146 Commonwealth Avenue

146 Commonwealth Avenue

146 Commonwealth Avenue was designed and built in 1876 by architect and builder George W. Pope, one of two contiguous houses (146-148 Commonwealth).  It was built as the home of leather manufacturer and merchant Stephen Everett Westcott and his wife, Abbie Ann (Fuller) Westcott, on a lot purchased he had purchased from the Commonwealth on February 29, 1872.

Stephen Westcott is shown as the owner on the original building permit application dated May 15, 1876, and on a permit amendment, date March 5, 1877, to add a 35 foot long wooden ell in the rear of the building.

The house was completed by October of 1877, and the Westcotts were living there by 1878.  They previously had lived at 119 West Chester Park in the South End.

Stephen Westcott died in February of 1892.  Abbie Westcott continued to live at 146 Commonwealth until her death in March of 1901.

By 1902, it was the home of the Westcotts' daughter and son-in-law, Edith and Francis Wright Fabyan, owned in trust for their use under the terms of Stephen Westcott's will. Francis Fabyan was a cotton and dry goods merchant in his family's firm, Bliss, Fabyan & Co.  In 1901, they had lived at 222 Beacon Street.

In 1912, 146 Commonwealth was remodeled by the firm of Little and Browne (Arthur Little and Herbert Wheildon Cotton Browne; Arthur Little owned the neighboring house at 148 Commonwealth at about this time.  It was probably as a part of this remodeling that the front entrances of both houses were lowered to street level.

The Fabyans continued to live at 146 Commonwealth until Edith Fabyan's death in December of 1928.  They also maintained a summer home, first at Manchester and later, in the mid-1920s, at Buzzards Bay (near Bourne).

On February 15, 1929, the Trustees under Stephen Westcott's will transferred ownership of 146 Commonwealth to Henry Meyer of Belmont "to the use of" Edith (Westcott) Fabyan's four children (one-eighth undivided interest each) and to Robert H. Gardiner (one-half undivided interest), a trustee named under Edith Fabyan's will (probably for the benefit of her husband).  At the time of the transfer, Francis Wright Fabyan was a resident of Bourne.  By 1930, he had married again, to Annabelle Park, and was living at 31 Gloucester Street.

146 Commonwealth was vacant from at least 1930 through much of 1934, but by 1935 had been purchased by the Boston University Women's Council and converted into a lodging house for women graduate students coming to Boston University from overseas. The house was named "Fisk House" in honor of Louisa Holman Fisk, founder and first president of the Council.

The 1938 Bromley Atlas shows the Trustees of Boston University as the owners of this building.