Dorchester Illustration 2512 Tuttle House
The Tuttle House, which was located at the corner of Savin Hill Avenue and Tuttle Street, occupied the lot where the school building is located today. It existed as a “sea-side” hotel from 1822 to 1924. The Tuttle property was subdivided in 1887, furnishing land for house lots on Tuttle and Sydney Streets, but the Tuttle House survived until the land was acquired by the Archdiocese for the construction of St. William’s Church School. In the 1890s, the advantages of the hotel were advertised as: boating and bathing, large lawn, shade trees, tennis and croquet grounds, steam and electric cars to city.
The map detail from the 1831 Baker map of Dorchester shows the first depiction of the Hotel on a map.
The following is from an article about the hotel from the Dorchester Community News by Anthony Sammarco.
Joseph Tuttle was a successful merchant who lived on Pemberton Square in Boston. He purchased the Old Wiswall House on Savin Hill Avenue and remodeled the property as an early “seaside hotel.” He added two wings to the house and began to advertise in Boston newspapers for people to visit the “Tuttle House,” which was on the stagecoach line from Boston to Neponset, a pleasant ride of three miles at twelve and a half cents each way. The Tuttle House was famous for its chicken dinners and for its special attention to sleighing parties in the winter.