James H. Clark, 1862-?
son of Henry Clark, 1827-
grandson of Henry Clark, farmer (1791-1872) m. Mary B. Clark (nee Tolman) (1797-1875) who resided at 487 Norfolk St (?-1875)
James H. Clark m. Alice W. Bragg on November 21, 1887. James was a salesman at the time of their marriage.
James H. resided at 487 Norfolk with his grandparents and mother, then boarded there while a clerk at 133 Federal Street. He and Alice moved to 523 Norfolk Street ca.1893-at least 1910—last census info.
No. 2579 4887 Norfolk Street, May 2003
children:
Charles H. Clark (1890-?)
Harry F. Clark (1891-?)
Ernest S. Clark (1893-?)
Samuel A. Clark (1896-?)
Mary W. Clark (1900-?)
U.S. Census
1880 Henry Clark, 78, farmer
Mary B. Clark, 73, keeping house
Mary J. Clark, 33, no occupation
James H. Clark, 8
Mary H. Calrk, 4
Charles H. Withington, 29, clerk, hay and grain
Bridget O’Conner, 67, domestic servant
1900 at 523 Norfolk Street
James H. Clark, 38, salesman, wholesale store
Alice W. Clark, 31
Charles H. Clark, 10
Harry F. Clark, 8
Ernest S. Clark, 6
Samuel A. Clark, 3
Mary W. Claark, 2 months
Isabella L. Bragg, 35, cousin, saleslady, cloaks and suits
Norah U. Moxley, 27, servant
From The Fowler Clark Farm Study Report, Bosron Landmarks Commission, 2005
The farm is located at 487 Norfolk Street, Dorchester.
The farm began its long association with the Clark family in 1837 when Daniel Sanderson and his wife Alma sold the original Fowler parcel comprising “about twelve acres” to Mary B. Clark, wife of Henry Clark, “with dwelling house and outbuilding thereon” for $1400.20 The outbuilding mentioned in the deed is probably not the existing outbuilding. Tax records indicate the Clarks had 2 barns on the property, in addition to the house, from 1850-1855. Between 1855 and 1861, however, a stable was constructed. The form of the existing outbuilding is consistent with a stable constructed in the mid nineteenth century. The first illustrated record of the Clark property depicts a house and a single, large, outbuilding sited in the location of the existing house and stable in 1874.
According to the 1860 census, additional inhabitants of the property during this period included James and Mary Clark’s son, Henry, a grocer, and the Stevens family—a family of four, some of whom appeared to serve as laborers on the farm and others to work in the grocery business, presumably with Henry Clark, Jr.
Henry Clark Jr. married Mary J. Clark with whom he had two children, James Henry Clark and Mary H. Clark. By 1870 when the next census was recorded, Henry Clark, Jr. had died and his wife and children continued their residence on the farm with his parents. They were also joined by this time by Mary J. Clark’s brother, Charles Worthington, who labored on the farm. With the death of Henry Clark, Sr., in 1872 and Mary B. Clark shortly thereafter in 1875, the farm passed to Mary J. Clark and her son, James Henry Clark, Mary H. Clark having died in childhood. Mary J. Clark and James Henry Clark appear on city atlases as co-owners of the Clark property through 1933, though James Henry Clark, his wife Alice, and their five children resided down the street at 523 Norfolk Street, and James Henry worked as a salesman in a wholesale store.
Though parcels adjoining the Fowler-Clark farm were beginning to be subdivided in the last years of the nineteenth century, the vast majority of the land surrounding the Fowler-Clark farm remained sparsely developed with farmhouses and outbuildings scattered on large parcels of land through the 1880s and mid 1890s. By 1895, however, electric streetcar lines were making outlying districts more easily accessible, and James Henry Clark and his mother followed the lead of many Dorchester landowners and subdivided the roughly twelve acre estate into sixty-one lots. Between 1910 and 1918, the majority of the Clark-owned lots, and those in their immediate vicinity were sold and developed.
Mary J. Clark died in 1932, leaving the property in the hands of James Henry and his wife Alice. James Henry Clark retained the property until 1940 when he sold the house and stable to Gertrude Miller and Grace Miller Hunt, who, in-turn, sold the property a year later to Jorge and Ida Epstein. The Ida G. Epstein Trust remains the current owner and Ida Epstein and her son currently reside in the house. The only notable exterior changes to the house recorded with the City of Boston’s Inspectional Services Department occurred during the Epstein’s stewardship. These included an application to remove a one story ell and to shingle the house in 1942, and to add a one story wood and stone ell in 1967.