The Skinny House, and the Spite Story It Probably Doesn't Deserve

Across Hull Street from Copp's Hill Burying Ground stands a house barely ten feet wide at the front, narrowing toward the back. Inside, the walls in places are little more than six feet apart. It is known across the city as the Skinny House, and the story told about it is a spite story. Two brothers inherited land from their father. While one was away at war, the other built a large house that left him only a sliver. When the soldier came home, he built this narrow house to block his brother's light and view. It is a good story, but the records do not bear it out. Massachusetts Historical Commission files describe 44 Hull Street as roughly one quarter of a larger block of buildings, remodeled to its present form around 1884, and the property passed down through generations of one family with no feuding brothers in sight. The house sold in 2021 for about $1.25 million.