2 Riedesel Avenue was one of five adjacent houses designed by the architectural firm of Andrews, Jaques & Rantoul in 1887 for William Brewster (1851-1919), a prominent ornithologist. The five houses included a large Colonial Revival Style house at 145 Brattle Street, which Brewster built for himself on the site of his childhood home, a Shingle Style house at 147 Brattle Street that Brewster may have had constructed for Charles Almy, whose name appears on the surviving architectural plans, and three Shingle Style houses at 2, 4 & 6 Riedesel Avenue, of which 2 & 4 were leased upon completion. Following Brewster’s death in 1919, the trustees of his estate sold 2 Riedesel Avenue to Henry Addington Bayley Bruce (1874-1959), a journalist and author who lived at this address at least as early as 1910.
