Site of Sarah Orne Jewett and Annie Fields House

Former site of Sarah Orne Jewett and Annie Fields house

NPS Photo/M Mark

Quick Facts

Location:

148 Charles Street

Significance:

Home of Sarah Orne Jewett and Annie Fields

OPEN TO PUBLIC:

No

MANAGED BY:

Private Residence

Though no longer standing, 148 Charles Street served as the home of Sarah Orne Jewett and Annie Fields.¹ Following the death of Annie’s husband, Jack Fields a publisher at the Old Corner Bookstore, Annie and Sarah lived together in a "Boston Marriage." Both influential in Boston’s literary scene, they hosted salons at their home with authors and intellectuals including Charles Dickens, Nathanial Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Within their circle of peers, Fields and Jewett lived openly and authentically as a married couple.

Footnote

1. In some primary sources from Annie and James T. Fields prior to James’ death, their address is listed as 37 Charles Street. This is not because they moved, but because Charles Street underwent a renumbering while the two were living there. This renumbering happened sometime between the 1865 and 1866 Boston Directories: The Boston Directory Embracing the City Record, A General Directory of the Citizens, and a Business Directory, For the Year Commencing July 1, 1865 (Boston: Adams, Sampson, & Company, 1865), 151, https://archive.org/details/bd-1865; The Boston Directory Embracing the City Record, A General Directory of the Citizens, and a Business Directory, For the Year Commencing July 1, 1866 (Boston: Adams, Sampson, & Company, 1866), 167, https://archive.org/details/bd-1866. Also see: Annie Fields, and William Lloyd Garrison, "Letter from Annie Fields, 37 Charles St[reet], [Boston, Mass.], to William Lloyd Garrison, Jan. 30, 1866," Correspondence. 37 Charles Street, Boston, Mass., January 30, 1866. Digital Commonwealth, https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:dv143q824, accessed October 2023.