11 Chesley Road

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Ownership History

The chain of title from 1849 to today, compiled from the Middlesex South Registry of Deeds. For what each owner did to the house, see the companion permit history. Where we have a scan of the original deed it is linked (📄); the remaining conveyances can be retrieved from the registry by book and page. The early entries were part of a larger block; the house lot was drawn out during the 1894–95 subdivision.

Year Conveyance Amount Book:Page Deed
1849 Samuel Langley → Horace Cousens (~50 acres; recites an 1835 deed from Ebenezer White to Langley) $9,000 (block) 557:991 📄
1854 Horace Cousens → Charles E. Pike $2,588 (block) 669:542 —
1861 Charles E. Pike → Andrew J. Wilkinson $10,500 (block) 863:165 —
1868 Andrew J. Wilkinson → William H. Wardwell $22,000 1055:246 📄
1891 William H. Wardwell (& Henrietta G. Wardwell) → Ezra C. Dudley & Elijah A. Shaw   2023:379 📄a 📄b
1894–95 Estate subdivided into house lots; Dudley & Shaw sell to Frank Prescott, W. H. Sumner, Charles H. Bayley and others; the house is moved to 11 Chesley Rd   2319, 2329 see below
1898 Elliott G. White → William A. French (dated Jul 22, 1898; recorded Nov 1900)     —2
1900 William French → Jacob Kramer (the house traded as part payment for a Back Bay hotel)   2861:411 📄
1902 Jacob Kramer → Asa C. Jewett $1 2986:398 📄
1927 Elizabeth Jewett → John Fredrickson (after Asa Jewett’s death; Lots 8 & 9)   5144:125 📄a 📄b
1933 Merrimac Savings Bank → John & Anna Fredrickson   5707:224 📄
1940 John Fredrickson → Merrimac Savings Bank (foreclosure)   6377:595 📄
1945 Merrimac Savings Bank → Maria Pittorino (wife of Thomas Pittorino) $4,500 6885:354 📄
1955–57 Maria Pittorino dies (late 1955); her estate is probated, Thomas Pittorino executor — house appraised at $13,750   Probate No. 333526 📄
1977 Recorded instrument — Pittorino/Mandile family (exact parties to confirm)     📄
1982 Angelina M. Mandile (née Pittorino, Maria’s daughter) → Michael Flaherty $160,000 14670:361 📄
1983 Michael Flaherty → Daniel & Susan Shevitz $187,000 15011:463 📄
1992 Daniel & Susan Shevitz → Henry & Ellen Highfield $385,000 22191:15 📄
2000 Henry & Ellen Highfield → Ellen Highfield (divorce settlement) $1 32022:553 📄
2017 Ellen Silver → Ellen Silver & Craig Bernabei $1 69766:33 📄
2020 Ellen & Craig → Ellen & Craig Trusts $10 74807:310 📄

Subdivision deeds (1894)

The estate was platted into house lots in 1894 through a rapid series of conveyances. Scans of five of these instruments survive: 📄 2319:164 · 📄 2319:165 · 📄 2319:166 · 📄 2329:76 · 📄 2329:78

Tracing the house lot itself: the parcel passed from William H. Sumner → Frank Prescott (deed dated Dec 1, 1894, reciting an earlier conveyance at 2319:274), and on the same day Prescott mortgaged it to Harriet O. Cruft for $6,500 — both instruments recorded together at 📄 2329:130. This is the mortgage the 1900 and 1902 deeds both carry forward; Harriet Cruft assigned it to Israel Nesson in December 1900 as the property changed hands.

Early residents (city directories)

  • 1895 — no residents listed on the street
  • 1897 — Dr. & Mrs. Lawson; Roxey Tucker (housekeeper)
  • 1899 — Miss Alma Ross (11 Chesley Rd)

The Pittorino–Mandile family (1945–1982)

The house’s longest residence was a single family across two surnames. Maria Pittorino, who bought it in 1945, was the wife of Thomas Pittorino and the mother of Angelina M. Mandile, who sold it in 1982 — some 37 years in the family, the longest tenure in the house’s history. Three records establish the line:

  • Will of Thomas Pittorino — Middlesex Probate No. 430674, Will Book 1886, p. 283 (executed 1947, allowed 1969). It names “my wife, Maria Pittorino” (whom he appoints executrix) and “my daughter, Angelina M. Mandile.”
  • 1940 U.S. Census — the Thomas & Mary Pittorino household in Newton, listing daughter Angelina and son-in-law Anthony Mandile.
  • Angelina Maria Mandile obituary — Boston Globe, Feb 19, 2006; “beloved wife of the late Anthony B. Mandile, Sr.”

Sources

  1. Earlier versions of this table cited Book 558. The record image of the deed itself (linked) is captioned “Langley to Cousens” on page 99, and the microfilm title card reads Record Book No. 557 — the citation has been corrected to match the record. ↩

  2. No scan of this deed is held. The file formerly linked here (1898-02-16_26351.pdf) proved to be a misfiled 287-page Metropolitan Water Board land taking (Registry Book 2635, p. 1) with no connection to 11 Chesley Road. The particulars above are reconstructed from the recital in the 1900 French → Kramer deed (2861:411): “the same premises conveyed to me by Elliott G. White by deed dated July 22, 1898 and recorded with Middlesex So. Dist. Deeds on November … 1900.” The deed sat unrecorded for over two years and can be retrieved from the Middlesex South Registry by grantor (White, Elliott G.), grantee (French, William A.), recorded November 1900. ↩