This is deeply, uniquely, "Old-Boston" -- a full-service home for 56 needy elderly citizens, and a service provider for over 400 elderly throughout Boston, tucked away in Back Bay on Clarendon Street in five connected 1869 townhouses with noble cultural and philanthropic histories. Henry Adams lived in one, succeeded in the '90s by Harriet Hemenway and her husband, in whose living room the Massachusetts Audubon Society was founded in 1897. In the 20th century the houses devolved into charitable uses: one was given to the Episcopal City Mission in 1938, to create a home for "gentlewomen of limited income." The Edward Everett Hale House was incorporated as a charity in 1965 by the First and Second Church (Unitarian Universalist) of Boston; in 1974 it was licensed as a "rest home," and in 1984 the Frances Merry Barnard Home and Hale House merged. Current residents range in age from 55 on up, more than half are low-income, and a fifth were previously either nearly or actually homeless. Services to non-residents include the Back Bay Club (a daytime social program); translation services, ESL instruction, advocacy, research and referral services for 300 tenants in public housing; and help for low-income elders facing eviction, malnutrition, or financial exploitation. Trust philanthropy to find and help this elderly community who might otherwise decline unnoticed and alone! You can help, too.