Loring Greenough House


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Retired Navy Commodore Joshua Loring (born August 4, 1716 in Roxbury, MA) and his wife Mary Curtis Loring (born June 8, 1720) in Roxbury Highlands, present-day Jamaica Plain) built the classic Georgian Loring Greenough House in 1760 on a 60-acre working farm. Loyal to the Crown, with sons serving in the Boston British garrison, they lived in the House only 14 years, fleeing in 1774 ahead of Patriot threats. With other Loyalists they evacuated first to Nova Scotia, then to England, where Commodore Loring died and Mary struggled to raise her children and grandchildren.

The House was used as a military headquarters and hospital for six months, then confiscated by the Continental Congress. After the Revolution ended the property was sold three times, ending in the hands of wealthy widow Ann Doane, who married her husband's executor, David Stoddard Greenough, six months later. They became the ancestors of five generations of Greenoughs, each with a patriarch named David Stoddard Greenough, who owned the property from 1783 until 1924, though all but two acres were sold off to develop Sumner Hill in the 1840s. The Jamaica Plain Tuesday Club purchased the house in 1924 and has been steward ever since.

Today the Loring Greenough House is the center of frequent and popular community events, including Thursdays on the Lawn, with music, games, farmer's market stalls, and a food truck; holiday open houses; the monthly Chapter & Verse poetry reading; Sunday concerts in the Drawing Room; and joint events with local groups. The House and grounds are available for private events.

Tours of the Loring-Greenough House are offered to the public by volunteer docents on Sundays on the hour from 1 to 3 pm, April through late November. From January through March, tours are by appointment only: email docent@loring-greenough.org or leave a voicemail at 617-524-3158. We ask a donation of $5 per adult, $2 per school-age child.

For more information visit our website, http://loring-greenough.org.