119 Commonwealth Avenue

119 Commonwealth Avenue

119 Commonwealth Avenue was designed by Bradlee and Winslow, architects, and built in 1879 by  Standish & Woodbury, builders, as the home of Samuel Newell Brown and his wife Ruth Coombs (Haskell) Brown.  Ruth Brown is shown as the owner on the original building permit application, dated October 1, 1879, and on the 1883, 1888, and 1908 Bromley maps.

Samuel Brown was a dealer in scales, doing business (in 1885-1890) as Fairbanks, Brown & Co. and selling the Fairbanks Scale.  He also owned a number of hotels, including the New Ocean House in Swampscott.
           
Samuel and Ruth Brown probably moved to 119 Commonwealth in late 1880.  At the time of the 1880 US Census, taken in June, they lived at 1 Huntington Avenue.  Ruth Brown's unmarried sister, Grace Haskell, lived with them, first at 1 Huntington and then at 119 Commonwealth.
           
Ruth Brown died in March of 1909.  Samuel Brown continued to live at 119 Commonwealth with his sister-in-law.

In October of 1910, Samuel Brown married again, to Charlotte T. (Ames) Bradford, the widow of Joel P. Bradford. 

He died on July 4, 1912, at his New Ocean House Hotel.  Charlotte Ames continued to live at 119 Commonwealth in 1913. 
           
By 1915, 119 Commonwealth was the home of Richard S. Russell and his wife Mary Gertrude (Sutton) Russell.  Mary G. Russell is shown as the owner on the 1917 and 1928 Bromley maps.
           
Richard Russell was the manager of the Sutton Woolen Mills, owned by his father-in-law.

The Russells also maintained a summer home, Oakland, in North Andover, where Richard Russell’s father, paper manufacturer and Congressman William Augustus Russell, had an estate, Lakeview Farm.  Lakeview Farm subsequently became the site of the Brooks School, a preparatory boarding school founded by Rev. Endicott Peabody in 1926, and Richard and Mary Russell’s summer home became a dormitory for the school.
           
The Russells continued to live at 119 Commonwealth in 1937, and possibly later.

Lucille T. Clarke is shown as the owner of 119 Commonwealth on the 1938 Bromley map.