Pre-Contact
Boston, and its surroundings, is nestled in a large basin formed by the three rivers, the Charles, the Neponset, and the Mystic. The three drain into the Atlantic through Boston harbor. Around these rivers, the land is relatively flat and fertile, which is bordered by granite hills. These stretch from Lynn and Saugus, through Malden, Medford, Arlington and finally Waltham. Towards the south of Boston, many drumlins (smoothed and amalgamated remnants of ice sheet withdrawal) dot the landscape from the Blue Hills through to central Boston.
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Topographical map of Boston Basin; CG Curtis. 1900
As the ice sheets shrank back up to the poles across the ice ages, they eroded the softer rocks inside the Basin, leaving behind the fertile plains, and these very drumlins. The Clarendon Hills, where Metropolitan Avenue is located is one of these drumlins.
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Before contact with Western immigrants, the area around Clarendon Hills was part of the Massachusett tribe's land. With the proximity of Stony Brook running through forests rich with deer, wolves and rabbit, and fields which could support agriculture, there were no doubt small settlements dotted through the area. Unfortunately, few remains of these have been found. A summer hunting camp in the Arboretum excavated by the City of Boston Archaeologist being the best source, as of 2020.
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It is also likely, that many of our major roads which were laid down in the 1600s & 1700s and still run through the area, were originally horse and cart paths made by the immigrants. These likely followed original Native American trails through the woods, which likely followed paths made by the wild animals as they travel between shelter, water and food sources. Hence the original winding around natural hills and ponds (think South St) as opposed to the straight roads (think Washington St) which go mostly through and over obstacles.
This photo found at the New England Historical Society from an unknown photographer in 1920 shows "Clarendon Hills, a typical drumlin". We are still trying to figure out exactly the directionality of this photo. But the road in the top right corner is likely Washington St, heading south, perhaps over Bellvue Hill with the water tower on top just visible.
The street running west/east with two houses is perhaps Beech St.
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A distinct house with turret on the right hand side of the photo should help us place this in today's Roslindale, but we have not yet managed to do so. The grand house in the foreground, is likewise currently not placed.
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Are we standing on Cummings Highway, almost on Mt Hope looking South?
Colonial history up to today
Until the mid-1850s, Roslindale was little more than junction of some major roads (Poplar, South, Washington) with a tavern and Inn in the centre, large farms (dairy we believe mostly), and a few scattered houses. A passage from Boston, West Roxbury, Dedham and Hyde Park.
Around the late 1880s period the railways became prevalent, along with property speculators, and so the history of 318 Met and its land, springs from around this time. Interestingly, Blanche Hamilton Fox, interviewed for a newspaper said she regarded herself as a 'country girl', and not a city girl at all. From 1874, Roslindale was part of the City of Boston, but clearly was more rural than today.
The occupations of the first owners of the land of 318 Met Ave reflect this - they were manual workers, farm laborers etc. But after the arrival of the railway at Clarendon Hills (at the bottom of Met Ave & Dale St, where the pedestrian bridge is today), access to the City of Boston, as well as New York and other large New England towns became possible.
Wealth would ensure access to land near the railways (Clarendon Hills Station). This part of Roslindale/Hyde Park was not so much a Streetcar Suburb, but rather a Railway Suburb - more like the suburbs we have today.
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The story of the house at 318 Metropolitan Avenue can be broken up into periods which reflect the families living there, and the times they lived in.
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The plot of land has contained a dwelling from at least the 1870s, and during this period was owned by the Weemans. From 1880 the house was owned by the Macdonald family until the turn of the century. The house which now stands took around 2 years to build, between 1899 and 1901, and was built by the Patrick Albert Fox (wealthy from newspapers) and his wife Isabella Hamilton Fox (née Dunn), who's had lived very close on Poplar St, for 25 years already.
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Between 1920 and the early 1940s, the house was home to the Carroll family (Francis was a wealthy big shot lawyer), but it was then sold to a developer who cut the house in half between 1941 & 1943. The smaller southeastern part now exists as its own structure at 44 Maynard Street - two houses away.
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From 1947, after the split, a pastor, Francis Reade, and his family lived in 318 Met, and in the 1950s through to the 1960s, the Borofskis occupied the house with a family of children and then with lodgers. By 1966, the house was home to the Naddaff family.
The 1980s saw two families (and various tenants) live in the house. Beverly and Andre Banfield up to 1985, and then Brian Foley and Marilyn Martin until 2016. Each rented out the two bedrooms on the top floor.
Adam Shutes and Vissia Viglietta, who had lived on Seymour St, less than half a mile away, bought the house in 2016, and have been there since.
House as it was in the 1925
