Place: John Hawes House
Address: 568 East Fifth Street
Neighborhood: South Boston
Continuing into the heart of South Boston on September 20, 2012, I passed by the John Hawes House, one of the oldest houses in South Boston. John Hawes was the one who provided the money to build the Hawes Unitarian Church, now the Albanian Orthodox Cathedral of Saint George.
South Boston used to have streetcar lines, but not anymore...! Buses now roam the streets of South Boston.
To visit the John Hawes House, ride bus routes 9, 10 or 11. Get off at K Street, and walk down from East Broadway or walk up from East Eighth Street.
"About 1805, gentleman farmer John Hawes (1740-1829) and his wife Sarah Clapp retired from their prosperous Dorchester farm to this fashionable 5-bay mansion. Perhaps the oldest extant house in South Boston, it shows how brick residential architecture spread all across the city in the Federal era. When John Hawes was born in South Boston in 1740, the narrow peninsula had been part of Dorchester. In 1804, the district was annexed to the city, streets laid out and a bridge built. Hawes was a major benefactor to the new community. His gifts included a church and a trust to establish public school (including an early school for girls)."
To learn more about John Hawes:
http://www.dorchesteratheneum.org/page.php?id=729
