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In Back Bay’s historic Burrage Mansion, a $6.3m modern penthouse
It is an unusual building, wider than its neighbors, with an unmistakable chateau-esque personality.
Everything about the condominium on the top two floors of 314 Commonwealth Ave. is extraordinary, starting with the building itself.
The Burrage Mansion was built as the winter home of attorney, businessman, copper tycoon, and philanthropist Albert C. Burrage and his family in 1899, according to the city of Boston. It is still an unusual building, wider than its neighbors, with an unmistakable chateau-esque personality. Designed by Charles Brigham in the high French Renaissance style, the building features opulent materials, including imported marble and an extravagantly decorative limestone exterior.
Contemporaries were sniffy at such extravagance. “It is French and Italian, not American; and while true to styles and periods, fails to convince,” an unnamed architecture critic wrote in the February, 1905, issue of “The House Beautiful” magazine that is excerpted in a historical document. “Who would choose a house like [this one], when simplicity, charm, peace and true beauty were to be had for a fragment of the money bestowed on the rich man’s home?”
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But Albert Burrage and his wife, Alice, did not want simplicity; for them, true beauty included carved limestone, marble stairs, coffered ceilings, stained-glass windows, paneled mahogany cabinetry, pilasters, putti, and stone busts of ancient gods and goddesses — all of which greet entrants into the building. Today, preservationists celebrate the survival of the original decorative elements of the vestibule. The building served as offices, a medical facility, and a nursing home after the Burrage family sold it in 1947. Five condominium units were created in 2003.
From lavish grandeur, an elevator rises to the fourth floor, where sleek modernity contrasts with the historic exterior and entry hall. Unit 4, a 4,758-square-foot home, has two bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, three fireplaces (including a woodburning one), and the most desirable of Back Bay Boston amenities: four parking spaces in a heated garage under the building. There’s also an outdoor living space in the form of a fully furnished and private roof deck.
The lower level includes a minimalist contemporary kitchen with an oversized stainless steel island, limestone flooring, and stainless-steel built-in cabinetry. And, while the modern interior hits a different stylistic note from the exterior, there is a similar lavish use of materials. The wood-burning fireplace in the living room is embedded in a wall of onyx, back-lit for drama. There’s also a dining room, living room, and guest bedroom, which features a marble en-suite bath.
The primary bedroom and bath are on the roof-deck level, which also has a gas grill, dining area, hot tub, seating area, and plantings in stainless steel containers.
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“This is a fabulous bargain,” says George Sarkis of The Sarkis Team at Douglas Elliman Real Estate, who is offering the unit for sale for $6,299,000. “In an extraordinary building, it’s a corner unit with views, parking, a private deck – not many Back Bay homes have any of those, and this penthouse has them all.”
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