Built ‘on spec’ ca; 1922 by the Dartmouth Real Estate Company

An Arts & Crafts ‘double-decker’ in the Oakdale neighborhood.

“If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all”

Dartmouth Street first appears in 1880 when the Deering heirs started to divide the larger holdings of James Deering. The segment of Dartmouth containing our subject was part of a section sold to the Dartmouth Real Estate by Marion Deering Noyes and others in 1919. They platted it and started building. At the same time they purchased the land, the Dartmouth Real Estate Company took out 11 mortgages with the Maine Savings Bank totaling $69,300 all payable in one year at 6% interest. Some of these were collateralized with houses in other parts of Portland, some of which look familiar, and others were taken on ‘existing’ houses here in the block. Only 2 of the 11 mortgages were paid off within the prescribed year with the last , and largest, not being satisfied until late September of 1924.

Dartmouth Real Estate seems to have been connected to the F.A. Rumery Company and Frank Rumery himself. The company’s earliest property transactions were purchases made from Frank Rumery in 1916. Rumery & Co were involved in buying and selling of property as well as building houses here in Oakdale. Lastly, the 1926 city directory list Earle H Rumery as the manager of the firm. Earle was the 3rd child, and eldest son, of Frank & Ida Rumery.

121 Dartmouth Street measures 28′ wide on the facade and is 50’s deep. It is 2 stories with a third in the attic. Current tax records, along with gas and electrical meters show the house to be a 3 family with one on each floor. The floor plans for the primary levels are, most likely, central hall with kitchen, living room, & dining room on one side, in this case facing Oakdale Street, and 3 bedrooms & a bath on the other side. The short windows on the front are the stairway. Speaking of that short window.

It seems pretty obvious that the Dartmouth Real Estate Company/F.A. Rumney purchased the plan used on our subject and repeated it over and over. Every house on the block developed by the company is the same plan with different styles/details applied to the surface. That short window belies the underlying plan.

Edwin Chandler was a house painter who lived in Freeport. He may have lived here in the 10 months he owned 121 Dartmouth. I base this on the fact the his purchase deed gives Freeport as his place of residence and the selling deed gives Portland. In July of 1923, he sold our subject to Marion P Sawyer. Marion was 30 and married to a car salesman named Merrill. If they did live here, it was for a very brief time as she sold it to Frederick H Ripley in May of 1924

Fred Ripley knew paint. He was a longtime traveling salesman for different paint manufacturers. He was born in Portland in 1876 and married Mary Allen in 1903. Mary was also born in Portland one year after Frederick. They had 2 daughters, Virginia & Maryjane.

The garage was built in 1928. Placed in what was the back yard, it would have left little space, other than the 15 or so feet next to Oakdale Street, for the girls to play.

The 1926 city directory notes that Phillip & Ada Morton lived here with their newborn daughter Eugenia. The order of residents, Philip Morton then Frederick Ripley, in that city directory makes me think the Ripley family lived on the 2nd floor. Phillip Morton was an investment banker who represented J.G. White & Company of New York. The Mortons were living in Auburn by 1930. The 1930 Census showed the Ripley family living over a 37 year old supervisor for the phone company named Lewis Hardy and his 27 year old wife, Mary.

By the early 1930s, Frederick & Mary Ripley’s eldest daughter, Virginia, had moved to Boston and Maryjane was in high school. Maryjane went to college and moved to Brookline MA after graduating. The 1940 Census found Frederick and Mary living above Lloyd & Blanche Kimball and their daughter Blanche. Lloyd was a traveling salesman for a wholesale foundry supply company.

Frederick Ripley died in June of 1949. His will passed 121 Dartmouth Street to Mary. She died in April of 1962. By that time, Maryjane had moved back to Maine, married, & divorced. In 1962, she was listed as the Executive Director of the Catherine Morrill Day Nursery and was living here on Dartmouth Street. Living below her were Morris Salloway and his son Richard. Richard Salloway worked for Songo Shoe on Diamond Street.

Virginia Ripley was living in Cambridge MA with her partner Ada Russell in 1950. She worked for many years as the executive secretary for the Winsor School in Boston. and lived near Porter Square. Virginia retired and moved back to Portland, and Dartmouth Street in 1970. Maryjane remarried and moved to Scarborough. The Ripley sisters sold 121 Dartmouth Street to Audrey Kew in 1979.

121 Dartmouth Street is currently listed as a 3 family home. The condition is good.