Photo: A great example of worker’s housing in Belmont in the mid-19th century. 

16 Leslie Rd. #2. Walk-up condominium (1925). Sold: $501,000.

332 Cross St. Mansard-style Colonial (1860). Sold: $641,000.

A weekly recap of residential properties sold in the past seven-plus days in the “Town of Homes.”

• 16 Leslie Rd. #2. Walk-up condominium (1925). Sold: $501,000. Listed at $425,000. Living area: 1,185 sq.-ft. 7 rooms, 3 bedrooms, 1 baths. On the market: 56 days

• 332 Cross St. Mansard-style Colonial (1860). Sold: $641,000. Listed at $699,000. Living area: 1,462 sq.-ft. 7 rooms, 2 bedrooms, 1.5 baths. On the market: 101 days

The tiny antebellum “old-style” Colonial on Cross Street is a gem of a house (once you get by the 1950’s brick and iron stoop) that is one of few remaining examples of seasonal housing built for the ice and brick workers that populated the area from the 1840s to the 1870s. The architecture and the building construction are basic and one of the reasons many of these dwellings were pulled down when the land was turned into subdivisions. 

But this “laborer’s cottage” with the mansard roof, which could have been added later to increase the space to its second story, survived in fairly good shape. There are even the remnants of the original “front parlor.” Not on the same historic level as the grand houses on Pleasant or Somerset, but a great example how the average worker lived as Belmont grew. 

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