No. 5212 Unidentified house, painting on brick
Edward A. Huebener, a former Board member of the Dorchester Historical Society, was a collector of materials relating to Dorchester history including a very large collection of graphic materials, including prints and photographs, now owned by the Society. His very own contribution to this group of materials was the idea of taking a brick from a house that had been demolished and asking a local illustrator to paint a picture of the house upon the brick. The painted bricks may be viewed at the Dorchester Historical Society.
Although the location of the house pictured on brick no. 59 is unknown, the house type is still represented in Dorchester even today.
No. 9374 The house at 15 Neponset Avenue may have looked very much like the house on the brick before alterations were made.
No. 6559 The house at 591 Ashmont has a similar overhanging roof and the one story extension at the back.
No. 9237 Similarly, the house at 58 River Street may have looked like the house on the brick.
Enoch Baldwin built the house at 58 River Street for his own use, probably in 1831. The house appears on the 1831 map.
Enoch Baldwin served as agent for the Dorchester Cotton and Iron Company from 1822 until 1836, when he resigned, and Hananiah Temple became the new agent. Enoch Baldwin was one of the first Directors of the Dorchester and Milton Bank, when it was formed in 1832. He was elected Cashier in 1832 and served in that position until 1836.
In 1847, Baldwin sold his house to Hananiah Temple, who had replaced him as agent at the cotton company. In 1848 Temple became the President of the Dorchester and Milton Bank and served in that position until 1853.
By 1850, Dorchester/Milton Lower Mills became even more of a manufacturing power house. The 1850 Census Schedule 5 for Products of Industry reported the value of products from manufacturing activity in Dorchester: cotton cloth $150,000 (Dorchester Cotton and Iron. The 1850 Dorchester and Milton Business directory says the company employed 250, making principally bed-ticking.
In 1860, Temple sold the house to Spencer Warren Johnson, proprietor of a boot and shoe store in Milton. Johnson’s daughter Lydia was an assistant in the local primary school.