Apartment Building - Brown Terrace

Seaverns avenue and Brown terrace 2007



That's enough of churches for a while - I thought I'd move on to secular real estate for a change. When I was growing up in Jamaica Plain, I always wondered who lived in the brick buildings. None of my friends did, so they were alien to me. If you look closely at the corner window on the first floor, you can see a box with an Apartment to Let sign just above the window. There's an electrical conduit running up to the box, so I assume the sign used to light up when there was an available apartment. The map below shows the site before the buildings went up.



Boston Daily Globe May 11, 1902

Real Estate.


A new apartment house trust has been formed in Jamaica Plain, to be known as the Jamaica Plain real estate trust, with Messrs R.S. Barrows, Henry W. Hart and Hon Arthur A. Maxwell as trustees. They have just bought the estate on Seaverns av, corner of Brown pl, Jamaica Plain, formerly owned and occupied by Ex-Alderman Alfred S. Brown, consisting of the Mansion house and 15,000 feet of land, taxed for $12,000; also 6200 square feet of land of the west side of Brown pl, taxed for $4200. The deed for the large part is given by the institutions for Savings in Roxbury, and for the smaller lot by William J. Miller. The taxed value of the property purchased is $17,000.

The new buildings to be erected will cost about $70,000.

Brown pl will be widened to 40 feet, and will hearafter be known as Brown terrace. It is proposed to erect six high-class apartment houses, three stories each, with seven-room suites, besides hall and bath rooms, making 18 suites in all.

There will be four houses on the Brown estate and two on the westerly side, facing Seaverns av. Brown Terrace will be in the form of a court with granolithic walks, lawns and shrubbery and it is proposed to make it very attractive. The buildings will be of red face brick, with light Cincinnati hewn stone trimmings.

No pains or expense will be spared to make them complete in every appointment. It is expected the houses will be ready for occupancy in September. John P. Campbell is the architect and R.S. Barrows was the promoter of the trust.



Seaverns avenue and Brown place (terrace)
Richards, L.J. 1899 (copyright © 2000 by Cartography Associates)
David RumseCollectiony