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BOSTON, MA - Friday,
August 20, 2021- Today, Mayor Janey and the Boston Landmarks Commission
celebrate the designation of Roxbury’s Shirley-Eustis Place, 33 and 42-44
Shirley Street and 24 Rockford Street as a Boston Landmark, under the
provisions of Chapter 772 of the Acts of 1975, as amended. This designation follows a
unanimous vote of approval by the Boston City Council.
With its
well-known historical significance comes a hidden history that is often
untold, unrecorded, and unrecognized. Ongoing research suggests that when
Governor Shirley and Governor Eustis’ owned the property, the house and
lands were maintained by enslaved persons of African descent. It further
suggests that enslaved people may have occupied portions of 42–44 Shirley
Street, which was then an outbuilding, likely a barn.
The Shirley-Eustis
House, located on 33 Shirley Street in Roxbury, was built between 1746 and
1749 as a summer estate for Massachusetts Colony Governor William Shirley
(1694–1771). The house has further historical significance as the home of
Massachusetts Governor William Eustis (1753–1825). It is one of the last
remaining colonial governor’s mansions in the original Thirteen Colonies
and was recognized as one of the nation’s first National Historic Landmarks
in the 1960s.
Mayor Janey’s
support for the designation of the Shirley-Eustis grounds as a historic
landmark in Roxbury expands the City’s history that is often centered in
Downtown Boston. The milestone comes
after more than a year of combatting the COVID-19 pandemic, and a national
reckoning with acts of violence against Black and other communities of
color.
“As we face modern-day
racial inequities, it is essential to acknowledge our past by encouraging
opportunities for collective processing of grief and investing in
healing,'' said Mayor Kim Janey. “I am grateful to all of our partners who
helped us unearth this hidden history and for the Roxbury community who
passed these stories down through generations.”
Mayor Janey grew
up in Roxbury which is a hub, both past and present, for African Americans’
grassroots activism and community organizing for housing, educational, and
economic equity. It is home to organizations like the Freedom House,
founded by Otto and Muriel Snowden; and the Organization for Afro-American
Unity founded by Malcolm X, all engaged in the fight for justice, equality,
and power. The location of the Shirley-Eustis House grounds in Roxbury
brings even more significance to the importance of honoring its history.
“For generations,
the history of Shirley-Eustis Place has been celebrated in Boston and
nationally,” said Reverend Mariama White-Hammond, Chief of Environment,
Energy and Open Space for the City of Boston. “Today and every day moving
forward, we must lift up the unheralded layers of our city’s history and
memorialize the enslaved people who are believed to have built and
maintained these grounds. I am grateful for Mayor Janey’s support and for
the Boston Landmarks Commission and the City Council’s unanimous vote to
bring light to this hidden history.” | 
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