The Third Floor

The third floor originally contained six rooms, four of which were heated by fireplaces. There is no documentary evidence of how these rooms were used by the Otises, but as they were only accessible via a rear staircase, they were surely given over to servants, children, or to storage.

As the prestige of Otis House as a boarding house declined throughout the nineteenth century, the third floor was divided into an increasing number of rooms until the total reached sixteen rooms and five closets by 1916.  Most of the partitions dividing the rooms have since been removed and a number of early wallpapers were discovered in the process. In the 1960s and 1970s when needs for private office space increased, many of the rooms on the third floor were subdivided again.