By 1929 the Boston Dwelling House Company was struggling financially and they sold off some areas of their land that had not yet been developed to gain capital. One of these parcels was purchased by the developer Martin Herbert. He put in this road and named it for his son.
If you look across Eldridge you see some of the first houses built with garages in the area (numbers 24 and 26). 24 was designed by Max Kalman and 26 by Harold Duffie. Both houses date to 1928. You will not they have garages on the lower level facing onto the street. This represents another innovation in transportation that affected the development of Jamaica Plain and of housing design. By 1927 (just around the time when these houses were built) Ford had cranked out 15 million Model Ts. In 1928, a Model T cost $295 and was becoming affordable to families like those who lived in the Woodbourne area. In 1928 about 20% of American families had automobiles.