by Frank Schroth

The Howe House which is owned by the Roman Catholice Archdiocese of Boston and which they seek to tear down in order to improve their opportunity to sell the property has an interesting history. Here is a quick summary:

• The Howe house at 597 Randolph Avenue was built in in 1830 by Joseph N. Howe on land his wife inherited. It is thought to have been built with local granite. There was an active quarrying industry at that time at end of Quarry Lane and adjacent to Lyman Road.
• Joseph Howe’s son, Samuel Howe, founded the Perkins School for the Blind. His daughter in law, Julia Ward Howe, was a noted abolitionist and wrote “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”.
• The home was recently noted in The Evolution of the Cape Cod House: An Architectural History by Arthur Richmond as “A rare cape cod house made of granite not wood.” According to the author  “characteristics which distinguish a cape house include a rectangular shape, being slightly longer than the depth, 1 and 1/2 story, steep gables, and a center entrance”.
• St. Elizabeth’s purchased the 1. 4 acre property as their first rectory in 1946. with 1.4 acres. Before the first church was moved from Camp Myles Standish, daily Mass was offered in the cottage’s living room.
• It is one of one of eight Milton homes surveyed in 1930 by the Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey.
• Milton’s Historical Commission chair Stephen O’Donnell states that the granite cottage “stands as a monument to the importance of Milton’s granite industry, its workers and to the historic fabric of the town.”
• On April 27, 2011, Anthonny Ruscito of AGA, a developer, filed to have the building demolished.
• On October 6, 2011, the Milton Historical Commission, determined the building should be “preferably preserved” which imposed a 9 month delay on the issuance of the demolition order. That period has expired and the Archidocese now seeks to take down the building.
• The Planning Board sought to have a historic overlay zoning article that would have preserved the building and permitted more housing units than the current residential zoning permits. However, at that time there was no applicant to develop the property. Mr. Ruscito had withdrawn from the project.

John Cronin contributed to this article.