152 Commonwealth Avenue

152 Commonwealth Avenue

152 Commonwealth Avenue was built ca. 1870 as the home of Jarvis Williams and his wife, Margaret Elizabeth Ann (Lunt) Williams.   He was a banker, commission merchant, and treasurer and manager of the Hinkley & Williams Works (manufacturers of steam locomotives). In 1869, the Williams had lived at the Tremont House Hotel and also maintained a home in Cambridge.

152 Commonwealth was built on two lots Jarvis Williams purchased from the Commonwealth in August of 1870, the corner lot, which was 32 feet wide, and the lot to the east, which was 26 feet wide.  He subdivided the lots and built his home at 152 Commonwealth at the corner, on a lot 38 feet wide, leaving the remaining 20 feet vacant. 

Bainbridge Bunting's guide to the Back Bay does not attribute the house to a specific architect. Susan and Michael Southworth's AIA Guide to Boston (Second Edition) indicates that it was designed by Peabody and Stearns, probably because 150 Commonwealth – which was designed by Peabody and Stearns in 1880 -- was annexed to 152 Commonwealth when it became the Chilton Club.  However, The Chilton Club is in possession of original documentation which indicates that it was designed by Henry Richards of the firm of Ware and Van Brunt.

Jarvis Williams died in November of 1870, possibly before the house was completed (although 152 Commonwealth is shown as his address in the Boston Death Register).

Margaret Williams lived at 152 Commonwealth with her sons -- Charles Jarvis Williams and Reuel Williams -- until mid-1871, when Jarvis Williams’s Estate sold the house and adjoining vacant lot to the east to Richard Baker, Jr., and his wife, Ellen M. (Whittemore) Baker. By 1873, Margaret Williams and her sons were living in a newly-built house at 297 Marlborough Street.

Richard and Ellen Baker lived at 152 Commonwealth from 1872.  In 1871, they had lived at 47 Mount Vernon Street on Beacon Hill.  They also maintained an estate, Westcliff, in Newport.

Richard Baker was a partner in the merchant shipping firm of William F. Weld & Co.

He died in January of 1875.  After his death, Ellen Baker continued to live at 152 Commonwealth with their son, Richard.

She died in September of 1896 at her estate in Newport.

The house was not listed in the Blue Books for 1897-1900.

On May 17, 1900, 152 Commonwealth was sold by the Baker Estate to William Bowditch Rogers, a stockbroker, and his wife, Augusta (Kellogg) Rogers.  They previously had lived at 151 Commonwealth.

In about 1907, the Rogers were living elsewhere and 152 Commonwealth was the home of Mr. and Mrs. George B. Leighton.  By 1908, the Rogers were once again living at 152 Commonwealth and by 1909, the Leightons were living at 301 Berkeley Street.

On April 29, 1910, the Rogers sold 152 Commonwealth to the newly-formed Chilton Club, and moved to Dedham.

On May 18, 1910, the Chilton Club applied for (and subsequently received) permission to significantly remodel and expand the house, including removing the original third floor, with its mansard roof, and adding three additional floors, two of brick and the third "in roof."  They also received permission to construct an addition at the rear, 38 feet by 18 feet 9 inches, five stories high above the basement, four of brick and one "in roof."  The Club retained the firm of Richardson, Barott, and Richardson, and the work was overseen by F. L. W. Richardson, son of the noted architect Henry Hobson Richardson.

The work was delayed in August, when the Building Commission cited the masons, L. D. Willcutt & Sons, for installing a wall on the Dartmouth Street side that was built with diagonal headers, not in conformance with city standards.  Willcutt & Son argued that the wall was stronger than required by law and the particular pattern had been used to match the existing brick work.  On August 6, 1910, the Board of Appeal decided that the wall did not have to be rebuilt but "further work must be done in conformity with the law."

The addition was completed in February of 1911.

The remodeled  interior is described in Seventy-Five Years at the Chilton Club:

"The large entrance hall was tiled in red with pure white walls, and the main stairs were carpeted in Wilton in a shade of colonial blue.  Chandeliers of crystal lighted to stairs... The first floor reception rooms and magazine room were in rose red...the new dining room...was done in the Club colors of royal blue. ...There was a gymnasium, a squash court on the upper floor, and, in the basement, Turkish and electric baths. The ballroom was painted in white ivory hung with rich satin of a turquoise color.  The dining room had an excellent Chippendale sideboard.  Certainly one of the greatest attractions must have been the roof garden overlooking Commonwealth Avenue and later glassed in as the winter garden, done in an Italian style.  There was a pergola with green hanging lanterns, ivy twining around the lattice work and the fluted pillars, and a stone fountain that supplied the sound of water filling the room.  Comfortable white wicker chairs and tables in the roof garden were most inviting for taking one’s ease at tea, and there one could smoke at any time, although it was 'presumed to be a privilege only to be taken advantage of by the men'."

On May 28, 1926, the Club acquired 150 Commonwealth, which had remained in the Baker Estate until the previous year.  They remodeled the house, combining it with 152 Commonwealth.

The 1938 Bromley Atlas shows The Chilton Club as the owner of this building.