnic table," said Simonic. "They say, 'We'll just be a couple of minutes, we just want to take a couple of pictures.' That was bizarre."
……..There are only five doors in the house.
"Instead of doors, we have floors between each space," said Welton, 35, who has a degree in architecture and works for an apartment development company.
The second floor holds the living room and the bathroom, one of few spaces separated by a door.
…….
The origin of the house, which apparently dates to the Civil War era, is obscure. Local legend says two brothers inherited land from their deceased father. While one brother was away serving in the military, the other built a large home, leaving the soldier only a shred of property that he felt certain was too tiny to build on.
When the soldier returned, he found his inheritance depleted and built the narrow house to spite his brother by blocking the sunlight and ruining his view, giving rise to its nickname, the "spite house."
The footprint of 44 Hull St. appeared in "The Hopkins Atlas of 1874, Boston Proper," according to Kristen Swett, assistant archivist at the Boston City Archives. In 1884, the land was split into five lots, with one measuring only 274 square feet, which corresponds to the size of the house before renovations that lengthened it.
"In a city where there are many narrow lots, this far exceeds the norm," said Ellen Lipsey, executive director of the Boston Landmarks Commission. "As far as we know, it is the narrowest house in Boston."
The views of Copp's Hill Burying Ground across the street and Old Ironsides floating on the Charles River are constant reminders of Boston's storied past. The attractions also bring visitors to their door.
As she spoke, a small group of people across the street pointed to the house and then to their maps, perhaps wondering why it was not marked.
"I think because it's so odd, and the cemetery is right across the street, people think it's just part of the Freedom Trail," said Simonic, gazing outside from the living room. "So many people look through the window, and I'm not sure if they expect to see Betsy Ross sewing a flag or Paul Revere's wife cooking over an open hearth."
It was weird. Suzanne commented when we got home that “it was great to have the bedroom and the bathroom on the same floor!”. We were worried that it would be hot but they had some kick-ass wall mounted air conditioners in the two bedrooms that made it almost arctic at times. The people taking pictures of the house was kind of freaky at times but Suzanne also got a thrill out of going back to the house once and having to ask a bunch of tourists on a tour to move out of the way so that she could go in the house and have them gasp and say “She lives in that house!”…..
Anyway, you can click on either of the two pictures below for the video outside the house or the video tour inside the house.
(The Old North Church. You can see the Freedom Trail in brick on the sidewalk on the left)
(Skinny House means some narrow staircases! No passing allowed!)
