Blake Park: Brookline, Massachusetts
History of a Neighborhood, 1916-2005

The Houses and People of Blake Park

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80 Somerset Road
Year Built:
Permit Date:
 1940
12/27/1940
Architect:
 William J. Freethy
Builder:
 Harry Sklaver
Cost to Build:
 $8,500
Owner
(On Permit Date):
 Sewall Realty Trust, 7 Harvard St.
First Residents:
 Paul H. & Bessie Cohen

The builder and architect of this house, Harry Sklaver and William J. Freethy, were responsible for five houses on Somerset Road and one on the north side of Welland Road, all of which were on the part of the property retained by Frances Blake in 1916 and not developed until after her death in 1939. Sklaver and Freethy also worked together on 36 Blake Road, the last (or possibly next to last) house built in the earlier stage of development.

80 Somerset Road is a duplicate of 85 Somerset Road and also of 116 Clark Road in Brookline.

The first residents of this house, Paul and Bessie Cohen, were listed here from 1942 until the early 1980s. Paul Howard Cohen (1897-1973) was listed as a salesman. He and his wife Bessie (born c1906) moved here from 241 Freeman Street. Their neighbors on Freeman Street, Harry and Ethel Lewis, moved across the street to 86 Somerset Road at the same time the Cohens moved here.