Louisburg Square townhouse on sale for $20.5 million

The 11-room, 7,610-square-foot 17 Louisburg Square in Beacon Hill—which is now on sale for $20.5 million—started life in the late 19th-century as part of an Episcopal convent.

Local developer the Abbey Group divided up said convent about 25 years ago, creating Nos. 15, 17, and 19 on Louisburg Square. Part of the convent’s chapel, in fact, was removed to create a courtyard for Nos. 17 and 19—the latter of which, incidentally, former Secretary of State John Kerry and wife Teresa Heinz Kerry own (they bought it in 1995 for $1.7 million).

No. 17 is suitably plush for its location and age. Bow windows, high ceilings, large rooms, an elevator, a winding staircase, a 3,000-bottle wine cellar, four fireplaces, “a ski room,” a roof deck—it’s all there.

But, as noted, it will cost you. The $20.5 million asking through Coldwell Banker’s Lisa Macalaster pencils out to $2,693 a square foot. That is well above the latest average per-foot sales price of $1,970 for downtown Boston’s luxury market, based on closed deals during the third quarter of 2019.

Still, what’d you expect? Louisburg Square.