|
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 70 EAST STREET
<br /> MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
<br />220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
<br />Continuation sheet 5
<br /> LEX.710
<br />immigrant domestic servant. Timothy and Barbara Fiske had nine children—William E., Annie L., Georgie L., Addie A., John T.,
<br />Joseph H., Mary A., Arthur E., and Hattie E.—born between 1859 and 1876.
<br />In August 1873 Timothy Fiske sold 70 East Street and four acres of land on the north side of East Street to Ebenezer Stone of Boston for $2600 and built 71 East Street on the south side for himself and his family.14 The deed excluded a printer’s shop that
<br />stood on the property and reserved to Fiske three months’ rent-free use of the shop; the shop and the crops growing on the parcel would be removed by the end of that term. “E. Stone” is shown as the owner of the dwelling on the 1875 Lexington map,
<br />but he owned the property for only seven years, renting it out for most of the time.15 He sold it in 1880 to Ira F. Burnham.16 Burnham (1844-1911), born in Essex, and his son Albert (born 1866) were market gardeners and owned the property until 1891;
<br />1890s directories indicate, however, that the Burnham family they may have continued to occupy the farm into the 1940s.17 In May 1891 Burnham sold the property to Lucy West Bryant, who mortgaged it and defaulted, and in 1892 Timothy Fiske’s son
<br />William acquired the nine-acre property at auction for $1700.18 The 1908 directory, however, shows him as boarding at his father’s 71 East Street house, and after his father’s death he is listed at the same address, on East Street “2d right from
<br />Adams.”19 In 1905 the wedding of Joseph Fiske, Joseph Fiske Jr.’s great grandson, and Lena Tukey of Portland, Maine, took place in the house; they went on to rent the house until 1919.20 In 1940 Fiske lived at 71 East Street with his sisters Mary, a
<br />dressmaker, and Georgia, a widowed housekeeper. In the 1942 directory, William E. Fiske is listed at 71 East Street, while the Burnhams were at 30 and 34 East Street; 70 East Street was then vacant.
<br /> In 1943 William E. Fiske died, and his siblings sold 70 East Street in March 1946 to John L. and Doris J. Craig of Belmont, who
<br />sold it the next year to Harriet H. Esterheld of Philadelphia.21 Esterheld in turn sold it less than a year later to Francis C. and Frances C. Arsenault, who owned 70 East Street until 1979. They sold the property to Gladys M. Moore, who sold it in 1987 to
<br />Susan DeGiacomo Hammond, who may have been renting the house at the time. In 1994 Hammond sold 70 East Street to Edwin Hunterson Henrie II and his wife Leslie H. Wilcott-Henrie, who were the owners of record in 2021.22
<br />
<br />
<br />14 Timothy K. Fiske to Ebenezer Stone, 2 August 1873, MSD 1273:42. 15 In his typescript account, Timothy K. Fiske stated, “Mr. Eben Stone let the house to Granville Winship fr two years, Albert Chapman two years, Obed Fullerton one year.” 16 Ebenezer Stone, Boston, to Ira F. Burnham, 1 July 1880, MSD 1545:265. 17 Directories describe Burnham’s house as being on East Street “2d left from Adams.” 18 Ira F. Burnham to Lucy W. Bryant, 12 May 1891, MSD 2040:522; Edward W. Bettinson to William E. Fiske, 1 December 1892, 2162:296. 19 According to Timothy K. Fiske, the house “was let to a Mr. Woodruff, Mr. Arthur Simonds and a Mr. Maloney for short periods. During the summer season of 1900 it was let to Mr. & Mrs. Fred Jackson (Georgie Fiske) and in 1901 during the summer season to Mr. Isaac Hammond of Cambridge.” 20 As related in Timothy K. Fiske’s account. 21 John T. and Susie Maude Fiske, Joseph H. and Lena E. Fiske, George L. Jackson, and Mary A. Fiske, all Lexington, and Hattie E. and Richard S. Coffin, Wollaston, et al to John L. and Doris J. Craig, Belmont, 19 March 1946, MSD 6950:59; John L. and Doris J. Craig, Belmont, to Harriet H. Esterheld, Philadelphia, 15 December 1947, MSD 7231:45. 22 Harriet H. Esterheld, Philadelphia PA, to Francis E. and Frances C. Arsenault, Waltham, 1 September 1948, MSD 7333:335; Francis E. and Frances C. Arsenault to Gladys M. Moore, 5 June 1979, MSC 13706:494; Gladys M. Moore to Susan DeGiacomo Hammond, 70 East Street, 14 October 1987, MSD 18615:330; Susan DeGiacomo Hammond to Edwin Hunterson Henrie II and Leslie H. Wilcott-Henrie, 70 East Street, 11 October 1994, MSD 24915:20. The 70 East Street house may be depicted on “Plan of Land in Lexington, Mass.,” 18 October 1947, MSP Plan 1838 of 1947 and Lot 2 on “Plan of Land in Lexington, Massachusetts,” 17 March 1948 being Plan 316 of 1948, neither of which can be accessed on the Middlesex South Registry of Deeds website.
|