411 Beacon is located on the south side of Beacon, between Gloucester and Hereford, with 409 Beacon to the east and 413 Beacon to the west.

411 Beacon was built ca. 1867 as the home of Roxana (Stackpole) Dabney, the widow of Frederic Dabney. She previously had lived in Cambridge. Frederic Dabney had been a shipping merchant and they had lived in Fayal in the Azores prior to his death in December of 1857.

Roxana Dabney purchased the land for 411 Beacon on May 21, 1866, from banker and broker Robert Marion Pratt, part of a larger parcel he had purchased from the Boston Water Power Company on February 20, 1863. He was unmarried and lived at 13 Louisburg Square with his parents, George Williams Pratt (one of the founders of the Boston Stock Exchange) and Mary Barrow (White) Pratt. The Pratts also maintained a home, Oakley, on Belmont Avenue in Watertown (it became the Oakley Country Club in 1898).

Click here for an index to the deeds for 411 Beacon, and click here for further information about the land between the south side of Beacon and Alley 415, from Gloucester to Hereford.

Roxana Dabney lived at 411 Beacon with her four unmarried sons: George Stackpole Dabney and Walter Dabney, who were partners in a cotton brokerage firm, Frederick Dabney, Jr., a lawyer, and Alfred Stackpole Dabney, who was still a student at Harvard when they moved to 411 Beacon and later became a hide and leather dealer. Her fifth surviving child, Lewis Stackpole Dabney, an attorney, had married in April of 1867 to Clara Bigelow and they lived in Quincy.

George and Walter Dabney dissolved their partnership in 1872. George Dabney became an importer and Walter Dabney continued as a cotton broker.

Walter Dabney married in November of 1874 to Harriet Larkin and moved to Brookline. Alfred Dabney married in February of 1881 to Albertina (Tina) Shelton Sears and moved to 7 Chestnut.  Frederick Dabney married in November of 1882 to Isabelle G. (Guillou) Vezin, and moved to 279 Newbury.

Roxana Dabney died in February of 1887 and George Dabney moved soon thereafter to 10 Charles Street.

On May 23, 1887, 411 Beacon was acquired from Roxana Dabney’s estate by her son, Alfred. He and his wife, Tina (Sears) Dabney, moved there from 7 Chestnut and made 411 Beacon their home.

During the 1889-1890 winter season, the Dabneys were living elsewhere and 411 Beacon was the home of Morton Stimson Crehore and his wife, Alicia V. (Robson) Crehore.  He was a coal dealer.  They had lived at the Hotel Vendôme during the previous season. They also maintained a home in Cohasset.

By the 1890-1891 season, the Crehores had moved to an apartment at 199 Marlborough and 411 Beacon was once again Alfred and Tina Dabney’s home.  Their two children, Grace Stackpole Dabney and Alfred Stackpole Dabney, Jr., lived with them.

Grace Dabney married in June of 1905 to Robert D. Wrenn, a broker and tennis champion, who had been a member of Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War.  After their marriage, they lived at 411 Beacon, where she died in March of 1906.

Alfred Dabney died in October of 1911 and Tina Dabney died in April of 1912. Alfred Dabney, Jr., an investment broker, continued to live at 411 Beacon during the 1913-1914 winter season, but moved thereafter to an apartment at 8 Gloucester.

On February 3, 1914, 411 Beacon was purchased from Alfred Dabney, Jr., by Miss Katharine E. Silsbee. She also maintained a home at Beverly Cove. She continued to live at 411 Beacon until her death in September of 1922.

On May 25, 1923, 411 Beacon was purchased from Katharine Silsbee’s estate by cotton broker Charles Anthony Falvey. He and his wife, Margaret (Wright) Falvey, made it their home. They previously had lived at 112 Bay State Road. They also maintained a home in Hyannis Port.

They continued to live at 411 Beacon until about 1939, but had moved to Brookline by 1940.

On November 10, 1939, the New England Trustee Company foreclosed on a mortgage given by Charles Falvey and sold 411 Beacon to Ralph M. Fuller.

By 1941, 411 Beacon was leased by Ellen M. (Sullivan) White, the widow of William E. White.  She previously had lived at 455 Beacon, where she operated a lodging house.  In April of 1941, she applied for (and subsequently received) permission to convert 411 Beacon from a single-family dwelling into a lodging house.

Ellen White continued to live at 411 Beacon in 1942, but in 1943, 411 Beacon was shown as vacant in the City Directory and was not included in the List of Residents.

On January 7, 1943, Ralph M. Fuller transferred 411 Beacon back to the New England Trust Company, and the New England Trust Company sold the property to Mabel Humphrey (the deed from Ralph Fuller was dated November 21, 1939, and the deed from the New England Trust Company to Mabel Humphrey was dated December 13, 1942; both, however , were recorded on January 7, 1943).

Mabel Humphrey was a beautician and operated 411 Beacon as a lodging house. She previously had lived in an apartment at 12 Commonwealth. She continued to live at 411 Beacon until about 1949.

On February 1, 1949, 411 Beacon was acquired from Mabel Humphrey by Leona (Marie Pernile Laetitia) (Boire) Lyons, the widow of Joseph Gerard Lyons. She previously had lived in Dorchester.

In August of 1955, she filed an affidavit with the Building Department stating that the property had consisted of nine apartments when she purchased it, and on the same day she filed for (and subsequently received) permission to modify the boiler room, indicating the current occupancy as nine apartments.

Leona Lyons continued to live in an apartment at 411 Beacon in 1967. On August 18, 1967, she was struck and killed by a truck while crossing Commonwealth Avenue.

On January 9, 1968, 411 Beacon was purchased from Leona Lyons’s estate by the Allston Motor Co., owned by Edward Louis Wolfe. He and his wife, Ruth (Rutberg) Wolfe lived in Chestnut Hill. He was a automobile and real estate dealer.

On October 1, 1968, Allston Motor Co. transferred 411 Beacon to Edward Wolfe, his wife, Ruth Wolfe, and their children, Allan S. Wolfe, and Marcia June (Wolf) Rosengard, the wife of Emanuel Rosengard, as trustees of the AMCO Realty Trust.

On February 14, 1972, 411 Beacon was purchased from the AMCO Realty Trust by Eliot Warden Denault, trustee of the Cameron Realty Trust. He and his wife, Marcia (Bartlett) Denault lived in an apartments at 401 Beacon. He was a real estate investor and former executive of an oil storage company.

Marcia Denault died in July of 1984 and Eliot Denault died in February of 1985.

On December 15, 1986, Eliot W. Denault, Jr., Dorothy B. Denault, and Thomas P. Fulchino, as trustees under Eliot Denault’s will, and Eliot W. Denault, individually, converted 401 Beacon into ten condominium units, the 411 Beacon Street Condominium.

On June 22, 1988, the Denaults sold all ten condominiums to Paul A. Cammarata, who subsequently resold the units.

In October of 1995, the condominium owners amended the Master Deed to reduce the number of units from ten to nine, reflecting the consolidation of the two ground floor units.