Peabody-Williams House

Peabody-Williams House
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Peabody-Williams House
Location	7 Norman Rd., Newton, Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°19′32″N 71°12′18″W
Built	1891
Built by	Andrew Lees
Architect	J. Williams Beal
Architectural style	Shingle Style
MPS	Newton MRA
NRHP reference No.	86001863
Added to NRHP	September 04, 1986

The Peabody-Williams House is a historic house at 7 Norman Road in Newton, Massachusetts. The 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame house was built in 1891, and is one of the finest Shingle style houses in the Newton Highlands area, with the asymmetrical massing, gabled projections and dormers, and corner turret typical of the style. It was designed by J. Williams Beal, and features extensive interior carving work by a locally prominent woodcarver, Andrew Lees.

The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. The Peabody-Williams House has also been protected from demolition or insensitive alteration with a Preservation Easement held by Historic New England's Preservation Easement Program since 2015.

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Newton, Massachusetts

References

History of 230 Melrose Street

The single-family residence is located in Auburndale, Massachusetts, one of 13 villages within the city of Newton. It was built on one of the 84 lots developed on 120 acres in 1847 by William Jackson, his son Timothy, and 10 other men who were operating as the Auburn Dale Land Company. They had commissioned W. F. Ward to create a plan of lots on rural land between the Charles River and Lexington Street, including the new streets of Melrose and River (now Islington Street; Mass. Historical Commission, 2008). This land would have been a portion of a 200-acre farm owned by William Robinson II as early as 1742 (Auburndale 19th Century Architecture). It was considered part of North Auburndale due to its location north of the railway line that bisected the village.

A map of Newton from 1855 shows Melrose Street as a dead end that extends about 3 blocks north from Auburn Street at the Boston and Worcester Railroad tracks, past Weston Street (later named Seaverns Street; now Commonwealth Avenue) to a point that appears to be midway between the current intersections of Melrose Street with Ware Road and Chaske Avenue.

The 1855 map shows the area north of Weston Street as open field cleared of trees, but there is one structure depicted on the east side of Melrose Street with the label, “N. Crowell.” The location corresponds with the current location of 230 Melrose, but there is no evidence that it became part of the structure that exists at that location now (Mass. Historical Commission, 2008).

The residence at 230 Melrose Street was built on lot 62 that had been purchased by Obed Porter for $100 in 1864. The purchase was not documented with the Registry of Deeds until July 1869 and interest of $4 was added to the price. The adjoining lot to the east, lot 74, had been purchased by Abijah S. Johnson for $100 in May 1868. Johnson was a builder who was active in the first phase of Auburndale residential development, but his home and his focus was within South Auburndale where wealthier individuals tended to buy and build (Discover History Auburndale, July 2002).

Lots 62 and 74 were purchased in July and August of 1869 by Henry Holmes Mather for $300 and $325, respectively. According to 1870 Town Assessor records, Henry H. Mather, an attorney and realtor, had a residence constructed on the land that he had purchased. The structure was located on Melrose Street, facing west, on the north section of lot 62. This was the highest point on the two adjoining lots, with notable downward slopes to the east, south, and west away from the house location. There was a stream running west-to-east across the lower portion of the two lots, parallel to Seaverns Street.

George Franklin Mather (b. 1848) and his family are believed to have been the first occupants of the Melrose Street residence in 1870. However, it wasn’t until March 1872 that the Massachusetts Registry of Deeds documents the purchase of lots 62 and 74 for $10,000 from his older brother, Henry H. Mather. Henry lived with his family on Central Street, a few blocks from Melrose Street, in South Auburndale (1880 U.S. Census).

George F. Mather sold millinery goods in 1870 (U.S. Census) and by 1876 was working as a realtor (Mass. Historical Commission, 2008). An 1870 Boston directory (Mass. Historical Commission, 2008) lists him as living in Auburndale and the 1871 Newton directory shows G. Franklin Mather living in a house on Melrose Street.

The photograph of a young man believed to be George Mather in the early 1870s was discovered hidden in the structure at 230 Melrose Street during renovation work in 2023. Information on the back identifies a photographer named Howard Richardson who had a studio at 22 Winter Street in Boston between 1867 and 1877 according to the online resource, "A Directory of Massachusetts Photographers."

George Mather had married Emily Parkman Fernald in October 1869 and they had three children together between 1871 and 1876. Tragically two of the children, ages 5 and 6, died in early 1877, likely in the Melrose Street home. George Mather married his second wife, Ella “Nellie” King, in 1878. The Massachusetts Registry of Deeds lists them as sellers of lots 62 and 74 to John Smith, a real estate broker, in March 1894.

In April 1894, lots 62 and 74 were subdivided and a new lot plan was drafted by E.A.W. Hammatt. A 6000 square foot section at the north end of original lot 62 that contained the house was designated lot 1 on the new plan. Massachusetts Registry of Deeds records show that lot 1 was purchased by Edward A. Bangs in January 1897 with a mortgage of $4,200. The property then changed ownership several times over the subsequent two decades, including sale by bank foreclosure auction in September 1907. This was followed by a series of longer-term ownerships that lasted 20-30 years each.

Sale prices for the 230 Melrose Street property increased little across many decades. In addition, alterations masked distinctive interior features, and the house was inconsistently maintained. In 1966 it was purchased by Antranig DerMarderosian, an architect, and his wife Doris. Significant restoration occurred during the period of their ownership and in September 1986 the house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Several interior and exterior renovations have taken place between 1990 and 2023, and the assessed value of the property in 2024 is over $1,200,000.

Architectural Features of 230 Melrose Street

Newton Historical Commission, June 7,1980

This unusual mansard cottage features a two and one-half story (N.B. three story) corner tower, a steep, canted mansard roof with prominent deck cornice, and a front verandah with chamfered stick style bracing. The tower contains a corniced, round-arched window at the second floor level and a paired entrance at the ground story. Its deep eaves are elaborately bracketed. This residence is one of Auburndale’s most ornate small dwellings and has been maintained in an excellent state of preservation.

Massachusetts Historical Commission, NWT.2008

Architectural Description: The one-story (N.B. two-story) frame house with a mansard roof and a two-and-a-half-story tower (N.B. three story tower) is located on the east side of Melrose Street north (of) Commonwealth Avenue in Auburndale. The plan contains two principal rooms on the south side of the house with an entry in the tower engaged to the front northwest corner; a one-story (N.B. two-story) kitchen wing with a mansard roof is appended to the rear. The two-bay front façade contains an entrance with twin doors at the base of the tower offset by French doors with a piazza spanning the front and distinguished by chamfered posts and a trusswork frieze. The second story of the tower contains large arched windows on the west and north sides; they are detailed with top cornices and side consoles at their sills. The upper level of the tower contains short, wide windows with lozenge panes, a scrolled frieze and a cornice with alternating brackets and bosses. A dormer with paired windows is centered in the mansard next to the tower to complete the front fenestration. The mansard carries a substantial cornice along its top.

The south side wall contains a bay window with beveled sides in the front and a single window in the rear, with a dormer with a double window in the front and one with a single window in the rear. The north wall contains a small arched window intended to illuminate the interior stair and a dormer in the upper roof above the mansard. The kitchen wing extends out from the side wall and contains small replacement windows. (N.B. Full-size double-hung windows were installed in the kitchen in 2023 to match the style of those in other rooms.)

The house is sited on a terrace set back behind a small open yard elevated above the street with a stone and concrete retaining wall along the sidewalk. The south side of the narrow lot impinges on the house, while a paved driveway runs along the north side. A large open yard occupies the rear of the parcel. (N.B. The rear yard in 2023 contains a wood and composite deck outside the rear door, a stone patio, screened gazebo, and storage shed.)

National Register Criteria Statement: The house at 230 Melrose Street is one of the city’s finest examples of a well-detailed middle-class residence built for middle class Boston commuters during the second half of the nineteenth century. It therefore meets Criterion C of the National Register of Historic Places.

National Register Architectural Significance: The steep straight-edged profile of the roof is broken only by the mansard roof of the towered entrance pavilion. The full-width front verandah has stick decoration, a feature not generally seen on mansard houses until the early 1870s. Although the small, mansard cottage is a type well represented throughout Newton, few examples feature such originality and inventiveness in decorative vocabulary. 230 Melrose St is one of Auburndale’s most ornate small dwellings.