Chateau Fairmount

History / People

David Holmes Mason

1925–2010 — Born 5 January 1925, New York City; died 2010 (obituary, via the research compilation).

Board member and president of the Battles Foundation during the home’s Fairmount Street years.[sources]

Attributed profile. Drawn mainly from a research compilation (2025) and secondary sources that we have not yet checked against the originals. Treat the detail as leads, not settled fact; the “Research leads” section says what needs confirming.

Life

The Battles Home was run by a board, and the board needed a banker. David Mason — Chelmsford High School, Governor Dummer Academy, the Navy in the Second World War, Brown University 1949 — spent his career between his mother’s family’s lumber business and a Lowell savings bank, and gave his evenings to institutions: the research compilation lists the Battles Foundation among them, as board member and president. The 1966 city directory names the corporation’s president and treasurer of that year; a run of directories would show when Mason’s turn came.

On the timeline

The Battles Home buys the house

The Herrons convey the property to "The Battles Home, a Corporation duly established by law and located in Lowell". Newspaper accounts from 2001 and 2011 say the home moved in 1956; the 1956 directory still shows private tenants here and the home on Rolfe Street, so the move came late in 1956 or in 1957. By 1966 the directory lists the home, its officers and five retired residents at this address.[sources]

DocumentedThe Battles Home

What is uncertain: 1956 (press) versus 1957 (deed) for the move; not yet resolved.

The Battles Home closes

After about 47 years at Fairmount Street, housing up to around eleven residents at a time, the rest home closes. The foundation that ran it dated from 1901 — which is how a "104-year" figure sometimes appears in print.[sources]

DocumentedThe Battles Home

What remains uncertain

  • The years of his service to the Foundation, and his role, if any, in the 2004 closure and sale.

Research leads (not yet verified)

Clues gathered from the research compilation and from secondary sources. Published so that others can follow them; none has yet been confirmed against an original record.

  • Obituary (Legacy.com, 2010) and Brown Alumni Magazine notes, per the compilation; Wm. P. Proctor Co. history on the Chelmsford town website.

Records consulted

Research notes: C-022, C-060.

Help us get David right

This page is a working record, not a finished one. If you are a descendant, a collector, a local historian or an archivist and you hold anything connected to David Holmes Mason — a photograph, a letter, a diary, an object, a family story, a document we have misread — we would like to hear from you. We publish nothing without permission, credit every contribution, and correct the page when the evidence says we should.

We are especially looking for:

  • Battles Foundation minutes or annual reports from his years; a photograph.

Get in touch How we check facts