35 Summit Street

35 Summit Street

1913 Ella S. Sherman and other Lawrence heirs sold Lots 72 through 75 and parts of Lots 76 through 78 of the Lawrence Estates to Fred L. Butman in 1913 (MLR 3853/430). These were all the lots along the north side of Summit Street from one house lot east of present day Galen Street all the way to present day Tomlin Street. No buildings were mentioned in the deed, and none were shown on the 1911 Waltham Engineer's map. The deed mentioned that Tomlin Street was recently laid out by the city, and that there was a stone wall along the northern border of this deeded land. This stone wall marked the southernmost Squadron Line of the 1636 Great Dividend land grants, the original colonial land grants to individuals within what became Waltham. This stone wall is shown on maps of the late 1800s and early 1900s, and a remnant of it can still be seen from Galen Street at the back of the lot of 35 Summit Street. Another remnant stone wall marking this boundary line can be seen crossing the Ridge Trail in Prospect Hill Park between Big Prospect and Little Prospect peaks. On maps, these two remnants line up along the same straight line.

1914 Fred L. Butman subdivided his land in 1914 (Plan Book 221, Plan 1) and then sold off Lot C to Joseph Rodier (MLR 3888/58). Nothing was mentioned in the deed about a house.

1925 On May 11, 1925, Joseph Rodier sold Lot C to Patrick A. Dalton (MLR 4842/246). In the deed, Dalton was referred to as living in Watertown at the time, and the deed stated that no building could be built within 30 feet of Summit Street. There is no building shown on the lot in the 1923 Waltham Engineer's map, but there was a house shown there on the 1928 map. In May 1925, Dalton took out a building permit to build a single dwelling at 35 Summit Street for $7000. In June 1925, Dalton took out a mortgage for the property with the Watertown Cooperative Bank for $4600 (MLR 4859/199). In the mortgage deed, it said "with buildings thereon". Dalton's sister-in-law, Mary M. Hayes, who would live with him in Waltham, had taken out a mortgage on a lot, with a house on it, in Watertown the previous month for $4400 (MLR 4847/529). No voters were listed as living at 35 Summit Street prior to 1926, when Dalton first appeared; and no one was listed as living at 35 Summit Street in the city directories through 1925, with Dalton listed there in 1927. Therefore, it appears that the house at 35 Summit Street was probably built for Patrick A. Dalton in 1925, and that he did not live in Waltham prior to this time.

In the 1920 census, Patrick A. Dalton was listed as living in Boston with his daughter, Helen F. Dalton, and his sister-in-law, Mary M. Hayes. His occupation was given as superintendent of wholesale gears (copy not clear). Dalton had immigrated from Ireland in 1908 and married Jennie E. Hayes in 1912. In the 1926 annual listing of voters, he was listed as a superintendent of stores, and Mary M. Hayes is listed as a housewife.

1928 Unfortunately, Patrick Dalton did not have long to enjoy his new house in Waltham, since he died in 1928. He was listed in the 1928 annual listing of voters, but was gone by the 1929 listing. In a deed from 1928, it was stated that he died in 1928 and that Mary M. Hayes was the executrix of his estate (MLR 5271/38).

1930 In the 1930 census, Helen F. Dalton and Mary M. Hayes were listed at 35 Summit Street. They were both still there in the 1940 census, with Helen listed as a clerk. However, Helen F. Dalton was no longer there after 1944, according to the annual listings, but reappeared in 1946 as Helen F. Corbett, along with John W. Corbett, presumable wife and husband. Mary M. Hayes continued to live at 35 Summit Street into the 1960s, and the Corbetts continued to live there into the 1990s.

Galen Street

1907 The part of Galen Street north of Dale Street was first mentioned as a planned street in the Plan of Land of Arthur P. Smith drawn up by Beal and French in May 1907 (cited in MLR 4298/417). Smith had bought a large lot north of Dale Street and just west of Oel Farnsworth's house lot at 167 Dale Street, in 1889, from Martha and Mary Worcester (MLR 1920/123). This was shown on the 1918 Waltham Engineer's map with the street laid out, but no houses yet built on the house lots. On the 1923 map, the sub division was then owned by B.C. Ames, and some houses had been built, but only along Dale Street. By 1928, the map shows some houses built along the part of Galen Street north of Dale, and the unsold lots belonging to Louis J. Reynolds.

1908 The part of Galen Street going south from Dale Street was first mentioned in a deed dated January 3, 1908 from Eva L. Johnson, James Wentworth's daughter, for the lot at 236 Dale Street, in which what would become Galen Street, south from Dale Street, is referred to as a "proposed street to be called Wentworth Avenue" (MLR 3345/312). The street was reported to be shown in a subdivision plan drawn up for the heirs of Susan M. Wentworth by F.I. Garfield and recorded in Plan Book 169, Plan 45. It was not clear where the southern end of the street would be. No street was shown in the area on the 1918 Waltham Engineer's map, but an earlier, but undated, Waltham Engineer's map, p. 22, showed a proposed street starting at the northern end of today's Galen Street on Dale Street and ending at the intersection of Irving, Hawthorne, Tomlin, and Summit Streets. The 1923 Engineer's map showed the part of the street near Dale was already laid out, with a large vacant lot on its west side, south of 236 Dale Street, and that now "Galen Street" was proposed to continue south as it was eventually built. The 1928 Waltham Engineer's map showed that the large vacant lot on the west side of "Galen Street" near Dale Street was then owned by Charles H. Hemenway and had been subdivided into three house lots, labeled A, B, C. These would eventually become the lots for 52, 46, and 40 Galen Street. Hemenway had gotten the land from Frances N. Brown in 1927 (MLR 5061/134), who got it from John J. Whalen in 1916 (MLR 4099/242), who got it from Eva L. Johnson in 1913 (MLR 3786/233). In all these deeds, the street had been referred to as "Wentworth Avenue". The southern end of the proposed "Galen Street", on the 1928 Engineer's map, entered Summit Street through a vacant house lot on the north side of Summit Street owned by Colby Larson.

1928 In January 1928, Hemenway, who was a large developer in the city, sold the combined lot for all three houses to Donald E. McKay (MLR 5195/551). In the deed the street was referred to as "a private street called Wentworth Avenue", and no houses were mentioned. McKay immediately sold the lot for just 52 Galen Street to Pasquole Colleti (MLR 5195/552). In the deed, the street is called Galen Street, but nothing is said about a house. Colleti than took out a mortgage for $4,800 from McKay (MLR 5195/552), which was discharged later in May 1928 (MLR 5229/508). However, the story becomes more complicated, since there was a foreclosure on the property in June 1928, in which "buildings" were mentioned (MLR 5246/475). The house then went through a series of rapid sales (MLR 5323/491 and 5332/362), until it went to Ralph W. Adler from the Waltham Cooperative Bank, in 1929 (MLR 5348/219). Adler was listed for the first time as voting at 52 Galen Street in the 1930 annual listing, and as a clerk living at 52 Galen Street in the 1930 directory. Also listed for the first time as voting at 46 Galen Street in 1930 was Edward P. Noonan, and as a postal carrier living there in the 1930 directory. Also in the 1930 directory, Henry A. Stamm, a knitter, is listed for the first time as living at 40 Galen Street. Therefore, all three houses: 52, 46, and 40 Galen Street were probably built between 1928 and 1929 on what was then called Galen Street, although it did not yet go through all the way to Summit Street.

1938 Finally, in 1938, the Waltham City Council authorized the taking of land in order to build Galen Street through as a public way from Dale Street to Summit Street (MLR 6244/472). The lot to the east of 35 Summit Street had sat vacant all this time, although owned by Frances and Annie Creed for ten years, having been bought from Colby Larson in 1928 (MLR 5251/585). In the taking, it was stated that the city would only have to pay for the land, since the road construction would be performed by the W.P.A., which was a major, national Great Depression relief organization. In fact, the construction may not have been done until 1940, since it is in that year that land was actually deeded to the city (see, for example, MLR 6442/345). This is probably why the street is "S" shaped since the part leaving Dale Street was built in the 1920s and then connected to the vacant lot on Summit Street around 1940. Once built, the street allowed subdivision of the larger lots along it. According to the 1928 Waltham Engineer's Map, the large vacant lot on the west of the future Galen Street was owned by Ellen M. Hession, and the one on the east of the future street by Frank L. Wentworth. So, most of the houses along the mid section of the street were built in the 1940s and 1950s, with only the three at the northern end on the western side built at the end of the 1920s.

Standing at the corner of Galen and Summit Streets and looking down Galen Street you can see 300 years of history from the stone wall dating to the earliest land grants of the 1630s to the construction of the street in the late 1930s or early 1940s by the W.P.A. Depression relief organization.