No. 15827 53 Alban Street, April 22, 2016
[Note Dorothy has a couple of contradictory sentences in her memoir about her father or grandfather being the early owner of the house. In the first paragraph, she says her father built the house, but in a later paragraph, she says she doesn’t know if her grandfather built the house or if it was someone else].
When my father built the house at 53 Alban Street, Ashmont (Dorchester), on Ashmont Hill, it was considered a fashionable area. I believe the house was built between 1884 and 1885. [Actually, construction was completed in late 1888 or early 1889. Franklin Wyman sold the property to Dora Emerson in 1887. Tax assessing records indicate that the house was under construction in 1888. The Emersons sold the property to Maria Wyman in 1889].
Previously they had lived at Union Park, Boston, which was considered then one of the best residential parts of Boston with its spacious houses.
The Ashmont section of Dorchester was farmland in the early days. The original Pierce homestead was off of Ashmont Street, near Neponset, built circa 1640. [ed. note–in the early 21st century it was determined by dendrochronology to have been built in 1683].
My father chose Ashmont because of its nice neighborhood, good space of available land, and fast train service to Boston.
The old Welles farm was situated on Ashmont Hill. Welles Avenue was named for that family. A large part of Ashmont Hill having been their farmland, with their house situated on Welles Avenue, before the property was divided up and sold for house lots.
No. 2538 Welles Mansion
While the Welles family were abroad Daniel Webster occupied their house in 1822.
Later the house was bought by Boston’s former Mayor Fitzgerald, known locally as “Fitzie.” [note: Mayor Fitzgerald bought a different house facing Welles Avenue. The Welles house was replaced by the Pierce School, which was itself replaced by the Codm Square branch library, whereas Honey Fitz bought a house on the south side of Welles Avenue east of Harley Street].
No. 22044 Detail from 1884 atlas showing Ashmont Hill. The Welles House is shown at the corner of Washington Street and Welles Avenue with owner Albert Bowker. The house owned by Mary De Long at the corner of Welles Avenue and Harley Street was later owned by Mayor Fitzgerald.
No. 1 Mayor John F. Fitzgerald
The old families did not like having a politician move there. He was a Democrat, and the neighborhood had been primarily Republican. One improvement “Fitzie” made was to have Talbot Avenue paved from Welles Avenue to Franklin Park so that he might have a pleasant ride from his house through the park to Jamaica Plain thence in town to City Hall, Boston.
Ashmont Hill had established families living there. Besides the Welles, there were the Elms, Coffins, Nightingales, Cordingleys and other who were prominent. The lots were of varying sizes.
My father bought the land on the south slope of the hill, which had been the orchard of Welles Farm. The property was one lot wide at the front at 53 Alban Street. It ran through to Talbot Avenue where it was two lots wide. Later he purchased a third adjacent lot on Talbot Avenue, so we had about an acre of land and gained a few more apple trees.
The apple trees in the orchard were said to be about 150 years old when father bought the property. He had the Davey Tree Surgeons repair the old trees from which we had an annual crop of 31 barrels of magnificent apples. The trees were still bearing fine fruit when I sold our home in the late 1930s.
Father built our house for my grandmother Wyman. There was a stable built for four horses. We raised all our fruit and vegetables in our garden. Besides apples we had an ancient cherry tree beside the house as tall as the house, and there were plum, peach, and pear trees, and a blackberry patch which had been in the old orchard.
My grandfather Gardner Asaph Churchill had moved from Dorchester Lower Mills to 44 Alban Street. My mother attended Mrs. Mumford’s “Finishing School for Young Ladies,” run by the widow of the minister, who lived on Alban Street, across from grandfather’s house.
I do not think grandfather built the house at 44 Alban Street, but believe someone had had it previously. In my day Dr. Dewey lived there. On one side was the Woods place, one of the larger places on the street, on the other side Mr. Hartford lived. He was step-father of Edmund Tarbell the artist. [Tarbell lived with the Hartford family and later owned his own house, also on Alban Street].
No. 692 Edmund Tarbell
On one side of our home at 53 Alban Street lived the three Miss Caldwells, on the other side of us was Mr. Atwood, the architect. Wherever my grandfather lived, he planted a black beech tree. He planted one for Mr. Atwood. It is still there.
No. 9800 Harrison H. Atwood
When father moved to Ashmont, there was an Ashmont Improvement Society, which he joined. They held Whist parties. I once had photographs of the members at their meetings. My grandfather was active in it and was instrumental in obtaining Richardson, the architect of Trinity Church, Boston, to design the old Ashmont railroad station, which was demolished when MBTA Rapid Transit began. I did not think it attractive.
No. 7353 Ashmont Station designed by Richardson
The Horse Cars on Dorchester Avenue from Milton to South Station were discontinued in grandfather’s day, then there were trolley cars there.
Grandfather died years before my mother was married in his home at 44 Alban Street to my father Franklin A. Wyman, and moved across the street to my father’s house at 53 Alban Street.
The Unitarian minister who married my parents was Dr. George Bodge, who gave his “Memorial History of Dorchester, Massachusetts,” in twelve large leather-bound volumes, to the as a wedding gift. I no longer have these books.
All the neighbors we knew at Ashmont Hill kept maids, or least one maid anyway, and those who had horses had a coachman, or else kept a hors in the livery stable near Peabody Square. With the advent of automobiles some coachmen became chauffeurs.
With immigrants crowding into Boston, wooden three-decker tenements began to be built along Dorchester Avenue. There were many unsuccessful requests to City Hall to have Ashmont Hill zoned to keep the area residential. When three-deckers deteriorated into slum areas, our neighbors began having trouble with burglaries, and fruits and vegetables were stolen. On three-decker was built on Alban Street. [note—there were at least three three-deckers built on Alban Street].
Many old families moved to Brookline and other places. After the First World War, it was difficult to get maids, and taxes were city-high.
Yet to this day the houses on Ashmont Hill have been kept in good condition. They were very well constructed.
Dorothy Wyman Martin
Boston, May 19, 1972.