30 Summit Street

1890 In 1890, the Lawrence heirs sold William Ormsby Lot No. 57 of the Lawrence Estates (MLR 1973/286) and sold Frank Ormsby Lot No. 58 (MLR 1973/285). There was no mention of houses in the deeds. Lot No. 57 was at the corner of Lawrence and Summit Streets (and included most of today's lots of both No. 80 and No. 82 Lawrence Street) and Lot No. 58 was the next lot west along Summit Street, that of No. 30 Summit Street.

1903 Frank H. Ormsby sold Lot No. 58 to George B. Seymour for $250 in 1903, with nothing specified in the deed about a house (MLR 3160/341).

1904 Oriville H. Ormsby, wife of William Ormsby, sold Lot No. 57 to Hattie E. Butman, wife of Fred L. Butman, in September of 1904, with nothing specified in the deed about a house (MLR 3119/392). A couple of days later, the guardian of a minor Ormsby sold his interest in the same lot to the Butmans (MLR 3120/336).

1905 The Butmans bought Lot No. 58 from George Seymour in May, 1905 (MLR 3161/262). At that time, Lot No. 58 measured about 70 feet along Summit Street.

1906 On April 9, 1906, the Butmans sold both Worth (owner of 82 Lawrence Street on the northern part of Lot No. 57) and Kenny (owner of 80 Lawrence Street on the southern part of Lot No. 57) 20 foot extensions of their lots to the west, into what had been part of Lawrence Estates Lot No. 58 (MLR 3227/436 & 437). The Butmans had sold the houses to Worth and Kenny the year before, and were probably responsible for their construction. The two houses have very similar architecture.

Also on April 9, 1906, the Butmans sold the western part of Lot No. 58 to Adeline Podmore, wife of John Podmore (MLR 3224/552). The lot then measured only about 50 feet along Summit Street. The first listing for 30 Summit Street in the annual listing of voters was in 1906, for John Podmore. Therefore, the house at No. 30 Summit Street was probably built for Fred and Hattie Butman in 1905-1906, and the Podmores were the first to live there. According to the 1910 city directory, John Podmore was a book finisher in Boston. The Podmores continued to live there until 1921.

It is interesting to note that the Butmans also developed and sold the houses at No. 36 and No. 40 Summit Street around this same time, and the architecture of all three houses is very similar. The Butmans were not architects or builders, and the actual builder of the houses is unknown.

1921 The Podmores sold the house to Ernest E. Barr in 1921 (MLR 4437/539), and the Barrs took out a mortgage with the Watertown Cooperative Bank at the same time for $3,400 (MLR 4437/540). Ernest Barr was a printer, according to the 1949 annual listings, and the Barr family continued to live there until 1958.

1958 In 1958, Mary E. Barr sold the house to Francis and Barbara Maloney (MLR 9192/514). Ernest Barr had deeded the house to his wife, Margaret A. Barr in 1921 (MLR 4475/279), and Margaret had deeded it to Mary E. Barr in 1937 (MLR 8942/485). Frank Maloney was listed as an industrial photographer, and the Maloneys lived there until 2018. It is interesting to note that Frank Maloney was an avid collector of native American stone artifacts, and claimed he had found many stone arrow heads in his back yard. He thought there was an outcrop of ledge at the back of his yard that had been used by native Americans as an arrowhead workshop.