115 Beacon is located on the south side of Beacon, between Arlington and Berkeley, with 113 Beacon to the east and 117 Beacon to the west.

115 Beacon was designed by architect Nathaniel J. Bradlee and built ca. 1863, one of two contiguous houses (113-115 Beacon) built for the estate of Mace Tisdale, who had died in November of 1861.

The land on which 113-115 Beacon were built was purchased on November 12, 1862, by Seth Pettee, trustee for the estate of Mace Tisdale, from William Warren Goddard and Abbott Lawrence. It was part of a tract of land William Goddard and Abbott Lawrence’s brother, T. Bigelow Lawrence, had purchased from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on August 1, 1857. That tract included all of the land on the south side of Beacon Street from Arlington to Berkeley.

Click here for an index to the deeds for 115 Beacon, and click here for further information about the land on the south side of Beacon from Arlington to Berkeley, north of Alley 421.

Click here to see the original plans for 113-115 Beacon.

113 Beacon became the home of Mace Tisdale’s only surviving child, Frances Ann (Tisdale) Bradlee, widow of John Rice Bradlee. 115 Beacon became the home of her son and daughter-in-law. dry goods merchant John Tisdale Bradlee and Sarah Elizabeth (Goddard) Bradlee. They previously had lived at 28 Edinborough. Although they shared the same surname, it does not appear that the architect, Nathaniel Bradlee, and John Rice Bradlee were closely related.

Frances Bradlee died in July of 1867. After her death, John and Sarah Bradlee moved to 113 Beacon. The Mace Tisdale estate continued to own both houses until July 11, 1887, when they were transferred into John Bradlee’s name.

By 1869, 115 Beacon was the home of John Collamore, an importer of crockery.  He was a widower and lived at 115 Beacon with his unmarried daughters, Eliza and Helen Collamore. They previously had lived at 1 Ashburton Place.

John Collamore died in April of 1884. Eliza and Helen Collamore continued to live at 115 Beacon during the 1891-1892 winter season. They also maintained a home in Swampscott. In July of 1892 they purchased and subsequently moved to 317 Commonwealth.

By the 1892-1893 winter season, 115 Beacon was the home of dry goods and wool merchant Edgar Harding and his wife, Sarah Marston (Robinson) Harding.  They previously had lived in Cambridge. They also maintained a home at Woods Hole in Falmouth.

The Hardings continued to live at 115 Beacon in 1895.  In September of 1895, they purchased and subsequently moved to 324 Beacon.

115 Beacon was not listed in the 1897 and 1898 Blue Books.

By October of 1898, it was the home of Rev. John Adams Bellows, a Unitarian clergyman, and his wife, Isabel (Francis) Bellows. They operated a boarding and day school for girls in the house.  They previously had lived in Portland, Maine, where they also had boarding and day school in their home. They continued to live at 115 Beacon until about 1910, when they moved to Brookline.

The house was not listed in the 1911 Blue Book.

By the 1911-1912 winter season, 115 Beacon was the home of Miss Lucretia Stevens Heckscher, whose primary residence was in Philadelphia.  She continued to live at 115 Beacon until about 1922. By the 1923-1924 winter season she was living at Tregoze in Radnor, Pennsylvania; it remained her home at the time of her death in June of 1949.

The house was not listed in the 1923 Blue Book.

John Tisdale Bradlee had died in May of 1908, and Sarah (Goddard) Bradlee had continued to live at 113 Beacon and own 115 Beacon until her death in January of 1923. In October of 1923, the Bradlee family leased 115 Beacon to the Erskine School, operated by Miss Euphemia Elizabeth McClintock, who lived at 129 Beacon.

A native of South Carolina, Euphemia McClintock had served as president of the College for Women in Columbia, South Carolina, until it merged with Chicora College in 1915.  She moved to Boston, where her sister, Mary Law McClintock, operated Miss McClintock’s School for Girls at 4 Arlington. Euphemia McClintock established the Erskine School for Young Women in 1920 to provide vocational and business training courses for girls who had graduated from private schools such as her sister’s.

On December 1, 1923, 115 Beacon was purchased from the Bradlee family by Addie (Ann) May (Brown) Greenman, the wife of Charles Edward Greenman, a sole leather manufacturer and dealer. They lived in Haverhill. The purchase was subject to the lease with Euphemia McClintock.

By the 1924-1925 winter season, Erskine School had leased 111 Beacon and 115 Beacon subsequently became the Greenmans’ home.  Their adult children, Althine Hopkinson Greenman and Charles Edward Greenman, Jr., a leather dealer in his father’s firm, lived with them. They also maintained a home in Hampton, New Hampshire. By the 1926-1927 winter season, they had been joined by James E. Buttolph, a lodger who also probably was a salesman with Charles Greenman’s firm.

Althine Greenman married in October of 1928 to Joseph C. Kennedy, After their marriage, they lived with her parents at 115 Beacon and in Hampton. He was a leather dealer associated with his father-in-law’s firm.

Charles Greenman died in September of 1929, and Addie Greenman, Charles Greenman, Jr., and the Kennedys moved soon thereafter. Addie Greenman continued to own 115 Beacon.

The house was not listed in the 1931 and 1932 Blue Books, and is shown as vacant in the 1931 and 1932 City Directories.

By 1933, Erskine School once again occupied 115 Beacon as a dormitory, leasing the house from Addie Greenman.

By 1937, Erskine School occupied seven buildings on the south side of Beacon between Arlington and Berkeley: 105, 111, 115, 129, 135, and 145 Beacon, and 303 Berkeley (147 Beacon).

On November 27, 1938, the basement and a portion of the first floor of 115 Beacon were damaged by fire.

The school continued to occupy the property as a dormitory until about 1941.

On July 30, 1942, 115 Beacon was acquired from Addie Greenman by Elizabeth Krauss, who lived at 141 Beacon. which she leased and operated a lodging house. She previously had lived in New York.

In December of 1942, Elizabeth Krauss applied for (and subsequently received) permission to convert 115 Beacon into a lodging house.  At the same time, Max and Emma Feer converted 113 Beacon from a single-family dwelling to a lodging house.  Connecting fire balconies were constructed between the two buildings.

Elizabeth Krauss operated both 115 and 141 Beacon as lodging houses. She continued to live at 141 Beacon and also may have maintained a residence at 115 Beacon between about 1945 and 1955.  Her brother-in-law and sister, Francis Ford Flanagan and Catharine (Krauss) Flanagan lived at 139 Beacon, where they operated a lodging house.

During the 1940s, Elizabeth Krauss bought several more lodging houses and apartment buildings in the Back Bay. In June of 1944 she purchased 418 Beacon (which she sold in 1946 but continued to operate as a lodging house until the mid-1950s), in August of 1944 she and her sister, Catharine Flanagan, purchased 131 Beacon (which they sold in 1959), in January of 1946, she purchased 391 Beacon, and in July of 1946 she purchased 70 Commonwealth (which she sold in 1950).

In March of 1948, she purchased 141 Beacon, which she had continued to lease and operate as a lodging house. In June of 1955, she purchased the lodging house at 15 Marlborough which she sold in 1958.

Catherine (Krauss) Flanagan died in February of 1970 and in September of 1972 Elizabeth Krauss acquired 139 Beacon from their sister, Marie (Krauss) Majane, who had inherited it from Catherine Krauss.

Elizabeth Krauss continued to own and live at 141 Beacon in the 1980s and to own 115 Beacon, 139 Beacon, and 391 Beacon.

In 1989, Gary Douglas Rose (the grandson of Elizabeth Krauss’s brother, Andrew Krauss) and Hanson S. Reynolds were named co-guardians of Elizabeth Krauss.  On October 10, 1997, they transferred 115 Beacon to themselves as trustees of the Elizabeth Krauss Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust. On the same day, they also transferred 139 Beacon, 141 Beacon, and 391 Beacon to themselves as trustees of the Elizabeth Krauss 1997 Revocable Trust.

On October 30, 1997, 115 Beacon was acquired from the trustees by Fisher College.  At the same time, the college also purchased 139-141 Beacon.

115 Beacon was assessed as an apartment house in 2025.

As of 2022, Fisher College owned 102-104–106–108–110–112–114–116–118 Beacon, 111 Beacon, 115 Beacon, 131–133 Beacon, 139–141 Beacon, and 1 Arlington.