4 Welland Road

This house, built on a large plot of land at the corner of Welland and Hancock Roads, was the home initially of Alice P. Brockaway (1868?-1948), who was first listed here, alone, in the Street List in 1927. She was listed again in 1928 and 1929 together with May L. Allen, shown as a "companion." Both women were back in 1930, but by then Alice Brockaway was Alice Evans, having married noted clergyman and missionary E. Joseph Evans.

E. Joseph Evans (1886-1969) was born in Wales and came to the United States in 1906. He was pastor of the Christian Missionary Alliance Church in Brookline for 12 years, and later served as a missionary in different parts of the world. "During his clerical career," according to his obituary in the Boston Globe, "Dr. Evans lived in Palestine, Greece and China and had private meetings and audiences with many international leaders, including Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethopia, Generalissimo Chiang-Kai-Shek of China and President Syngman Rhee of Korea."

Back in Massachusetts, Evans served as president of Union Rescure Mission and the Industrial Home of Boston for nearly two decades, according to the Globe, and was also associate pastor of Temple Baptist Church in Boston.

There are major discrepancies in the records on both Alice and E. Joseph Evans. Their ages vary widely in different years of the Street List and in the 1930 U.S. Census. The same is true of Joseph Evan's son Charles, who is listed as 14 years old in the 1930 Census, but 20 years old in the Street List in 1931 (the only year he was listed at this address).

The full 1930 Census listing showed the residents as: E.Joseph Evans, 55, clergyman, born Wales; Alice P. Evans, 50; and Charles B. Evans, 14. The house was valued at $35,000, among the highest valuations in Blake Park at that time. The Evanses were listed at this address until 1935, and were listed next door at 14 Welland Road for one year in 1936.

Charles Mailman, a retired wholesaler, was listed along with his sister Susan Wilson in 1936 for one year before they, like the Evanses the year before, moved next door to 14 Welland. No one was listed at #4 in 1937 and 1938.

Abraham and Frances Cohen were next, listed here from 1939 until the late 1960s. Abraham Cohen (born c1892 in Russia) was a real estate broker. In 1944, he was a vice president with Dyer & Co., a real estate and insurance business on Beacon Street. He and Frances (born c1898) and their three children had previously lived at 101 Winthrop Road.