15 Commonwealth Avenue

15 Commonwealth Avenue

15 Commonwealth Avenue was designed by Snell and Gregerson, architects, and built ca. 1867 as the home of tea merchant William Dudley Pickman and his wife, Caroline (Silsbee) Pickman.

William Pickman died in 1890.  Caroline Pickman continued to live at 15 Commonwealth until her death in February of 1898.

In June of 1898, it was purchased by entrepreneur and railroad investor Oliver Ames and his wife, Elise Alger (West) Ames.  They had the interiors extensively remodeled by architect and interior designer Ogden Codman, Jr.

The Ames also maintained summer homes in North Easton, where his family had founded the Ames Shovel Company, and in Prides Crossing, where Ogden Codman, Jr., designed their home, "High Wall,"  built in 1904.

Oliver Ames died in June of 1929, and Elise Ames continued to live at 15 Commonwealth until her death in December of 1945.

The 1938 Bromley Atlas shows John Ames, et al, trustees, as the owners of this house.

In June of 1946, it was purchased by Frederick J. Bashaw, who converted it from a single-family dwelling into a school to be operated by the Boston Business Institute.

In 1951, he sold the property to an owner who wanted to make it into an embalming school, the zoning for which was denied.