Title
Description
| Year Built: Permit Date: |
1927 8/9/1927 |
| Architect: | John Barnard |
| Builder: | R.F. Jenkins |
| Cost to Build: | $17,000 |
| Owner (On Permit Date): |
R.F. Jenkins, 31 Orkney Rd. |
| First Residents: | Madeline C. & Roy J. Webber |
The builder of this house, R.F. Jenkins, also built 48 and 64 Welland Road, as well as 9 Greenough Street.
The first residents were Madeline and Roy Webber. Roy Webber (born c1892 in Illinois) was listed as a malt salesman in the 1930 U.S. Census, but as a broker in the Brookline Street List. He and Madeline (1895-1971) were listed at this address from 1929 to 1931.
Following the Webbers here was the family of Maxwell and Elizabeth Feldberg. Max Feldberg (1895-1988), who was born in Russia and came to the U.S. in 1914, was the founder of the discount retailer Zayre Corporation which at one time included Zayre's, TJ Maxx, Hit or Miss, and BJ's Wholesale Club stores.
Feldberg and his brother Morris started a hoisery jobbing business, the New England Trading Co., in 1919 and later expanded it into a chain of women's apparel stores, the Bell Shops. The first Zayre's stores were opened in Roslindale and Hyannis in 1956. His son Stanley entered the business in 1949 and took over as president in 1956. The family was active in philanthropic causes and donated the Beth Israel Hospital's Feldberg Building, which opened in 1976.
Max Feldberg and his wife Elizabeth (1902-2002) also had a daughter, Barbara. The family was listed at this address from 1932 until the late 1940s.