29 Commonwealth Avenue

29 Commonwealth Avenue

29 Commonwealth Avenue (282 Berkeley Street) was designed by architect J. Pickering Putnam and built in 1894 for William H. H. Newman as an apartment house with 26 units, called Haddon Hall.

A July 22, 1894, Boston Globe article announcing plans for the building described it as follows:

"W. H. H. Newman is to erect a handsome new apartment hotel at 29 Commonwealth av. corner Berkeley st.  The building will be nine stories high and will contain all the modern conveniences.  The lot, which is the old Bowditch place, was purchased at auction by Mr. Newman for $83,000.

"The plans, which have been drawn by J. Pickering Putnam, call for a structure having a frontage on Commonwealth av. of 22 feet, from which it reaches back about 20 feet; it is 104 feet deep on Berkeley st.  there will be 26 suites of three or four rooms each.  The building will be made of stone, brick, and steel, and will cost about $200,000.  The main entrance will be on Commonwealth av."

At 125 feet, Haddon Hall was significantly higher than its neighboring houses.  The Back Bay's deed restrictions, written before elevators, imposed a minimum height of three stories but no maximum height.  A community movement, organized under the auspices of the Twentieth Century Club, sought legislation limiting the permissible height.  As a result, in 1896 a limit of 70 feet was imposed on Commonwealth Avenue (this limit was later reduced further to 65 feet).

In about 1928, Haddon Hall was converted from apartments into offices.  As of 2007, it remained an office building.

The 1938 Bromley Atlas shows Realty Incorporated as the owner of this building.