Chateau Fairmount

History / Sources

Massachusetts Historical Commission Form B no. 494 — "Arthur Bonney Estate", 236 Fairmount Street

Creator
E. D. Hengen, Lowell Division of Planning and Development (architectural survey)
Date
May 1981
Type
survey
Repository
Massachusetts Historical Commission, MACRIS inventory LOW.623; copy in the Lowell DPD survey files
Locator
Form B, 2 pp. with photograph
Access
Public record; searchable in MACRIS under Lowell, 236 Fairmount St. A photocopy is held in the house archive. Open online

The professional survey of record. Its one error found so far: it says Bonney’s daughter outlived him (she died in 1894; see Lowell Sun 20 July 1894).

Statements this record supports

  • C-001 — The house at 236 Fairmount Street was built in 1883.
  • C-002 — The original owner/builder was Abel T. Atherton of Lowell.
  • C-004 — Atherton was a machinist and manufacturer: treasurer of the Whitehead & Atherton Machine Company, Howe Street (directories 1873–75), later the Atherton Machine Company (1886 directory: 'Atherton Abel T. (Atherton Machine Co.), h. 170 Fairmount' — the house was then numbered 170); member of the Common Council and Board of Health, 1871; patents include a tuyere (1866), cotton openers (1874) and a 'Railway Head' (US 305,654, 23 Sep 1884). The Atherton Machine Company was insolvent in 1898 and a successor operated in Pawtucket, R.I.
  • C-006 — Architectural style: Chateauesque (eclectic), 'the most elaborate Chateauesque building in the city'; rock-faced ashlar walls; porte-cochere, stained-glass transoms, ornamental sandstone panels; oak interior; Minton tile floors and fireplaces.
  • C-007 — It is the earliest of Lowell's major late-19th-century stone mansions.
  • C-009 — Arthur P. Bonney purchased the estate from Abel T. and Georgiana Atherton in September 1887 (Middlesex North Registry Book 191 p.291).
  • C-010 — Arthur Perkins Bonney (born Plympton, Mass., 9 July 1828; died Lowell 25 March 1896) was a Lowell lawyer, city solicitor, state senator, bank president (First National 1864–80; Merchants' National 1880–96), counsel to the Proprietors of Locks and Canals and to manufacturing corporations; he moved to Lowell as a child and read law with Thomas Hopkinson and Seth Ames (admitted 1848).
  • C-011 — Bonney's wife, Emma Augusta (Call) Bonney, was born 15 August 1828 and died 14 September 1892 (monument inscription 'Emma Augusta Call … wife of Arthur Perkins Bonney'; Form B bibliography cites Lowell Daily Courier 14 Sep 1892).
  • C-012 — Bonney died in March 1896 and the Supreme Judicial Court held a memorial at which Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes presided.
  • C-013 — After Bonney's death (March 1896) his son-in-law Charles S. Lilley continued to occupy the residence; the house remained in the Bonney estate ('Heirs of Arthur P. Bonney', 236 Fairmount St, in 1916 tax lists) for Bonney's granddaughter. Bonney's daughter Clara had died in July 1894, so the Form B statement that 'his daughter and husband' stayed on is wrong as to the daughter.
  • C-021 — The house was divided into apartments by 1931 at the latest: the Lowell city directory for 1931 lists three households at 236 Fairmount Street (Butler Ames, president of the Heinze Electric Co.; Donald F. Cameron; William E. Sharpe jr., purchasing agent), 1936 lists four, 1950 six. The 1981 survey's 'converted into apartments in the mid-20th century' is therefore too late; the conversion belongs to the Stevens ownership (1925–44) or earlier.
  • C-023 — The Battles Home operated at 236 Fairmount Street from 1956/57 until early 2004 as a private rest home housing up to about 11 residents at a time.
  • C-027 — A concrete garage was added next to the house in the mid-20th century.
  • C-028 — The estate's carriage house — the 'Stable for Mr A. T. Atherton' by Merrill & Cutler published in June 1883 — stands northeast of the house and is today a separate private residence at 222 Fairmount Street (NRHP nomination 1995: 'Arthur Bonney Estate Carriage House, 222 Fairmount St., 1883', contributing).
  • C-029 — The lot was approximately 4 acres in 1981 with a residential, large landscaped setting.
  • C-034 — The 1981 survey photograph shows the house from Fairmount Street with porte-cochere, round tower and cross gables substantially as today.
  • C-043 — The name 'Chateau Fairmount' is the current owner's name for the property; historically it was known as the Atherton house, the Arthur Bonney Estate (MHC historic name) and the Battles Home.