This Old House, This Old City

I’ve always considered myself a history buff. So, owning a home in an historic city seems to be a natural fit. While I'm not looking to recreate every detail of 1925, I want history to resonate in our house. Our neighborhood is made up of colonial homes (built between 1910 and 1920), as well as bungalows, like ours (built between 1916 and 1926). Here’s a bit I found on the neighborhood:

"The Montclair neighborhood in North Quincy is bordered by the Neponset River to the north, Beale Street to the south, Newport Avenue to the west and the Town of Milton to the east. it was once part of Dorchester and became part of the Town of Quincy in 1792. Like its neighbors, Atlantic and Wollaston, most of the community of Montclair was built in the first third of the 20th century. From earliest colonial times until the Civil War, North Quincy was referred to as "The Farms" and it was to the farmlands of Montclair that real estate entrepreneurs beckoned the nearby inhabitants of Boston and its suburbs. The Micaih Pope farm was one of the largest to be subdivided; Arthur D. McCellan cut it into street and house lots in 1883 calling it "Montclair". Other active real estate developers were Maurice E. Kilpatrick, Edward L. Parlee and Henry J. Grass. The development process was greatly accelerated by the Old Colony Railroad which began operations in 1845 as well as by the advent of Quincy's extensive street railway system.Beale Street is the dividing line between the Wollaston Hill neighborbood to the south and the Montclair neighborhood to the north. The mansardic cottage at 269 Beale Street falls on the Montclair fide of the street. Its early ownership history is very unclear has neither "M. Trafford" (1897) or "John W. Tratton" (1907) could be found in city directories, perhaps indicating a rental property. Beginning in 1915. Number 269 Beale street was owned for at least ten years by Edward Hoxie. a machinist, and his family." from Quincy, Mass. Historical and Architectural Survey

Here's a map of the neighborhood in 1890. This map is from the Norman B. Levanthal Map Center at the Boston Public Library. Click the picture to zoom. We'd be somewhere in the bog/marshland in the top right-hand corner.