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     The first home of the Massachusetts Historical Society was the Library Room of the Massachusetts Bank in Hamilton Place. The Society moved its growing collection to the northwest corner of the attic of Faneuil Hall in 1792. In 1794, the members accepted the invitation of Charles Bulfinch, William Scollay, and Charles Vaughan to occupy the upper room in the central pavilion of Bulfinch's tontine Crescent. The Historical Society remained in this building for forty years.

  In need of more space for its holdings, the Society bought the second floor and half the attic of the Provident Institution for Savings building at 30 Tremont Street in 1833. Expansion soon followed, so that, by 1856, the Society owned the entire structure. This was the first of our buildings to house the Dowse Library, moved to the Society in 1857. This structure was replaced by our fifth home, built by the Society on the same site in 1872-1873. The pressing need for space led to the sale of the Tremont Street property and the purchase of land in the Back Bay in 1897. From 187 to March of 1899, while the present building was under construction, the Society rented three rooms in the Tremont Building at 73 Tremont Street.

  On April 13, 1899, the new building on the Fenway opened to the public. Designed by Edmund March Wheelwright, it features an exterior of Sayer-Fisher brick with Indiana limestone trim in the Renaissance Revival style. The entrance hall is finished in Amherst sandstone with a patterned floor of Vermont marble. The Ellis Room (today known as Ellis Hall) and the Committee Room (our present Librarian's Office) are decorated in richly carved American oak, with pilasters, heavy architraves, and cornices. Above the fireplace in Ellis Hall is the Society's seal, also carved in American oak. Freely translated, the Society's motto on the seal means Thus you do, not for yourself.  When the building first opened, the large room to the left of the entrance was called the cabinet room. It served as a museum for the Society autographs, portraits, and relics. Building renovations in 1958-1961 by MHS member and architect James Lawrence, Jr., transformed this space into the Henry Adams Library.

  The second floor stair hall has a mosaic floor set in Vermont marble and serves as the lobby for a suite of public rooms. The first is the Hamilton Room, named for Col. Edward Hamilton, long-time cabinet keeper of the Society. The Oliver Room, created in 1961 from the General Library,  the original reading room, serves as the Society's exhibition gallery. It is named in honor of the brothers Peter and Andrew Oliver, whose love of books and art have immeasurably enrich our collections. The last room in the suite is the Dowse Library, fitted with black walnut cases and furniture from the Society's fourth home at 30 Tremont Street. Given to the Society in 1856 by Thomas Dowse, the Dowse Library has served as the meeting room of the MHS for more than a century.

  In May 1972 the Society opened the Henry Lee Shattuck Addition, named in honor of one of our great benefactors. Designed by MHS member Daniel Coolidge of the firm Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott, the new wing houses six floors of book and manuscript stacks.

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