| top |
 
The Gores
Christopher Gore was born in Boston in 1758,
the tenth of thirteen children of Frances
and John Gore. John Gore, a successful merchant
and artisan, was able to send Christopher
to Harvard College (class of 1776). Christopher
served in the Continental Army as a clerk
with the artillery regiment of his brother-in-law
Thomas Craft.
After the war, Christopher Gore chose the law as
his profession and apprenticed himself for £100
to John Lowell. He was admitted as an attorney
to the Bar of Suffolk County and opened his office
on State Street in Boston.
Gore was unquestionably bright and ambitious, but
several factors helped the young lawyer's practice
to flourish. Many of Boston's older lawyers were
Tories and by leaving the country, they left their
clients to the younger generation. The Revolutionary
War increased the city's wealth and also the demand
for services such as Gore could provide. Gore
also invested in revolutionary scrip and the many
new mills and toll roads that sprang up on rural
land west of Boston. His fortune grew rapidly.
| top |
Marriage
In 1785, Christopher Gore married Rebecca Amory
Payne, the daughter of a wealthy merchant and
maritime insurer. The Gores were a sophisticated
couple, possessing excellent literary tastes and
social graces. They soon became prominent members
of Boston society. Rebecca's dowry helped the
couple make their first purchase of land in Waltham.
They gradually enlarged their holdings to 400
acres and dreamed of establishing a country estate
and summer home. In 1793 they built a wooden mansion
to replace an earlier farmhouse on the site. A
large carriage house built at the same time remains
to this day.
| top |
Early career
Christopher Gore's political career began in 1788
when he was elected to represent Boston at the
Philadelphia convention to ratify the new United
States Constitution. A year later George Washington
appointed Gore the first United States Attorney
for Massachusetts. President Washington again
appointed Gore to a diplomatic position in 1796.
The Gores traveled to England and remained there
for eight years while Christopher served on the
Jay Commission that negotiated mercantile claims
for American ships seized or destroyed during
the war with Britain. Gore also spent two months
as chargé d'affaires in London after
his good friend Rufus King resigned from his post
and before James Monroe, the new ambassador, arrived.
The suit Christopher Gore wore when formally presented
to the king and queen is on display at Gore Place.
Building a mansion
Still abroad in 1799, the Gores received news
that their house in Waltham had burned and they
quickly began planning a new mansion for the site.
Rebecca Gore was particularly interested in architecture,
and her husband gave her credit for the new design.
The Gores had visited many country homes in England
and traveled through France, Belgium, and Holland,
so not surprisingly the new house was fashioned
after the English and French buildings she most
admired. The work of Sir John Soane probably influenced
her concept, although a Parisian architect, Jacques-Guillaume
Legrand, is said to have assisted Mrs. Gore and
drawn up the final plans. The new design featured
an interplay of geometrical shapes, including
carefully laid out oval parlors, and restrained
neoclassical ornamentation adapted from the buildings
of ancient Greece and Rome. As a summer residence,
the house was also designed to be light and airy.
The Gores finally returned to Massachusetts in
1804 and work on the new brick mansion commenced
in 1805. The cost of construction totaled just
under $24,000, a very large sum for its day. Mr.
Gore's records detail expenses for everything
from Pennsylvania marble floor tiles to imported
English hardware.
| top |
Landscaping the grounds
The gardens and grounds surrounding Gore Place
were also altered to a more European design. The
Gores must have been aware of the work of Sir
Humphrey Repton, an English landscape architect,
then at the height of his popularity. Repton advocated
broad lawns, open fields, ponds, clumps of trees,
and inconspicuous gardens; he would not tolerate
formal gardens or abundant shrubbery. The Gores
incorporated many of Repton's ideas. Shaded walks
radiated from the house and another skirted the
grounds. A road lined with trees still approaches
the house from the west. As a gentleman-farmer,
Gore took a keen interest in new ideas on agriculture.
A variety of fruits, vegetables, and grain was
cultivated on estate. The Heathcot pear, named
for the Gore's gardener who planted the tree in
1812, won a premium from the Massachusetts Horticultural
Society in 1830 along with Gore's Rhododendron
Maximum.
| top |
Governor and Senator
Soon after completion of the new mansion, Christopher
Gore was elected to the Massachusetts Senate.
He ran for Governor of the Commonwealth in 1807
and 1808 before winning a one-year term in 1809.
In the spring of 1813 he was appointed to the
U.S. Senate, and he and Rebecca spent three years
in Washington. Retiring to Waltham in 1816, the
Gores made some changes to transform their mansion
into a year-round home. They installed "double
windows" in four rooms, repaired the stoves and
grates, and installed woolen carpets. The Gores
remained in Waltham until 1822 when Mr. Gore's
declining health forced them to return to Boston
for the winter season. After Christopher Gore's
death in 1827, Rebecca continued to use Gore Place
for the remaining seven years of her life.
| top |
House interior
The house consists of a large central block with
two symmetrical wings. At the center are the principal
rooms, including the Great Hall, oval drawing
room, and parlor. These formal spaces were built
with very high ceilings (15 feet 2 inches) and
tall windows that not only added to their elegance
but must have ensured good light and ventilation
for the Gores' summer entertaining. They used
the Great Hall for multiple functions, including
reception hall, dining room, and ballroom. The
adjoining oval drawing room was used as a salon
or conversation room where small gaming tables
could be set up. A smaller parlor to the east
may have been the setting for political conversations
or musical entertainment, or where Mrs. Gore served
tea to guests. The Gores decorated these three
rooms with elaborate French wallpapers, fragments
of which survive. The bed chambers and a family
sitting room, situated on the floor above, incorporated
much lower ceilings but offered excellent views
of the grounds. A cupola with an open shaft above
the center hall provided additional light and
ventilation. Christopher Gore placed his fine
library and a billiard room on the first floor
of the east wing. (His impressive billiard table
remains on display.) Kitchens and other service
areas with servants rooms upstairs were located
in the west wing.
| top |
Some interesting personalities
Mr. Gore claimed that he had "no desire to vie
with neighbors" in the elegance of his house,
but the effect of the rooms and furnishings at
Gore Place must indeed have been impressive. Among
the guests entertained by the Gores were the Marquis
de Lafayette, James Monroe, and Daniel Webster.
For the last two years of his life, Christopher
Gore employed an outstanding butler, Robert Roberts,
who would have ensured the running of his household
to the highest standards. In 1827 Roberts, an
African American who was active in Boston's abolitionist
movement, wrote and published The House Servant's Directory, a manual for
household servants and their employers. The book
ran through numerous editions.
| top |
The house today
Today the house is
furnished with fine art and
antiques of the eighteenth and
early nineteenth centuries.
Christopher and Rebecca Gore
had no children, so after Mrs.
Gore's death, in accordance
with her husband's will, the
house and all its contents were
sold at auction. A few of their
possessions survived in the
hands of nieces, nephews, friends,
and neighbors and have been returned
to Gore Place. After 1834 Gore
Place became home to several
other families. In 1921 it passed
out of private hands when the
Waltham Country Club established
a golf course and tennis courts
on the grounds. During the Depression,
the country club failed and
the property fell into disrepair.
In 1935, the bank was about
to tear down the buildings and
sell off the land for housing,
when Mrs. Helen Patterson gathered
her friends and the financial
resources necessary to preserve
it. The Gore Place Society was
founded that same year. Over
the past seventy years, Gore
Place has been lovingly restored
and open to the public as one
of the great estates of the
Federal era.
| top |
|
