This article was originally written by Ben Barry for SWNS — the U.K.’s largest independent news agency, providing globally relevant original, verified, and engaging content to the world’s leading media outlets.
For the first time in nearly 50 years, a rare piece of U.S. history has hit the market: founding father John Hancock’s former home is for sale.
Located at 10 Marshall Street in Boston, the three-story, Georgian-style Ebenezer Hancock House is 5,748 square feet and sits on a half-acre. It was built by Hancock, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, in 1767, and still has its original hearth and some ceiling beams.
The home’s listing price is undisclosed, but the city recently assessed the property at $1.65 million, per WBZ News. According to broker Dave Killen, who listed the property in July, the Boston landmark is on the National Registry of Historic Places. It’s also the only vernacular structure from the mid-1700s that still exists in central Boston.
Born in 1737, Hancock was the president of the Continental Congress when the Declaration of Independence was signed, as well as the first governor of Massachusetts, serving from 1780 to 1785 and 1787 to 1793.
While Hancock owned the place, his younger brother, Ebenezer Hancock, lived there. According to the Boston Preservation Alliance, after Hancock took on his role as president of the Continental Congress, he appointed Ebenezer its deputy paymaster. In 1778, Benjamin Franklin convinced French King Louis XVI to help fund the American Revolutionary War, resulting in 2 million silver crowns being sent to the Marshall property, which were then disbursed to the troops.
“He was accused of smuggling for not paying taxes on a load of Madeira wine,” Killen told WBZ News. “And I like to think about John Hancock and his brother warming themselves by this hearth, drinking unbonded liquor, and kind of mapping out what the American Revolution might look like.”
The house was eventually sold in 1785 and used as a shoe store for 165 years. It then sat vacant for several years until law firm Swartz & Swartz bought and expanded it in 1976. Currently, it houses the law office and remains a stop on the city’s iconic Freedom Trail.
“There’s nothing like the Ebenezer Hancock House that I’ve seen in terms of the level of authentic carpentry that goes all the way back to its original construction,” Killen told the New York Post, adding, “We’re engaged in a very deliberate search to find the right fit.”
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