www.roslindalehistoricalsociety.org/links

Own a home in Roslindale? Research its history!

We've got some great links for you to do research on your home! Thanks to Elizabeth Graham-Meredith for the following info:

To search for the permit filed to build your house, please go to: https://scerisecm.boston.gov/ScerIS/CmPublic/#/Home
(note: it may not work on some browsers. If you can't see the results of your search, try using another browser.)

If you do find the permit for the application to build, you can contact the Boston Public Library (ask@bpl.org) and give them the permit number and they may be able to pull the original building plans for your home. You can then go to the main branch of the public library to view them and take pictures (you cannot take the plans out of the library).

The library also has a handy website that lists other sources in which you can use to find information on your home: https://www.bpl.org/blogs/post/researching-the-history-of-your-home/

If you believe your home was built prior to 1874 when the town of West Roxbury (including Roslindale) became a part of Boston, you can also search the Norfolk county records (this is helpful for land sale records especially) as they will date back to the 1790s:
http://www.norfolkresearch.org/ALIS/WW400R.HTM?WSIQTP=SY00

The atlases created for Boston and West Roxbury for fire and insurance purposes are also a wealth of knowledge. These will contain street maps, showing who owns what property at different points in time and can help narrow down the time period to find when a home was built if no permit exists in the Boston permit search. You can view these at the Leventhal Map online collection here: https://atlascope.leventhalmap.org/