Home for Aged Couples: National Register of Historic Places Materials

The Home for Aged Couples is located on 2.89 gently rolling acres one block from commercial Egleston Square in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston.

Image courtesy of the Boston Preservation Alliance

Dr. Elizabeth Abbott Carleton, a New Hampshire native and a graduate of the New England Female Medical College, founded the New England Society for the Aged and Friendless in 1884 to offer long-term care for elderly couples of limited means. In exchange for the surrender of a couple's resources by entering into a "total assignment of assets life contract," the Society provided its residents food, clothing, a small weekly spending allowance, and medical care. This organization, which changed its name in 1886 to the Home for Aged Couples, emerged out of a late 19th century charitable sensibility.

After 1887 the Home for Aged couples occupied a large French Second Empire dwelling on a 128,000 square foot parcel across Walnut Avenue from Franklin Park. Unlike its largely urban counterparts, the Home offered its residents a serenity unique to its new location. The spaciousness of its own grounds and the proximity of Franklin Park contributed greatly to the tranquility of an aging couple's final years.

Follow this link to read the entire National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form