Somerville House, Host of First Home Phone, Needs Callers

The Italianate-meets-Eastlake-style house at 1 Arlington Street in East Somerville hit the sales market in early September for $995,000. It came packing quite the historical punch. The house dates from the late 1850s, when it was built for Nathan Tufts (yes, of those Tufts). The second owner was a Charles Williams Jr., who, according to the city, "rented laboratory space at 109 Court Street, Boston, to none other than Alexander Graham Bell. Here, Bell invented the telephone in 1875, and one year later Charles Williams' house at 1 Arlington Street was the western terminus for the world's first commercial telephone line." Get it? The house had the first permanent home phone. That's enough to have landed it on the National Register of Historic Places. But it hasn't been enough to land the 8-BR, 4-BA a buyer. Shortly after that September debut, its price quickly came down to $949,000; and now it's dropped considerably again.
The 4,958-square-foot spread with loads of 19th-century details currently wants $899,000—nearly a full $100K off the original. Ahoy hoy?
· Our PriceChopper archive [Curbed Boston]