One of the Finest Mansions in New England

Visible from Canton Avenue, Stonehouse attracted a great deal of attention as it was being constructed. Built on a rise behind older and smaller houses, W.E.C. Eustis described the scene in a letter to his sister: “it looks ridiculous to see this big house going up behind the two little ones…” but he was proud of the progress being made: “Thus far the house looks very successful.”

“We are the centre of attention,” Eustis wrote, and “people amuse themselves Sunday in coming up to inspect it – the new mansion. It is great fun to surprise them.” Built by J.H. Burt & Co. of Mattapan, the house was, one newspaper article claimed, “one of the finest mansions in New England, certainly the most thoroughly built and expensive in Milton.”