135 Marlborough is located on the north side of Marlborough, between Clarendon and Dartmouth, with 133 Marlborough to the east and 137 Marlborough (317 Dartmouth) to the west.

135 Marlborough was designed by Cabot and Chandler, architects, and built in 1880 by Weston & Shepard and B. D. Whitcomb, builders, for Henry Lee, Jr., on land he purchased from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on November 18, 1879. He is shown as the owner on the original building permit application, dated December 23, 1879.

The house was built on the eastern 28 feet 2 inches of a 36 foot wide lot, leaving an open strip 7 feet 10 inches wide to the west, thereby allowing windows and an octagonal bay on the western wall.

Click here for an index to the deeds for 135 Marlborough, and click here for further information about the land between the north side of Marlborough and Alley 419, from Clarendon to Dartmouth.

Henry Lee, Jr., was a partner in the investment banking firm of Lee, Higginson and Company. He and his wife, Elizabeth Perkins (Cabot) Lee, lived in Brookline.

135 Marlborough became the home of the Lees’ son-in-law and daughter, Dr. Frederick Cheever Shattuck and Elizabeth Perkins (Lee) Shattuck. They previously had lived at 22 Brimmer.

Frederick Shattuck was a physician and would later become a professor of clinical medicine at Harvard Medical School.

On December 8, 1882, Henry Lee transferred 135 Marlborough to his daughter.

The Shattucks’ raised their four children at 135 Marlborough: George Cheever Shattuck, Henry Lee Shattuck, Elizabeth Perkins Shattuck, and Clara Lee Shattuck.  George and Henry Shattuck were twins.

The Shattucks also maintained a home in Beverly Farms and later in Dark Harbor, Maine, and in Brookline.

Elizabeth Shattuck married in August of 1906 to Henry Bryant Bigelow of 251 Commonwealth. After their marriage, they lived in Concord, Massachusetts,  A marine biologist and oceanographer, he was a founder of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and served as its first director, from 1930 to 1939.

In January of 1907, Elizabeth Shattuck purchased 319 Dartmouth, around the corner from their home, which she leased to others.

Clara Shattuck married in May of 1917 to Dr. Edward Pierson Richardson, a physician and surgeon. After their marriage, they lived at 319 Dartmouth. They subsequently moved to Brookline and she died in December of 1921.

George Shattuck, a physician, and Henry Shattuck, a lawyer, continued to live at 135 Marlborough with their parents.

Frederick Shattuck died in January of 1929. After his death, Elizabeth Shattuck and their two sons moved to Brookline.

Elizabeth Shattuck died in April of 1931.  135 Marlborough became the property of a trust established in her will for the benefit of her daughter, Elizabeth (Shattuck) Bigelow, and her son-in-law, Edward Pierson Richardson.

135 Marlborough was not listed in the 1930-1937 Blue Books and was shown as vacant in the 1934 and 1936 City Directories.

On January 15, 1937, 135 Marlborough was purchased from the trustees for Elizabeth Bigelow and Edward Richardson by Benjamin George Brooker, a certified public accountant and real estate dealer. He lived at 433 Beacon (which he owned and remodeled into an apartment building) and then in Newton.

In January of 1937, he applied for (and subsequently received) permission to remodel 135 Marlborough and convert it from a single-family dwelling into a ten-unit apartment house.  The remodeling was designed by architect Herman L. Feer and included replacing a sloped roof, large tudor gable, and baronial chimney with a simple, flat-sided top.  The brick ornamentation on the lower floors was retained.

By 1947, Benjamin Brooker had also acquired 133 Marlborough, where he moved to one of the apartments.  In October of 1948, he applied for (and received) permission to cut through doors between the two buildings.

The permit application for 135 Marlborough indicates that the front entrance would be lowered; however, this change was made at 133 Marlborough instead, and the entrance to 135 Marlborough was not altered.  Plans for combining the buildings and lowering the front entrance of 135 Marlborough, designed by architectural engineer Mendal Waters, are included in the City of Boston Blueprints Collection in the Boston City Archives (reference BIN R-91).

On July 17, 1950, he transferred 133-135 Marlborough to himself as trustee of the Mass. Realty Trust.

133-135 Marlborough changed hands, and on February 1, 1962, were acquired by the Stephen Realty Corporation (Alton G. Cherney, treasurer).

On October 9, 1980, 133-135 Beacon were acquired from the Stephen Realty Corporation by Laurence J. Shapiro and Arthur Gauthier, trustees of the 133-135 Marlborough Street Associates Trust.

On February 27, 1981, they converted the properties into 13 condominium units at 133 Marlborough and 11 condominium units at 135 Marlborough, the 133-135 Marlborough Street Condominium.