57 Commonwealth Avenue

57 Commonwealth Avenue

57 Commonwealth Avenue was designed by architect Carl Fehmer and built ca. 1874, one of symmetrical pair of houses (57-59 Commonwealth).

57 Commonwealth was built for wholesale cotton merchant John Appleton Burnham, Jr., and his wife, Mary (Clark) Burnham.  In 1872, they had lived at 5 Newbury Street (demolished).  They also maintained a summer home in Manchester.

The library and dining room of are illustrated and described in The Book of American Interiors by Charles Wyllys Elliott, published in 1876.  The library is described as 17 feet by 25 feet, looking out on Commonwealth Avenue, with a pine floor, hooded mantel-piece, and bay window.  The dining room is described as 18 feet by 24 feet, with a mantel piece that is "massive and quiet," with American ash paneling, tinted with a dark stain.

John Burnham died in November of 1910.  John A. Burnham, Jr.'s, Heirs are shown as the owners of 57 Commonwealth on the 1917 and 1928 Bromley maps.

Mary Burnham continued to live there in 1924.  Her two unmarried daughters, Helen and Mary Burnham, lived with her.

By 1927, Mrs. Burnham no longer was listed in the Blue Books at 57 Commonwealth and probably had died.  Helen and Mary Burnham continued to live there in 1937.

Frank O. Belding, et al, Trustees are shown as the owners on the 1938 Bromley map.

Miss Mary Burnham continued to be shown as the owner and resident of 57 Commonwealth in December of 1942, when the Building Department issued a fire safety violation in connection with a wall heater.

By 1956, 57 Commonwealth was owned by Dave Finn.  In February of 1956, he converted the house into sixteen apartments.