FORBES HOUSE MUSEUM
An entrepreneurial family; an historic place.
Video by Diorio Films.
The Forbes House Museum is located atop Milton Hill, overlooking Boston’s skyline, the Neponset River marshes, and Boston Harbor in the distance. It sits on the traditional land of the Neponset band of the Indigenous Massachusett people, who stewarded this land until the early 1600s. By the late 1700s, this land was home to Thomas Hutchinson, the last royal governor of Massachusetts. The remarkable beech tree in the front yard may have originally been planted by Governor Hutchinson as part of his 95-acre estate.
In 1833, Isaiah Rogers built the Greek Revival-style mansion for Mrs. Margaret Perkins Forbes, a widow, and her four daughters. The house was an engineering marvel for that era, boasting both central heating and indoor plumbing. It was in part a memorial to Thomas Tunno, the oldest Forbes brother, who drowned in a typhoon off the coast of China, leaving the two younger brothers, Robert Bennet and John Murray, to provide for the family. Fortunately, they found great success in the China Trade.
Four generations of Forbes family members lived in the house until 1962. The current collection illustrates their philanthropic and entrepreneurial pursuits, as well as their global travels. There are beautiful examples of art, artifacts, export porcelain and furniture from China, interesting accessories and novelties from the Victorian Era, items from Captain Forbes’s incredible humanitarian mission to Ireland in 1847, and Lincoln and Civil War artifacts and memorabilia collected over 50 years by Mary Bowditch Forbes.
In 1966 the museum was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The house is surrounded by nearly seven acres of land, including tranquil garden areas, beautiful mature trees, and wide-open expanses of grass. Visitors are welcome to enjoy the property any time, dawn to dusk.
Fun Forbes Facts by the Numbers
Cost of labor and materials to build Forbes House in 1833
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Age of Capt. Robert Bennet Forbes on his first voyage to Canton, China, in 1817
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Nautical miles from Boston Harbor to Canton (now Guangzhou), China
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Civilian captains who commanded a U.S. navy ship in American history (Capt. Robert Bennet Forbes)
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Number of Irish immigrants who worked at Forbes House from 1833-2000
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Tons of food transported by Capt. Forbes to Cork, Ireland, in 1847 during the Great Famine
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Number of years that Mary Bowditch Forbes collected Civil War & President Lincoln memorabilia
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Number of months for carpenter Thomas Murdock to build a replica of President Lincoln’s birth cabin on the Forbes property
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