251 Commonwealth is located on the north side of Commonwealth, between Fairfield and Gloucester, with 249 Commonwealth to the east and 253 Commonwealth to the west.

251 Commonwealth was designed by Shaw and Shaw, architects, and built in 1880-1881 by Shepard & Weston and B. D. Whitcomb, builders, as the home of Joseph Smith Bigelow and his wife, Mary Cleveland (Bryant) Bigelow. He is shown as the owner of 251 Commonwealth on the original building permit application, dated November 2, 1880.

Joseph Bigelow purchased the land for the house on October 5, 1880, from John W. Wheelwright. The lot previously had changed hands several times, and originally was part of one of several parcels purchased from the Boston Water Power Company on January 29, 1866, by a real estate investment trust formed by John Templeman Coolidge, Franklin Evans, and Charles Henry Parker. The trust had subsequently subdivided the parcels into lots, which it sold to investors and builders, who then frequently resold the lots to others.

Click here for an index to the deeds for 251 Commonwealth, and click here for further information about the land between the north side of Commonwealth and Alley 427, from Fairfield to Gloucester.

By the 1882-1883 winter season, Joseph and Mary (Bryant) Bigelow had made 251 Commonwealth their home.  They had married in April of 1877 (the first wedding performed at the new Trinity Church in Copley Square), after which their primary residence had been in Cohasset, where they continued to maintain a home after completing 251 Commonwealth. In December of 1881, when their son, Arthur George Bigelow was born, they were living at 61 Beacon with Mary Bigelow’s mother, Elizabeth Brimmer (Sohier) Bryant, the widow of Henry Perkins Bryant.

Joseph Bigelow was a banker and investor in copper mines.

The Bigelows raised their six children at 251 Commonwealth: Joseph Smith Bigelow, Jr., Henry Bryant Bigelow, Arthur George Bigelow, Cleveland Bigelow, Mary Cleveland Bigelow, and Stephen Sohier Bigelow.

During the 1889-1890 winter season, the Bigelows were traveling abroad and 251 Commonwealth was the home of Joseph Bigelow’s brother-in-law and sister, Thomas Nelson and Anne Smith (Bigelow) Nelson.  A former real estate dealer, he was treasurer of several mining companies.  They had lived at 166 Marlborough during the previous season, and by the 1890-1891 season were living at 128 Marlborough, where Anne Nelson died in March of 1891.

By the 1890-1891 winter season, the Bigelows were living at 251 Commonwealth again.

The Bigelows spent the 1902-1903 winter season at their home in Cohasset and traveling in Europe. They leased 251 Commonwealth for the season to ornithologist John Eliot Thayer and his wife, Evelyn Duncan (Forbes) Thayer.  They had lived at 183 Marlborough during the 1899-1900 season. They also maintained a home in South Lancaster. By the next season, they were living at 183 Commonwealth.

The Bigelows lived at 251 Commonwealth during next two winter seasons, but spent the 1905-1906 season in Cohasset and 251 Commonwealth was once again John and Evelyn Thayer’s winter home. They moved to 173 Commonwealth for the 1906-1907 season, and the Bigelows resumed living at 251 Commonwealth.

Sometime between 1902 and 1908, the Bigelows added a penthouse. The house appears as a 4 story (plus basement) house on the 1902 Bromley map, and as a 5 story (plus basement) house on the 1908 Bromley map.

Henry Bigelow married in August of 1906 to Elizabeth Perkins Shattuck of 135 Marlborough. 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.

Mary Bigelow married in September of 1906 to John Lewis Bremer, Jr., of 416 Beacon. He was an instructor and later professor of histology at Harvard Medical School. After their marriage, they lived at 18 Fairfield and then at 10 Fairfield.

Joseph and Mary Bigelow spent the earlier part of the 1908-1909 season in Cohasset and the latter part at 10 Fairfield (while John and Mary Bremer were traveling). They spent the 1909-1910 season in Cohasset.

John and Evelyn Thayer once again leased 251 Commonwealth from the Bigelows during the 1908-1909 and 1909-1910 seasons. They moved to 25 Exeter for the next season.

The Bigelows resumed living at 251 Commonwealth for 1910-1911 winter season. Their unmarried sons – Joseph, Arthur, Cleveland, and Stephen – lived with them.

Joseph Bigelow, Jr., a member of the Harvard Class of 1900, left college in 1899 and went to the West Indies, where he was a sugar grower.  He returned to Boston and lived with his parents, but (according to the his 1915 Harvard Class Report) spent most of his time “in travel and yachting,“ including traveling “around the world on a sailing ship and spending a year on a trading schooner in the Solomon Islands.” He married in September of 1912 to Ernestine Hilda Gazan. They subsequently made their home at Snug Harbor Farm in Anne Arundel County, Maryland.

Cleveland Bigelow married in December of 1913 to Frances Constance Folsom. After their marriage, they lived in Cohasset. He was a lawyer until about 1919, when he became a cotton merchant. During the 1920-1921 winter season, they lived at 10 Gloucester.

Stephen Bigelow, an insurance agent, married in May of 1921 to Anne Meredith, a stage actress in New York. After their marriage, they lived in apartment at 405 Marlborough. They divorced in 1923 and she married again in January of 1924 to Sir Charles John Sackville-West. Stephen Bigelow resumed living at 251 Commonwealth and in Cohasset with his parents and brother, Arthur.

Arthur Bigelow, a dry goods merchant, continued to live at 251 Commonwealth during the 1929-1930 winter season but had moved to an apartment at 499 Beacon by April of 1930, at the time of the US Census.

Joseph Bigelow died in December of 1930.  Mary Bigelow and Stephen Bigelow moved soon thereafter, probably to Cohasset.  Stephen Bigelow married again in September of 1931 to Mary McDevitt. After their marriage, they lived at 26 Allston.

251 Commonwealth  was not listed in the 1931 and 1932 Blue Books.

On January 2, 1932, 251 Commonwealth was purchased from Joseph Bigelow’s estate by Shirley Clifford Speed, a real estate dealer who converted many Back Bay houses into lodging houses and apartments.

In June of 1932, he filed for permission to convert 251 Commonwealth from a single-family dwelling into “apartments and rooms [for] two families.”  He subsequently abandoned the application.

On August 2, 1932, 251 Commonwealth was acquired from S. Clifford Speed by Miss Frances Isabella Fagan. She was a teacher at the Curry School of Expression at 12 Huntington and took title to the property on behalf of the school.

In October of 1932, Curry School applied for (and subsequently received) permission to convert 251 Commonwealth from a single-family dwelling into a school and one residential unit. It began offering classes there that month. On March 30, 1933, it recorded a deed taking title to the property from Frances Fagan (the deed was dated August 2, 1932, the same day that she acquired the property from S. Clifford Speed).

From the early 1930s, the residential portion of the house was occupied by teachers at the school, students, and other lodgers. In February of 1942, the school was cited by the Building Department for lack of adequate egress. In March of 1942, it applied for (and subsequently received) permission to convert the property into a school and lodging house and to install fire balconies connecting with 253 Commonwealth.

In 1943, the Curry School of Expression was reorganized as Curry College offering both two-year and four-year degrees. It continued to be located at 251 Commonwealth until about 1952 and, from about 1950 to 1952, it also maintained a dormitory at 253 Commonwealth.

In June of 1952, the school acquired land and buildings at 848 Brush Hill Road in Milton where it moved in September of that year.

251 Commonwealth was shown as vacant in the 1954 City Directory.

On May 27, 1954, 251 Commonwealth was acquired from Curry College by the Boston Music School, Inc., a non-profit community music school. It previously had been located at 41 Allen Street. In January of 1954, prior to taking title to 251 Commonwealth, it applied for (and subsequently received) permission to convert the property from a school of expression into a school of music.

In 1962, the school changed its name to the Boston Community Music Center. In 1968, it merged with the South End Music Centre, the combined entity becoming the Community Music Center of Boston. It continued to be located at 251 Commonwealth in 1970.

On April 20, 1971, 251 Commonwealth was acquired from the Community Music Center by the Psychomotor Institute, a school for training psychologists. The Institute was founded by Albert Pesso and his wife, Diane (Boyden) Pesso, to develop and apply their system of psychotherapy described on their website (in 2014) as “interactional, body-based group therapy that enables one to recreate past experiences in order to compensate emotional deficits earlier in life.”

On April 30, 1975, Albert and Diane Pesso acquired 251 Commonwealth from the Psychomotor Institute.

On August 3, 1976, 251 Commonwealth was acquired from the Pessos by Victor B. Castellani and his wife, Marianne M. (Sukert) Castellani. In June of 1979, Victor Castellani applied for (and subsequently received) permission to convert the property from a school of music and one apartment into a four-family dwelling, including remodeling the existing fifth-floor penthouse.

On November 9, 2022, 251 Commonwealth was purchased from Victor and Marianne Castellani by Daniel H. Weintraub, trustee, Quad G Realty Trust.

251 Commonwealth was assessed as a four-to-six family dwelling in 2022.