115 Nichols Street – The Frank A. Fales House

One early map of this corner of Nichols and Winter Streets, indicates that Frank Batemen had his home here, but from tracing ownership deeds, Frank always owned the property located on the corner of Florence and Nichols Street (#103 Nichols) which abuts the Fales property. In 1888, Frank A Fales bought 35, 570 sq ft of land encircled by Nichols, Winter, Bright Streets and the land of Frank Batemen, from Charles W. Gay. This large house lot did not have any buildings on it – Fales would have constructed this elegant Queen Anne Style home that stands here today.

            Elements of the Fales Queen Anne Style house:

• Compact form, plasticity of surfaces
  • Entrance porch
  • Ancient beech tree in front yard.
  • Had a matching stable to the rear facing Winter Street, now gone,

Frank Aldrich Fales was born 1849 in South Dedham, the son of Eliphalet Newman Fales and Lucy Bullard Weatherbee.  He married November 1887 Jennie Train (1860-1947) in Norwood. She was the daughter of Asahel Train and Sarah Stanton. Frank and Jennie had one son Frank, Jr. (1902-1902). Initially started work as a carpenter, but in 1876 he bought out William Fisher & Co and became a grain dealer.  It was a company he had for 50 years. He also built a modern milking parlor on his father’s farm on Prospect Street. The parlor was designed by William Upham. Fales became postmaster of Norwood, serving in that position for 12 years. Fales was a state Representative in the General Court of Massachusetts and was a state Senator. Frank A. Fales died in 1926 and is buried in Highland Cemetery.

The Fales owned this house for almost 60 years. Frank’s widow, Jennie sold the property in September of 1945 to Leo and Louise Benoit. It was around this time the property was broken up into smaller parcel of buildable house lots. It would be almost 40 years before a family settled in this home for many years. Between in 1945 and 1982, the house was owned by a series of families who stayed for about a decade. The Benoits owned the property for about a year, selling it in October 1946 to Otis and Yetta (Green) Cooper. The Coopers lived in the house for approximately ten years, selling the property in 1955 to Herbert A and Marie (Procter) Ericsson. The Ericsson’s sold the property to Harold C and Ruth A (Beatty) Kean in 1966, and they sold it in 1977 to D. Edward and Phyllis (McCormack) McElroy. The McElroys owned the home until 1982 when they sold it to Michael S and Armenie (Paul) Varadian.

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