No. 11463 19 Ashland Street, photograph January 3, 2011.
Date of construction: circa 1830
The following is from the National Register Nomination for 19 Ashland Street 19
The house at 19 Ashland Street was probably built by or for Daniel Withington in the early years of the 19th century. The house appears on the 1831 map. It appears that Edward King, a prosperous merchant and landowner, acquired the property in the 1840s after Withington went into insolvency. The property was subdivided, and the parcel with the house was sold to Hiram Emerson in 1859 , who, in turn, sold in 1868 to Sarah K. Safford.
Daniel Withington was a cordwainer.
At the time of his ownership of the property King was part of the firm of E. & F. King & Co, druggists in Boston. King lived in another house in the Clam Point neighborhood.
Sarah K. Safford, a widow, lived at the corner of Park and Everett Street, so it appears that 19 Ashland was owned for rental purposes.
The following is from the National Register form for Harrison Square Historic District
Only a handful of brick buildings were ever built in the District, including the ca. 1830 Federal style Withington-Safford House at 19 Ashland Street (photo 10) and a ca. mid-19th century suburban house at 5 Everett Street.
In terms of historic styles, the Federal is minimally represented in the district by two 2 1/2-story, center-hall plan, residences. Measuring five bays by two bays, both 19 Ashland Street (photo 10) and 32 Mill Street are shown on the 1831 Hales map of Boston and environs. Evidently built for members of Dorchester’s Withington family, 19 Ashland’s main block exhibits planar brick walls, a fanlight-surmounted center entrance as well as the early 19th century predilection for orienting the main facade of freestanding houses to facing south. The present side gable roof with return eaves may have replaced a hip roof when the east walls’ square bay and wooden rear wing were added ca. 1860. The Preston homestead at 32 Mill Street is clad with clapboards and possesses the rectangular five bay by two bay form characteristic of Federal residences. Later Gothic Revival lancet windows and Italianate front and side porches as well as the west wall’s two-story Italianate polygonal bay update the simple Federal style form.
Visible from Mill Street, across the Loring’s southwest lawn is the Withington House at 19 Ashland Street (photo 10). Built ca. 1830, this red-brick Federal style building had an extensive Italianate ell added to its rear wall during the 1860s. The main block’s side gable roof with return eaves may have replaced a hip roof. Particularly noteworthy is the visual dialogue between the sweeping arc of Ashland Street’s path, and the angled, T -shaped form and red brick and wooden materials of the Withington House. The bend in Ashland as it approaches Mill is accentuated by a wooden, reproduction mid-19th century fence.
The following is from Boston Landmarks 1977 Survey:
Earlier brick Federal 5-bay house with later Italianate modification such as a bay window on the east side and a frame wing to the rear (north), fanlight above door on brick portion.
Date of construction 1820/1870 By 1831 – Baker map
1831 – Withington
1850 – Mrs. Withington
1874 – Sarah K. Stafford
Earlier brick Federal 5 bay house with later Italianate modifications such as a bay window on the east side and a frame wing to the rear (north); fanlight above door on brick portion.
Unusual orientation to street.
One of two brick Federal houses in study area. One of two Federal brick houses in Dorchester [but note there is one on Bowdoin Street plus the William Clapp House]
Owners from maps and atlases:
1831 Withington [Baker map of Dorchester]
1850 Mrs. Withington
1858 E. King
1874 Sarah K. Safford 15675 sq ft
1884 Sarah Safford
1889 Sarah K. Safford
1894 Sarah K. Safford
1898 Sarah K. Safford
1904 Hrs Sarah K. Safford
1910 Wm Small
1918 Hazel L. Tomlinson
1933 D. Santoro et als
Boston Directory
1884 Mrs. Sarah K. Sarah, h. Everett, cor. Park Dor.
Dorchester Blue Books
1894 F.K. Nash, Mr. & Mrs. William S. Mace
1896 Mr. & Mrs. William S. Mace
1900 none listed
1902 Residents were Mr. & Mrs. Joseph W. Hamilton
1904 none listed
1906 Mr. & Mrs. William Small
1908 Mr. & Mrs. William Small
1910 Mr. & Mrs. William Small
1915 Mr. & Mrs. Everett F. Tomlinson
Deed
Feb. 6, 1798 from Samuel Capen, victualler, to Daniel Withington, cordwainer 8.49
4 acres land, no mention of buildings
May 2, 1842 from Edward King to Ebenezer Clapp, Daniel Withington estate and wife 135.163
6 acres mentions heirs
land upland and salt marsh with a dwelling house and other buildings, bounded easterly on Mill Street 90 feet, southerly and easterly by other land of Edward King from which the premises are divided by a line commencing at Mill Street and running south 77 degrees west, 280 ft, then turning and running south one degree west 476 feet to Tilestons mill pond, southwesterly on said mill pond, northeasterly on land of John H. Robinson, on Rachel Robinson and northeasterly on land of Jacob Foster together with a right of way to Ebenezer Clapp in strict trust for the use of Daniel Withington, husbandman, Anna Withington, his wife during their natural lives and the life of the survivor of the, and the remainder thereof in fee for the use of the heirs or legal representatives of said Daniel Withington, Charles Withington, laborer, William Oliver, Esquire, Ebenezer Clapp, the aforesaid grantee, John H. Robinson, trader, Thomas N. Mosely, Esquire, Flavel Mosely, merchant, Samuel Hildreth, baker and Alexander and William Pope, traders as tenants in common in the parts and portions following:
May 19, 1842 from Elijah Lewis and Moses Draper, assignees of estate of Daniel Withington (insolvency) to Edward King, trader 135.206
9 3/4 acres and 35 rods bounded easterly by Mill Street, southerly and westerly by the mill pond
from Mill Street to Tenean Creek together with all the buildings thereon
November 4, 1843 from Anne Withington to Edward King 143.174
3 acres 3/4 and 31 rods embracing five building lots bounded easterly on the public road, called Mill Street and m781 feet 6 inches, northerly on land conveyed by Edward King to Ebenezer Clapp 284 feet, westerly on the same land 474 feet 6 inches and southerly on Ebenezer D. Tileston’s mill pond 371 feet , part of the lands formerly owned by Daniel Withington, my husband
April 30, 1844 from Daniel Withington to Edward King 146.191, same description as above
Feb. 1, 1859 from Edward King and Franklin King to Hiram Emerson 273.23
May 6, 1868 from Hiram Emerson to Sarah K. Safford, widow 366.197
Census 1880
Everett Street
Sarah K. Safford, 62, widowed
Sarah A. Gordon, 23, servant
Death record
Sarah K. Safford b. 1811, Newburyport; died December 12, 1896
father: Benjamin; mother Mary H. Wells
widow of Joshua Qimen Whitmore
residence: Everettt Street
cause of death: pneumonia