No. 20226 3 Fairfax Street, photograph March 26, 2020.
The following is from the inventory form for Carruth Street – Peabody Square
Carruth’s Hill was home to a uniformly affluent yet diverse community of businessmen and artists, including 30 Carruth Street’s Arthur J. Conner of Conner & Co., Medicines and 3 Fairfax Street’s William Grueby, the important Arts and Crafts movement architectural tile artisan.
Built ca. 1887, 3 Fairfax Street, the William Grueby House was built as an investment property for Herbert Carruth who deeded to the trustees of the Otis Norcross estate in 1884. This house was the residence of William Grueby, a dominant figure in the history of the American Arts and Crafts movement and a designer of international stature. Especially well known for his architectural tile work, examples of his work are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Grueby lived here from about 1904 until he sold it to George W. Boland, lawyer, during the mid 1920’s. [source?] Lucy F. Grueby acquired the property in 1910 from Augustus Hemenway. Within 3 Fairfax, Grueby tiles are said to cover a bathroom floor, while a border of his famous matte green glazed tiles are reported to encircle a copper bath tub. Grueby tiles were also utilized as the pavement for the Lady chapel at All Saints’ Ashmont Church.
Campbell, Gordon. The Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts. (New York, 2006), 455-456.
William Henry Grueby (1867-1925). American potter and ceramic manufacturer. He was apprenticed in 1882 to the J. J. G. Low Art Tile Works, Chelsea MA, where he remained for ten years. At the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, he was very impressed with the high-temperature flambé glazes of the French art pottery created by Autuste Delaherche and Ernest Chaplet, which encouraged Grueby’s own experiments with matt, monochromatic glazes. In 1895 he set up his own factory, the Grueby Faience Co., in Boston, which produced tiles and architectural faience in Greek, medieval and Hispano-Moresque styles, popularized by the Arts and Crafts Movement. From 1897 to 1898 he manufactured a range of vases finished in soft, matt glazes in greens, yellow, ochres and browns, with the “Grueby Green” predominating. Until 1902 the potter George Prentiss Kendrick was largely responsible for the designs, executed in heavily potted stoneware based on Delherche’s Art Nouveau shapes. Young women were employed to carry out the hand-moulded and incised surface decoration, which consisted mainly of vertical leaf-forms in shallow relief (e.g. stoneware vase, late 19th century; London, V&A). The work was enthusiastically received by the public, and such designers as Tiffany ordered ceramic bases for their lamps. Many American workshops and factories quickly introduced matt glazes, but few could surpass the velvety perfection of Grueby’s wares. Between 1900 and 1904 Grueby pottery won awards at a number of important international exhibitions, including a silver and two gold at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris. Despite these successes, the firm was declared bankrupt in 1908. Grueby then opened the Grueby Faience & Tile Co., which was taken over in 1919 by the C. Pardee Works of Perth Amboy, NJ. The firm continued in the production of Grueby-style wares until the late 1920s.
see S. J. Montgomery: The Ceramics of William H. Grueby. (Lambertville, NJ, 1993)
Owners from atlases
1889 Herbert S. Carruth
1894 Herbert S. Carruth
1898 John F. Brown
1904 Jno. F. Brown 1910
1910 Aug. Hemenway
1918 Lucy F. Grueby
1933 G. W. Boland
deed
property described in a foreclosure deed March 14, 1898 2516 98 apparently Carruth defaulted on the mortgage
March 15, 1910 from Augustus Hemenway Jr. to Lucy F. Grueby 3434 275
being part of the premises conveyed to Hemenway from John F. Brown March 15, 1907 3195 585
Mortgage Nov. 3, 1884 from Herbert S. Carruth to Otis Norcross, Uriel H. Crocker and Grenville H. Norcross, trustees under the will of Otis Norcross Book 1657 296
parcel of land with the buildings thereon
deed
Satisfaction of mortgage given by Carruth to Norcross in 1884 July 8, 1920 from Otis Norcross et al Trs to Lucy F. Grueby 4237 601 Lot B on pl 1657 298
Lucy paid $250 to satisfy the Norcross claim
Dorchester Blue Books
1904 1906, 1908, 1910, 1913, 1915 3 Fairfax Street Mr. & Mrs. William H. Grueby