The house was built in 1851 on Prescott St. by Amos Lawrence. After his death in 1886, ownership of the house was assumed by his daughter, Hettie Cunningham. By 1899, Euston St. had been opened as a public way along with an extension of Carlton St. northward from Ivy St. to Mountfort St. This created a new block suitable for development and the Cunninghams divided the block into a 2 x 3 matrix of individual lots. The house is being is being turned ninety degrees counter clockwise and moved a small distance from the center of the block to the pair of lots at the corner of Carlton and Ivy where the house is at its present location of 135 Ivy St., now the home of the president of Boston University.

[Courtesy of the Digital Commonwealth (CC BY-NC-ND). From the Brookline Photograph Collection published by the Public Library of Brookline]