By Request from a social media friend.

Built ca 1912

Bradley Street runs parallel to Stevens Avenue from Congress to Brighton. It and its neighbor Caleb Street are named for Rev Caleb Bradley. Bradley was a graduate of Harvard and ministered to the Stroudwater area from 1799 to 1829. Bradley died in 1869. The intersection of Stevens and Congress is still known as Bradley’s Corner. Much of the lower section of Bradley St. seems to have been built by the Portland Terminal Company as worker housing. The company is listed in 1924 as owning 5 properties from 10 to 23 Bradley. Most of the development above this took place prior to WWI as an area called ‘Bradley Terrace’. We will delve a little deeper into this along the way.

72 Bradley is a two-story home of a type quite common for the period. Carrying details from several styles including Queen Anne, Stick & Colonial Revival, it’s hard to attach any specific type to it. It is similar in many ways to the house at 67 Emery Street seen in a previous post. This one is larger to better utilize the suburban lot.

The 1924 tax roles list the home as a 2 family. Again, that’s very common for the period. It is a bit of an outlier in the neighborhood as the nearby houses are almost exclusively single-family.

In 1902 Thomas R Manners, a banking executive from NYC, purchased a tract of land that now includes our subject from Nathaniel Richardson. I have not found any information on Nathaniel but I note the 1901 Maine Chamber of Commerce Journal lists George H Richardson as the president of Swan and Barrett Bankers and Percy H Richardson as a civil engineer. Percy is listed in deeds for Bradley Terrace, including our subject, as the creator of the original development plans. Perhaps George knew Thomas Manners from his banking work.

Concurrent to Bradley Terrace, Manners was developing ‘Congress Place’ with a local merchant named Ammi Whitney. All this work would lead to Thomas R Manners being listed as a grantor on no fewer than 154 deeds between 1900 &1910.

1905 was the year our subject property was sold, along with the adjoining lot, to Fred Barnes. The deed lists no buildings and specifies a 20′ setback on any future buildings. There isn’t much information to be found about Mr. Barnes. He and his wife took out 3 mortgages against this property and another in Chapel Street between 1909 & 1915. This would cover the period in which the house was built. Perhaps he was financing the construction costs. I do note 2 of the 3 mortgages show releases. The 1915 mortgage shows none. Nor is it mentioned as an encumbrance on future deeds.

Barnes remained at 72 Bradley until 1942 when he sold the property to Carlos Alonzo Newcomb. Carlos was born on Chebeague Island in 1895. Much of his early life is lost to history but in April of 1917, he enlisted in the Army. Sent to Europe in late ’17, he would take part in some of the most ferocious and bloody battles of WWI including the Second Battle of the Marne and Meuse-Argonne. Carlos, Carl for short, returned to the area. In 1920 he married Susan Sullivan of Portsmouth NH. They divorced in 1927 with both remarrying that same year.

Carl would end up selling 72 Bradley to Susan in 1953. He passed in 1959 and is buried on Chebeague. Susan died in 1990 having sold the house to a James Mcnulty in 1979. Mcnulty sold to the current owners in 2000. The house is currently a single-family home.