Greenough Blake, Frances, 1843-1939

Arthur Blake was married in 1878 to Frances "Fanny" Greenough (1843-1939) of Cambridge. The Blakes had two daughters: Ann (1879-1930), who married Fredrick L.W. Richardson, youngest son of the architect H.H. Richardson, in 1902; and Beatrice (1883-1953) who married William Gifford Nickerson in 1906. Frances Greenough came from an artistic family. Her father Henry (1807-1883) studied painting in Florence in his 20's and returned with his wife and young daughter to live in southern Europe for five years (1845-1850). They spent time with Margaret Fuller and Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, among others, according to the Dictionary of American Biography (the source for most of the information here about the Greenoughs). Arthur Welland Blake died at his home in Brookline in 1893. Frances Greenough Blake outlived her husband by nearly half a century. She remained an active member of Brookline society in the years after her husband's death (as did her daughters until they moved away), appearing frequently in the society pages of the Boston and Brookline papers. She was a supporter of numerous charitable causes, and was one of the founders in 1922 of the Women's National Democratic Club. Frances Blake sold most of the estate to the P.H. Park Trust in 1916, retaining the house and several other buildings and six acres of land. After her death at the age of 96 in 1939, the house was torn down, and additional streets and houses were added the property she had retained.