Cottage Farm area of Brookline is one of the finest neighborhoods in all of New England. The area was developed thanks to Amos A. Lawrence (1814-1886), a wealthy second-generation Bostonian, who provided much of the capital and enthusiasm for the growth of the cotton industry in New England prior to the Civil War. Lawrence’s involvement in the industry aided the development of the Massachusetts mill towns of Lowell and Lawrence, whom the city was named after. In 1851, Amos Lawrence purchased 200 acres of land from David Sears, who himself developed the equally beautiful Longwood neighborhood of Brookline on the other side of Beacon Street. Amos began to subdivide the land, working with the architect George Minot Dexter and landscape architect and surveyor, Alexander Wadsworth, who designed Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, to create an early picturesque residential suburb. With houses designed in the newly popular Gothic Revival and Mansard styles and several small parks, the area became known as Cottage Farm. This stone house was designed by George M. Dexter and was the country residence of Amos Lawrence, who had other homes built nearby and rented out to wealthy friends and family. By 1888, the property was owned by Amos’ daughter, Hettie S. Cunningham, who later, subdivided the estate into five house lots, and moved this stone house to the corner of Ivy and Carleton streets. Expressive of English architectural traditions over the more ornate Gothic Revival popularized by Andrew Jackson Downing, the Lawrence House is one of the finest residences in the Boston area. Built of granite with limestone trim and set behind landscaping and a perimeter fence, the mansion is surprisingly hard to get decent photos of, but it is a stunner. Today, the house is owned by Boston University and is known as Sloane House.