CIRCLING THE SQUARE

On a cold December night in 1773, John Hicks let himself out of his second story bedroom window by a sheet rope. He was off to join a band of "Indians" in filling Boston Harbor with tea, and could not let his Tory son know of the plot. The staircase creaked even then.

His return trip was more difficult. Hicks found that he could not climb up the rope as easily as down. Leaving his boots downstairs, he sneaked up into bed quickly; he would wake up before his family and take away the boots. But he overslept, and when he came down in the morning his wife was waiting for him.

"John, you were out last night, weren't you?"

"No, Mother."

"John, how can you say such a thing? You were out last night."

"No, Mother."

"Well, look at your boots standing there . . ."

John Hicks had to admit that he had lied. But when his wife picked up the boots, tea leaves began to fall out. Mrs. Hicks relaxed; that kind of night prowling was all right with her.

John Hicks, carpenter, town constable, and patriot, inhabited his house for two more years. On April 19, 1775, he met his death on Mass. Avenue, on the first day of the Revolution.

Hicks House, one of 21 pre-Revolutionary houses still standing in Cambridge, has had an unsettled existence, marked by 15 different layers of wallpaper. After Hicks' widow sold the white house on the corner of Dunster and Winthrop streets, it had four other owners before the University bought it in 1903. It then rested for a quarter of a century, housing at one time a group of Cowley fathers who lived an ascetic life and demanded nothing but a roof over their heads. But 64 Dunster Street stood in the way of the projected Indoor Athletic Building, so in December, 1928, 155 years after the Boston Tea Party and 162 years after its erection, Hicks House traveled to its present site at Boylston and South Streets.

With the establishment of Kirkland House, John Hicks' old dwelling lost its last tenants and became the House library. Bookshelves were installed, and each of the nine rooms of the house was filled with books of one particular field. Overstuffed chairs and new pictures were put in, a cellar for overflow and phonograph records installed, and a new door built connecting the library with the House proper.

Kirkland's is the only House library not built on the large reading room pattern. Its three floors, eight fireplaces, and two staircases preserve the atmosphere of an old New England home. When a Deacon wants a book in English Literature, he goes to Mrs. Hicks' bedroom. Government is in John Hicks' bedroom. Government is in John Hicks' living room, downstairs on the left.