The house is now a museum operated by the Massachusetts chapter of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, which purchased it for its headquarters in 1944.

[4] The left side, 55 Beacon Street is named for William Hickling Prescott, a nearly blind historian from a prominent Boston family,[2] who lived there from 1845 to 1859.

He commissioned Asher Benjamin to build the double town houses on land he purchased from the Mount Vernon Proprietors.

They made significant changes to the house: updating the stairwell, adding an elevator and reconfiguring Prescott's library into a dining room.

Due to his blindness (caused by an incident during a bar brawl), he employed researchers and secretaries to acquire documents and prepare his manuscripts.