No. 20228 5 Fairfax Street, photograph March 26, 2020
Date of construction: by 1889
Architect: Willard M. Bacon
The following is partly from the inventory form for Carruth Street – Peabody Square, Boston Landmarks Commission.
Herbert S. Carruth had 5 Fairfax Street built ca. late 1880’s, and he sold the property on April 26, 1890, to Emelyn W. Pope, wife of Frederick Pope, Boston jeweler. Together with 26 Carruth Street, this is the only example of Willard M. Bacon’s work on Carruth’s Hill. The Pope’s owned this property for over forty years; a fairly typical ownership time-frame by one family, reflecting the stability of the area over time.
In the appendix to his book The Second Settlement, Douglass Shand Tucci cites building permit 320 in 1893 with a cost to build of $7,000. This appears to conflict with the fact that the house appears in the 1889 atlas and with the deed from Carruth to Pope.
Owners from atlases
1884 no houses on the south side of Fairfax
1889 H. S. Carruth
1894 Emelyn W. Pope
deed
April 26, 1890 Herbert S. Carruth to Emelyn W. Pope, wife of Frederick H. Pope, Book 1932 46 Lot C plan 1657.298
with the buildings thereon