21 Commonwealth is located on the north side of Commonwealth, between Arlington and Berkeley, with 19 Commonwealth to the east and 23 Commonwealth to the west.

21 Commonwealth was built ca. 1868, one of two houses (21-23 Commonwealth) built at the same time and designed to form a symmetrical composition.

21 Commonwealth was built as the home of John Appleton Burnham and his wife, Jane Isabelle (Denison) Burnham. 23 Commonwealth was built as the home of Daniel Nicolson Spooner and his wife, Elizabeth Elliot (Torrey) Spooner.

The land on which 21-23 Commonwealth were built was part of a larger tract of land purchased from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on May 2, 1860, by shipping merchant and US Congressman Samuel Hooper. The tract extended west from the lot where 11 Commonwealth would be built to the corner of Commonwealth and Berkeley. Samuel Hooper and his wife, Anne (Sturgis) Hooper, built their home on the corner lot, at 27 Commonwealth.

On July 2, 1860, Samuel Hooper sold a lot with a 60 foot frontage, where 21-23 Commonwealth would be built, to Gardiner Howland Shaw, and on July 10, 1865, G. Howland Shaw sold it to John C. Gray.  John Gray sold the western portion of the lot, with a 20 foot frontage, to Daniel Spooner on January 29, 1867, at which time he indicated that had contracted to sell the land the east to Joseph B. Moors. That sale apparently did not close and on March 29, 1867, he sold the eastern portion, with a 29.5 foot frontage, to John Burnham, and the strip in the middle, with a 10.5 foot frontage, to Daniel Spooner, bringing that lot to 30.5 feet.

Click here for an index to the deeds for 21 Commonwealth, and click here for further information about the land between the north side of Commonwealth and Alley 422, from Arlington to Berkeley.

By 1869, John and Jane Burnham had made 21 Commonwealth their home. They previously had lived in Brookline, where they continued to maintain a home.  John Burnham was agent for various cotton mills and also served as President of the Nashua Iron and Steel Company.

The Burnhams’ three unmarried children – Maria Denison Burnham, William Appleton Burnham, and Henry Denison Burnham – lived with them. Their daughter, Jane Denison Burnham, had married in October of 1865 to Joseph Hinckley Clark, a banker in Philadelphia, where they lived after their marriage, and their son, John Appleton Burnham, Jr., a cotton merchant in his father’s firm, had married in October of 1866 to J. Hinckley Clark’s sister, Mary White Clark. John and Mary Burnham lived at 5 Newbury and then at 57 Commonwealth.

William A. Burnham graduated from Harvard in 1874 and went to Paris in 1876 to study architecture at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. He married in June of 1879 to Alice Munroe of Paris.  After their marriage, they lived briefly with his parents at 21 Commonwealth and then moved by the 1880-1881 winter season to 87 Beacon.

In 1881, John Burnham built a stable at 356 Newbury. It continued to be in his family until 1901.

John Burnham died in August of 1883.  Jane Burnham continued to live at 21 Commonwealth with their unmarried children, Maria and Henry.

Maria Burnham married In April of 1885 to Charles Fry, an attorney.  After their marriage, they lived at 21 Commonwealth with Jane Burnham.  In 1892, they built a home, Birnam, in Bar Harbor.

Henry Burnham married in April of 1888 to Johanna Heckscher of Philadelphia. After their marriage they lived at 293 Beacon.

Jane Burnham died in March of 1899. The Frys continued to live at 21 Commonwealth after her death.

The property was owned by a trust established under John Burnham’s will for the benefit of his five children, with John, Henry, and William Burnham as the trustees. In August of 1900, they offered the house for sale.

The Frys traveled to Europe for the 1900-1901 winter season. They returned in June of 1901²² and lived at 253 Marlborough during the 1901-1902 winter season.

21 Commonwealth did not sell and on July 2, 1902, the Frys acquired the house and transferred it to a separate trust for the benefit of Maria Fry, with John, Henry, and William Burnham as the trustees.

By the 1902-1903 winter season, the Frys were living at 21 Commonwealth again.

Maria Fry died in February of 1906, and Charles Fry continued to live at 21 Commonwealth until his death in September of 1910.

On January 18, 1911, the trustees recorded deeds transferring a one-half interest in 21 Commonwealth to the Frys’ two sons, John Fry, who lived in Eden, Maine, and Charles Fry, Jr., who lived in Philadelphia.

The house was not listed in the 1911 Blue Book.

By the 1911-1912 winter season, 21 Commonwealth was the home of William Henry Schofield and his wife, Mary Ward (Lyon) Cheney Schofield. They previously had lived in Cambridge, where he was a professor of English and head of the Department of Comparative Literature at Harvard. He also taught Old Norse and Norwegian and was a pioneer of Scandinavian studies at Harvard. The Schofields also maintained a home in Peterborough, New Hampshire.

On June 20, 1913, 21 Commonwealth was acquired from John and Charles Fry by Ralph W. Dunbar, a lawyer, and on July 15, 1913, it was acquired from him by Jane Vashti (Eaton) Cotton, the wife of Joseph Hall Cotton.

The Schofields continued to live at 21 Commonwealth during the 1913-1914 winter season, but spent the next season at their home in Peterborough and subsequent winters at the Hotel Somerset.

By the 1914-1915 winter season, 21 Commonwealth was the home of Joseph and Jane Cotton. They previously had lived at 18 Exeter.  They also maintained a home. Four Firs, in Marion.  Joseph Cotton was treasurer of the American Tube Company, manufacturers of brass tubing.  He died in February of 1919.

In June of 1920, Jane Cotton married again, to Guy Murchie, a widower with four children.  He was an attorney.  In 1898, as a college student, he had organized the Harvard Contingent of the Rough Riders during the Spanish American War and had served under Theodore Roosevelt. Guy and Jane Murchie lived at 21 Commonwealth after their marriage.

During the 1923-1924 the Murchies were in California and 21 Commonwealth was the home of Joseph Clark Hoppin and his wife, Eleanor Denniston (Wood) Hoppin. He was a noted archeologist and historian of Greek classical vases. They also maintained a home in Pomfret, Connecticut. They continued to live at 21 Commonwealth during the 1924-1925 season; he died in January of 1925.

The Murchies lived at the Hotel Puritan at 390 Commonwealth during the 1924-1925 winter season. By the next season, they had moved to 25 Chestnut and Jane Murchie had become an antiques dealer, operating Queen Anne Antiques at 739 Boylston. She continued to own 21 Commonwealth.

During the 1925-1926 winter season, 21 Commonwealth was the home of banker and broker Quincy Adams Shaw McKean and his wife, Margarett Williams (Sargent) McKean. They had lived at the Hotel Vendome during the previous season. They also maintained a home in Pride’s Crossing. In April of 1926, they 205 Commonwealth, but appear to have made Pride’s Crossing their primary residence.

By the 1926-1927 winter season, 21 Commonwealth was the home of Mabel Florence (Smith) Wolfe Baldrige, the widow of coffee broker Dudley Wolfe and the estranged wife of Omaha insurance broker Joseph Mattern Baldrige.  Living with her were two of her sons by her first marriage: Dudley Francis Wolfe and Grafton (Wolfe) Smith. They previously had lived at 41 Chestnut.

In 1924, Dudley and Grafton Wolfe and Clifford Wolfe, a third son of Dudley and Mabel Wolfe, had changed their surnames to Smith at the behest of their grandfather, Benjamin Franklin Smith.  Dudley later changed his name back to Wolfe with his grandfather’s consent; Clifford and Grafton remained Smiths.

Benjamin Franklin Smith lived at 21 Commonwealth with his daughter and grandsons. He died in March of 1927.

Benjamin Smith and his brothers — Francis Smith, George Warren Smith, and David Clifford Smith — founded an engraving and printing company in Maine that specialized in selling images of famous Americans.  They then entered the banking and real estate businesses in Omaha, and purchased a gold mine, the Smith and Parmalee Mine, in Colorado.  They returned to Maine and bought a 500 acre tract between Rockland and Rockport, Warrenton Park, at Glen Cove, where they built their summer homes.  He was described in his March 16, 1927, Boston Globe obituary as “reputed to have been one of New England’s richest men.”

By the 1927-1928 winter season, Mabel Baldrige and Dudley Wolfe had moved to 78 Beacon, and by the 1929-1930 season they were living at 177 Commonwealth. Dudley Wolfe moved to Switzerland in 1933 and married there in October of 1934 to Mrs. Alice Blaine (Damrosch) Pennington, daughter of New York Symphony conductor Walter Johannes Damrosch, and former wife of Hall Pleasants Pennington. They divorced in 1938. In August of 1939 he died while attempting to climb K-2, the world’s second highest mountain. Grafton Smith moved to 9 Lime and in March of 1928 married Janice Vaughan of Hamilton.  After their marriage, they lived at 90 Chestnut.  He died in an automobile accident in September of 1931.

On June 23, 1927, 21 Commonwealth was purchased from Jane Murchie by Reginald William Bird, a wholesale dealer in chemicals and roofing materials. He previously had lived at 29 Brimmer, where his wife, Violet Dean (Gooderham) Bird, had died in January of 1927. He also maintained a home at Waveney Farm in Framingham.

In June of 1932, he married again, to Elizabeth Frances (Bowditch) Emery, the widow of Manning Emery, Jr. They continued to live at 21 Commonwealth until about 1943, but had moved to an apartment at 6 Arlington by 1944.

On January 4, 1944, 21 Commonwealth was acquired from Reginald Bird by real estate dealer Ray C. Johnson.

On February 29, 1944. 21 Commonwealth was acquired from Ray Johnson by the Stenograph Secretarial School, Inc. It previously had been located at 462 Boylston as The Stenotype Institute. In April of 1944, it applied for (and subsequently received) permission to convert the property from a single-family dwelling to classrooms and offices. In August of 1945, it changed its name to the Winslow Secretarial School.

On October 1, 1956, 21 Commonwealth was acquired by Louis Richmond from the Winslow Secretarial School and from Samuel Rosen, to whom the school’s assets had been assigned for the benefit of its creditors.

On December 31, 1957, 21 Commonwealth was acquired by the Arts Foundation of Boston.

On January 30, 1958, 21 Commonwealth was acquired from the Arts Foundation of Boston by the Hillcrest Remedial Reading School, located in Brookline.

On October 7, 1960, 21 Commonwealth was acquired from the Hillcrest Remedial Reading School by 21 Commonwealth Avenue, Inc. Matthew J. Malloy was treasurer of the corporation and purchased the property on behalf of Chamberlayne School and Chamberlayne Junior College, of which he was the president.

In October of 1960, Chamberlayne filed for permission to convert the property from classrooms and offices to a dormitory for 40 students. The application subsequently was withdrawn and the occupancy remained classrooms and offices.

On December 30, 1960, 21 Commonwealth Avenue, Inc., transferred the property to Chamberlayne School and Chamberlayne Junior College.

On August 7,1966, the building was damaged by a two alarm fire, requiring that Chamberlayne make repairs on all floors and to the roof and mansards.

Chamberlayne filed for bankruptcy in September of 1974 and on March 31, 1975, 21 Commonwealth was transferred to the Home Owners Federal Savings and Loan Association.

On July 30, 1975, 21 Commonwealth was purchased from the bank by Newbury Junior College, and on September 24 1984, it was purchased from Newbury Junior College by Emerson College.

On March 4, 2002, 21 Commonwealth was purchased from Emerson College by Paul J. Ayoub, trustee.

In July of 2002, the new owner filed for (and subsequently received) permission to convert the property from classrooms and offices back into a single-family dwelling.

21 Commonwealth was assessed as a single-family dwelling in 2023.