318 Metropolitan Avenue Study Report

The Boston Landmarks Commission has posted a study report on the proposed designation of 318 Metropolitan Avenue in Roslindale as a Landmark under Chapter 772 of the Acts of 1975, as amended.

318 Metropolitan Avenue is a particularly fine example of the Queen Anne style mixed with Colonial Revival details. It combines the asymmetrical massing, wrap-around porch, and window detailing of the Queen Anne style with the Doric columns and triangular pedimented portico of the Colonial Revival style. The house is prominently sited on a corner lot and is one of the grandest in the neighborhood. The architect, James Murray, was a prolific and well known local architect. The house is a fascinating case study in architectural alteration as it was cut into two pieces in 1943, and the eastern portion was moved around the corner to 44 Maynard Street. The house is also notable for its unusually intact and well-preserved interior elements, which provide a precious glimpse into the past.

The earliest owners of the house at 318 Metropolitan Avenue include two prominent local families: the Foxes and the Carrolls. The house was originally built for Albert and Isabella Fox; Albert Fox was an important figure in newspaper advertising in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, serving as the advertising manager of the Boston Post and the Boston Journal, and later working for newspapers in New York and Paris. Albert’s daughter Blanche Hamilton Fox was an international opera star whose European and American performances were reported on by papers across the United States. Francis Carroll, the patriarch of the family that bought the house from the Foxes, was a close ally of Mayor John F. Fitzgerald, serving in a number of appointed roles including as a Fire Safety Commissioner. He was also a prominent lawyer for the City of Boston.

The designation of the Isabella H. Fox House/Barbara A. Carroll House at 318 Metropolitan Avenue was initiated in 2024 after a petition was submitted by a Boston Landmarks Commissioner asking that the Commission designate the property under the provisions of Chapter 772 of the Acts of 1975, as amended. The purpose of such a designation is to recognize and protect a physical feature or improvement that in whole or part has historical, cultural, social, architectural, or aesthetic significance.

Read the 318 Metropolitan Avenue study report

There are two ways to provide feedback on this potential Landmark designation:

1. Written feedback can be provided by visiting this link: feedback form.
2. The study report will be discussed at a public hearing on March 11, 2025. Members of the public are invited to attend this hearing and provide comments there as well. Please look for the hearing notice in the public notices section of our website. Hearing notices are posted no later than ten days in advance of the hearing.