8 Marlborough Street

8 Marlborough Street

8 Marlborough Street was designed by architect Nathaniel J. Bradlee and built ca. 1864, one of two contiguous houses (6-8 Marlborough).  6 Marlborough (which was replaced in 1924) was built on a lot 43 feet wide, and 8 Marlborough was built on a lot 22 feet wide.  Both houses were built for Frank William Andrews, a real estate investor and former importer of iron and crockery.

By 1865, 8 Marlborough was the home of William Marshall Stedman, Jr., a wholesale grocer, and his wife, Elizabeth Bowen (Brown) Stedman.  By 1870, they had moved to 387 Beacon Street.

By 1870, 8 Marlborough was the home of Dr. Elisha Tyson Wilson, a dentist, and his wife, Charlotte Fales (Peckham) Wilson.  Elisha Wilson died in June of 1872.  His wife probably continued to live there until about 1874 (Elisha Wilson is shown as the owner on the 1874 Hopkins map).

By 1875, it was the home of dry goods merchant Gilbert Russell Payson and his wife, Althea (Train) Payson.  They had lived at 83 Marlborough in 1872.  They probably also maintained a residence in Watertown, where they were enumerated in the 1870 and 1880 US Censuses.  They continued to live at 8 Marlborough in 1882.

By 1883, 8 Marlborough was the home of Lewis William Tappan, Jr.  He is shown as the owner on the 1883 and 1888 Bromley maps.  He also maintained a residence in Milton, where his wife, Olivia Buckminster (Lothrop) Tappan, had died in March of 1878.

A lawyer by training, Lewis Tappan was an investor in various manufacturing companies and railroads.  He served as US Consul in Batavia, Java, from 1863 to 1866.

He continued to live at 8 Marlborough in 1889.

In 1889, 8 Marlborough was acquired by Mrs. Pauline (Agassiz) Shaw, the wife of mining investor Quincy Adams Shaw.  She and her husband lived in Jamaica Plain.

Pauline Shaw was the daughter of noted zoologist and Professor Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz. She was active in the women's suffrage, peace, prison reform, and kindergarten movements.  She is credited for underwriting thirty kindergarten schools in Boston and for aiding numerous schools and progressive organizations, including founding the North Bennett Street Industrial School in the North End in 1885.

In 1880, she had acquired 6 Marlborough and opened a private day school designed to provide an education to her own children and to the children of other families in the neighborhood.  It was considered one of the most progressive schools in Boston, co-educational through all the grades and a leader in innovative curricula and methods.

After she purchased 8 Marlborough, she appears to have used it as an extension of the school.  By 1892, and probably before, it also was the residence of Miss Isobel Louisa Briggs, the school's principal.

In about 1893, Mrs. Shaw began closing the school and thereafter appears to have used 6 Marlborough for other purposes.

8 Marlborough remained Miss Brigg's home.  In 1894, she was joined there by Mary Parker Follett, a Radcliffe student who had been invited by Mrs. Shaw to present a series of lectures to her older students.  Mary Follett subsequently became a leader in social reform work, and later was respected author and lecturer on human relations, democratic organization, and management.

Mary Follett soon moved, but Isobel Briggs continued to live at 8 Marlborough until about 1897, when she moved to Putney, Vermont.

Isobel Briggs and Mary Follett moved back to 8 Marlborough in late 1900 (they had re-united and lived together for two years in Vermont).  They continued to live there until October of 1908, when Mrs. Shaw sold the house to William Chester Chase, an architect, and his wife, Adelaide Cole Chase, an artist of still lifes and portraits.  Adelaide Chase is shown as the owner on the 1917 and 1928 Bromley maps.

Isobel Briggs and Mary Follett moved to an apartment at 5 Otis Place.  Mrs. Shaw continued to underwrite many of Mary Follett's projects and to pay her (and Isobel Briggs) a stipend which continued until Mrs. Shaw's death in 1917.

William and Adelaide Chase accepted lodgers and also rented space for use as medical offices. Between 1910 and about 1913, Dr. Herman W. Marshall lodged with them and maintained his medical offices there.  And in 1925, Dr. Robert B. Greenough, a professor at Harvard Medical School and a physician, and Dr. William Henry Smith, an instructor at Harvard and a physician, maintained their medical offices at 8 Marlborough.

The Chases continued to live at 8 Marlborough in 1937, and probably later.  They also maintained a summer residence at Annisquam.  Adelaide Chase continued to be shown as the owner of 8 Marlborough on the 1938 Bromley map.

By 1954, 8 Marlborough was owned by S. Clifford Speed.  In October of 1954, he converted the house from a single-family dwelling into an eight family dwelling.