The many lives of 20 Professors Row

As the school's second oldest building, 20 Professors Row has had a string of tenants that reflect the diversity of the school over the past century and a half.

The home was built as the residence of Tufts' first president Hosea Ballou, who lived there from 1855 to 1862, according to Anne Sauer of Tufts Digital Collections and Archives.

"20 Professors Row should really be known as Ballou House," she said.

Built when the University was just three years old, the house was only the second constructed on Walnut Hill, after the "College Edifice," now called Ballou Hall. The building was located near the current location of the Gifford House.

In the early 1870s, the structure was moved to its current location on Professors Row, and was home to Leo Rich Lewis, a professor of music and composer of Tufts alma meter. Later residents included Professor Leonard of the divinity school and Professor Lewis and Dean Ratcliff of the school of religion.

These past residents were crucial in the commission classifying the building as historic. "By nature of its age and architectural character and association with important figures, it was identified by the commission something that should be looked at before proceeding with the demolition," Somerville Historical Committee Chairman Michael Payne said.

Payne added that the building is the oldest wooden frame home on campus.

Most recently it was home to the music department, which has since been moved to the former Provost's House on Professors Row. After Provost Sol Gittleman retired in 2002, the street was without a faculty in residence for the first time in 140 years.

Even though the use of the buildings has changed, the street would not be completely foreign to the schools founders.

"While the architecture of the houses, specifically those across from Fletcher Field, has changed, it is still a largely residential, tree-lined street," Sauer said.

Back in 1854, Professors Row was the end of the campus, separating it from the surrounding farmland, Payne said. The properties below where the campus center currently stands were not donated until the later nineteenth century.

"If you look back to what Tufts looks like in the 1850s you would realize these buildings [along Professors Row] are the base structure for Tufts University," Payne said.

If 20 Professors Row is demolished, it will not be the end of the historic homes on the street. A number of the original structures from this period still stand including the Zeta Psi building and Capen House.