429 Beacon is located on the south side of Beacon, between Gloucester and Hereford, with 427 Beacon to the east and 431 Beacon to the west.

429 Beacon was built ca. 1869, one of eight contiguous houses (419-421-423-425-427-429-431-433 Beacon). The houses were designed as four matching symmetrical pairs (419-421 Beacon, 423-425 Beacon, and 427-429 Beacon, and 431-433 Beacon). 433 Beacon was remodeled in about 1897 and the entrance moved to 12 Hereford.

The land on which 419-433 Beacon were built was purchased from the Boston Water Power Company on February 20, 1863, by banker and broker Robert Marion Pratt. 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 Street in Watertown (it became the Oakley Country Club in 1898).

Click here for an index to the deeds for 429 Beacon, and click here for further information about the land between the south side of Beacon and Alley 415, from Gloucester to Hereford.

On October 1, 1868, Robert Pratt sold the land on which 419-425 Beacon would be built to George M. Gibson, and the land on which 427-429 Beacon would be built to Caroline (Carrie) Beal (Burgess) Sawyer, the wife of attorney Frederic William Sawyer. He retained the lot at the southeast corner of Beacon and Hereford and the one to the east of it until after the houses were built at 431-433 Beacon.

George Martin Gibson was a builder and contractor, and built all eight houses at 419-433 Beacon. He sold the four houses at 419-425 Beacon on the land he owned to individual buyers as they neared completion, and built the houses at 427-429 Beacon for the Sawyers and at 431-433 Beacon for Robert Pratt.

When 429 Beacon was completed, it was leased from Frederic and Caroline Sawyer by dry goods merchant Frank Waldo Wildes and his wife, Helen Delia (Hilger) Wildes. They had married in April of 1869, and 429 Beacon probably was their first home together. They continued to live there in February of 1870, when their son Maurice was born, but moved soon thereafter to his family home at 100 Mt. Vernon.

On March 1, 1870, 429 Beacon was purchased from the Sawyers by Lemuel Shaw, trustee under a marriage settlement indenture between Rev. William Copley Winslow and Harriet Stillman Hayward entered into at the time of their marriage in June of 1867.

429 Beacon became the Winslows’ home. They previously had lived in Lee, Massachusetts, where he had been rector of St. George’s Church.

William Copley Winslow was an Episcopal clergyman and archaeologist. In 1883, he founded of the American branch of the Egyptian Exploration Fund, and subsequently raised substantial funds for various archeological explorations and excavations in Egypt.

The Winslows continued to live at 429 Beacon during the 1887-1888 winter season, but moved thereafter to 525 Beacon.

On August 8, 1888, 429 Beacon was purchased from Samuel S. Shaw, successor trustee of the Winslows’ marriage settlement indenture, by Dr. Henry Jabez Barnes, a physician. He and his wife, Augustine Marie (Lelievre) Barnes, made it their home, and he also maintained his medical practice at the house. They previously had lived at 386 Beacon.  They also maintained a home in Northborough.

On May 2, 1893, Henry Barnes transferred the house into his wife’s name.

Augustine Barnes died in March of 1900. Dr. Barnes and their daughter, Marie Augusta Lelievre Barnes, continued to live at 429 Beacon. In April of 1909, he remarried, to Caroline Louisa Brooks. After their marriage, they lived at 429 Beacon.

Henry Barnes died in October of 1923.  Caroline Barnes and Marie Barnes continued to live at 429 Beacon in 1924.  By 1895, Caroline Barnes had moved to an apartment at 295 Beacon and Marie Barnes had moved elsewhere.

On May 7, 1924, 429 Beacon was acquired from the estate of Henry Barnes by Miss Rose M. Donahue. She previously had lived at 26 Hemenway.  She lived at 429 Beacon during the 1924-1925 winter season and then moved to an apartment at 421 Marlborough.

On July 6, 1925, 429 Beacon was acquired from Rose Donahue by Dr. John Thomas Williams, a physician, and his wife, Gerda Frederica (Johnson) Williams, a nurse. That same month, he filed for (and subsequently received) permission to convert the property from a single-family dwelling into a single-family dwelling and doctor’s office. They previously had lived (and he had maintained his office) at 483 Beacon.

The Williamses raised their only child, Ruth Johnson Williams, at 429 Beacon. She married in September of 1939 to Robert Henry Strange. After their marriage, they lived in Sherborn, Massachusetts.

John Williams died in September of 1955.  Gerda Williams continued to live at 429 Beacon until her death in July of 1971.

On October 1, 1971, 429 Beacon was acquired from Ruth (Williams) Strange, as executor of her mother’s estate, by Richard Edward Sobota, an engineer, and his wife, Catherine Manton Sobota, a professor and author.

They divorced and on July 18, 1978, Richard Sobota transferred the property to Catherine Sobota. That same month she applied for (and subsequently received) permission to convert the property from a single-family dwelling into four apartments.

On September 27, 1993, Catherine Manton Sobota transferred 429 Beacon to her daughter, Mindy Sobota, as trustee of the 429 Beacon Street Realty Trust, and on December 11, 1993, Mindy Sobota transferred the property back to her mother.

On August 21, 2003, Richard M. Watkins and his wife, Maria Esperanza Watkins, purchased 429 Beacon from Catherine Manton. On October 20, 2011, they transferred the property to The Watkins Capital Group LLC, with themselves as managers.

429 Beacon was assessed as a four-to-six family dwelling in 2024.