1956 – Maria Pittorino's Estate: the House Appraised at $13,750
1956
Maria (Cappadona) Pittorino, who had bought the house from the Merrimac Savings Bank in 1945 for $4,500, died in late 1955 — her probate file’s interest calculations break off between October 28 and November 15 of that year. Her estate file, Middlesex Probate No. 333526, survives in full, and it is the best snapshot of the house’s worth at mid-century.
Her husband Thomas Pittorino was named executor of her will, posting a $200 bond on February 29, 1956 (approved March 2 — Record Book 1729, page 112). The inventory, filed June 1957, values the estate:
- Real estate: “Land and buildings at 11 Chesley Road, Newton, Massachusetts — $13,750.00,” subject to a mortgage to the Merrimac Savings Bank with an unpaid principal balance of $1,912.04 — net $11,833.66
- Personal estate: a single Merrimac Savings Bank suspense account of $75.69
The house was the estate. In eleven years its value had tripled from the $4,500 purchase, and the bank that had once foreclosed on the property (in 1940, on the Fredricksons) and then sold it to Maria still held her modest mortgage. The Massachusetts Inheritance Tax Bureau certified in July 1957 that no tax was due.
Thomas remained in the house until his death there in 1966; the family’s ownership continued through their daughter Angelina Mandile until 1982 — 37 years in all, the longest of any family in the house’s history.
📄 The probate file (Middlesex Probate Court No. 333526: executor’s bond, inventory, schedules, and tax certificate, 1956–57.)