A large commercial block now occupies the ground where the house stood. On the corner of this modern building there is a bronze tablet bearing the following inscription: +--------------------------------------------------+ | HERE | | WENDELL PHILLIPS RESIDED | | DURING FORTY YEARS, DEVOTED BY HIM | | TO EFFORTS TO SECURE THE ABOLITION OF | | AFRICAN SLAVERY IN THIS COUNTRY. | | THE CHARMS OF HOME, THE ENJOYMENT | | OF WEALTH AND LEARNING, EVEN THE KINDLY | | RECOGNITION OF HIS FELLOW-CITIZENS, | | WERE BY HIM ACCOUNTED AS NAUGHT | | COMPARED WITH DUTY. | | HE LIVED TO SEE JUSTICE TRIUMPHANT, | | FREEDOM UNIVERSAL, AND TO RECEIVE | | THE TARDY PRAISES OF HIS FORMER | | OPPONENTS. | | THE BLESSINGS OF THE POOR, THE | | FRIENDLESS, AND THE OPPRESSED ENRICHED HIM. | | IN BOSTON HE WAS BORN 29 NOVEMBER, 1811, AND | | DIED 2 FEBRUARY, 1884. | | THIS TABLET WAS ERECTED IN 1894, BY ORDER OF | | THE CITY COUNCIL OF BOSTON. | +--------------------------------------------------+ His benevolence was abounding. He inherited a fair fortune for those days, and he earned a great sum of money as a lecturer. Yet when he died there was nothing left--not even a debt. Mrs. Phillips, who did not long survive him, never knew this, for the friends about her arranged that the frugal household--and that it always was--should go on till the end. Mr. Phillips was quite an adept with tools, keeping the household goods always in repair. At home, when not with Mrs. Phillips, he was always puttering with tools or engaged in reading and studying. He claimed that, as a boy, there was not an ordinary craft at which he had not done a good day’s work. His understanding of the building trades made him always at home with their workers. Mr. Phillips was in demand wherever his services could be secured. He did not earn so much money lecturing as he might have made. He never allowed lecture committees to lose money if he knew it. In case of bad weather, or a disappointment of any kind to the persons who had failed to realize a profit on the large fee promised, he would invariably insist that he receive only an equitable portion of the profits. Seldom was there such an occasion, for his were the palmiest days of the lyceum.