Back Bay is full of History and many Back Bay places that folks call home were once Hotels and 180 Commonwealth Avenue was a hotel at one point in history. One of the unique features about 180 Commonwealth Avenue beside its location is the generous sizes of the rooms. The architect for 180 Commonwealth Avenue was S.D Kelley who designed several buildings in the Back Bay from 130 Commonwealth Avenue, 128 Commonwealth Avenue, along with many other buildings in the Back Bay. This Pre-War building was built in 1883. S.D Kelley or otherwise know as Samual D Kelley and first owners of 180 Commonwealth was William Seavey Rand, but the first people to call 180 Commonwealth Avenue home was James Melyne Latta and his wife, Elizabeth Potter (Jack) Latta in 1885. James Latta was a real estate and railroad investor. Born in Indiana, he and his wife had lived in Washington DC in the 1860s and 1870s and were living on a farm in Elkhart, Indiana, at the time of the 1880 US Census. It appears that they moved to Boston when their son, William Jack Latta, attended Harvard (he graduated with the Class of 1889). James and Elizabeth were just one of the people to call 180 Commonwealth Avenue home. The original 180 Commonwealth Avenue was eventually demolished and the building you see today was designed by George Nelson Jacobs in 1925 for Louis Kaufman, an eight-story, 32-unit apartment house. Louis Kaufman is shown as the owner on the original building permit application, dated January 15, 1925.
Jacob Marks is shown as the owner of 180 Commonwealth on the 1928 Bromley map. By 1938, 180 Commonwealth was owned by the General Commonwealth Corporation. The property subsequently changed hands and, by 1955, the number of units increased from 32 to 35. In June of 1974, it was converted into condominiums. 180 Commonwealth replaced two townhouses, at 180 and 182 Commonwealth.
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