16 Marlborough Street

16 Marlborough Street

16 Marlborough Street was built ca. 1864.  As originally built, the bay continued to the ground level, with the porch extending to the west on the same plane as the front of the bay, topped with a balustrade.  In the mid-1880s or later, the entire facade was remodeled to eliminate the first floor bay and porch, and also to narrow the width of the bay.

16 Marlborough was built for oil and starch merchant John Mixer and his wife, Marianna Parker (Curtis) Mixter.  The Mixers lived at 16 Marlborough in 1865; in 1860, they had lived in Lowell and in 1862 at the United States Hotel in Boston.

By 1869, 16 Marlborough was the home of Mrs. Marianne (Mason) Crafts, the widow of textile manufacturer and merchant, Royal Altamont Crafts.  By 1870, she had moved to a new home she had built at 304 Berkeley Street.

By 1872, 16 Marlborough was the home of Judge George Washington Warren and his wife, Georgiana (Thompson) Washington.  They had lived in Charlestown in 1870.  By 1875, they had moved to the Hotel Vendôme.

In about 1880, George and Georgiana Warren moved back to 16 Marlborough.  They continued to live there in 1882 and probably until his death in May of 1883.

George Benjamin Neal is shown as the owner of 16 Marlborough on the 1883 Bromley map.  He was treasurer of the Charlestown Gas Lighting Company.

By 1884, it was the home of Albert Harrison Hoyt and his wife, Sarah Frances (Green) Hoyt.

A lawyer by training, he had been a paymaster in the Civil War, brevetted with the rank of Lt. Colonel, and then served as chief treasurer of the National Railroad Transportation Company from 1867 to 1869.  He was editor of the New England Historical and Genealogical Register from 1868 to 1875, and then went to Cincinnati as professor of history and English Literature at the Bartholomew English and Classical School.  The Hoyts returned to Boston in 1882, and in 1887 he became a clerk in the US Sub-treasury in Boston.

The Hoyts probably leased 16 Marlborough from Ida M. Mason, who is shown as the owner on the 1888 Bromley map.

Sarah Hoyt died in June of 1893, and Albert Hoyt moved soon thereafter.

By 1894, 16 Marlborough was the home of Mrs. Thomas S. Winslow.  She continued to live there in 1895, but had moved to 71 Marlborough by 1897.

By 1897, 16 Marlborough was the home of Miss Dora Brereton.  She had lived at 286 Beacon Street in 1892.

By 1898, it was the home of Mary E. (Coy) Weymouth, wife (possibly the widow) of Charles H. Weymouth, and her children.  She was a dressmaker and appears to have run 16 Marlborough as a lodging house until about 1906.  The house was not listed in the 1907 and 1908 Blue Books.

By 1908, it was owned by Dr. John Templeton Bowen, a dermatologist and professor of dermatology at Harvard.  He and his brother, James Bowen, lived at 14 Marlborough.  John Bowen is shown as the owner of 14 and 16 Marlborough on the 1908 and 1917 Bromley maps.

By 1909, 16 Marlborough leased by Prescott Bigelow, a stockbroker, and his wife, Bessie Paine (Nagro) Bigelow.  They continued to live there in 1917.

By 1920, it was the home of Joseph Warren Merrill, Jr., and his wife, Marian Louise (Raymond) Merrill.  He was a trustee of estates.  They continued to live there in 1922.

By 1923, 16 Marlborough was the home of Miss Cornelia Frost, who maintained it as a lodging house.  She had lived at 140 Beacon Street the previous year with her mother, Harriet (Bradstreet) Frost Lane, the widow of Charles L. Lane.  Cornelia Frost is shown as the owner of 16 Marlborough on the 1928 Bromley map.

She continued to live and operate a lodging house at 16 Marlborough in 1937, and probably later.  Miss Mabel F. Hale (identified as a "guest" rather than a lodger in the 1930 US Census) lived with her for most if not all of this period.

The 1938 Bromley Atlas shows Cornelia Frost as the owner of this house.

Cornelia Frost had died by November of 1940 when her estate filed for a lodging house license (which probably had never before been obtained).  The Building Department informed the estate's representative, Harding Hall, that no license could be issued until the permitted use of the house was changed from a single-family dwelling to a lodging house and necessary egress and fire safety improvements were made.

The property subsequently changed hands, and in December of 1942 was purchased by Edna M. Gorman.  She continued to operate a lodging house for almost forty years, although the legal occupancy of the house appears never to have been changed from a single family dwelling.

In August of 1981, Robert Pantano purchased 16 Marlborough from Edna Gorman.

In August of 1984, he sold the house to Alan and Lois Green, and in October of 1984, they applied for (and subsequently received) permission to convert the house from a single-family dwelling into a three-family dwelling.  In the application, they noted that the building "has been used as a lodging house and has had other uses since 1946."