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A LOT belonging to the Town, having a frontage of fifty-six feet on Beacon Street, and running back to the Burial-Ground, was acquired in 1801 by William Payne, a broker, and his maiden sisters, Mary and Sarah. The site of the premises is between the Angell house and the Athenaeum lot. Here the Paynes built a large double house, with an archway through the centre, leading to a stable in the rear. Originally the entrances were within, on either side of the archway. Later the houses were joined by the removal of a partition wall. Mr. Payne’s brokerage office was in the Exchange Coffee House Building on State Street. His name first appears as a resident of Beacon Street in the Directory of 1809. The easterly house came , later into the possession of John Torrey Morse, Esq. And as early as 1866 it was owned and occupied by Charles Merriam, Esq., the railroad magnate. The westerly house became the home of the family of James K. Mills, who lived there until 1858, when the property was bought by Charles O. Whitmore, a well-known merchant. In 1886 the City leased both houses, which then belonged to the Lexington Building Association, and there brought together a number of municipal departments. These lots are now the site of the American Congregational Association’s Building.