house histories - The Cambridge Historical Commission Blog

New Collection Available: Gooch Family Photographs

Posted on January 9, 2021January 25, 2021 by Brittany F.

We have recently processed a collection that was donated in October, and its finding aid is now available on ArchivesSpace. Currently, the Historical Commission is offering limited research assistance. Please see our main webpage for the most up-to-date information.

The Gooch Family Photographs (P029) contains 49 glass plate negatives that we have digitized so that the collection is available from the safety of your home. The items are available for viewing on our Flickr page here. If you would like to research this or any other collection, please email us at chcarchives@cambridgema.gov.

The Gooch Family Photographs comprises images related to 11 Fayerweather Street in Cambridge; Harvard University buildings; Mt. Auburn Street in Watertown, Massachusetts; and non-Cambridge locations. The collection was donated by the wife of a photographer who bought and sold photography related items on Ebay and specialty photographic sites. While cleaning out her basement, she found the boxes and explained that “thought the negatives might be important to the history of an area.”

11 Fayerweather Street, front facade, ca. 1900.

Initially the content of the glass plates were unidentified, but through research the CHC staff has determined that the images are likely connected to the Gooch family, who were lived at 11 Fayerweather Street (no. 3 Fayerweather at the time of their residency). The negatives include images of family members, but the names of individuals have not yet been determined.

The Gooch Family

The story of the Gooch family in Cambridge starts with Nathan Gooding Gooch (1835-1919), a descendant of the colonial settler John Gooch. In the 1850s bachelor Nathan Gooch boarded with John Bridge Dana at 3 Fayerweather Street (renumbered 11 Fayerweather by 1930). Dana (1800-1888) worked for the Charles River Bank and later became a Harvard steward. His daughter, Ellen Coolidge Dana, married Nathan Gooch on June 14, 1860. Both generations lived in the house, presumably with the house divided by the partition shown on a 1900 remodel plan.

Woman and dog on front porch of 11 Fayerweather Street during winter, undated. The woman may be Ellen Coolidge Dana, who married Nathan Gooch

Nathan Gooch initially worked as a bookkeeper for W.T. Richardson near Harvard Square and became a lumber dealer in Brighton in 1857. Nathan worked with his brother at their lumber firm, J.G. & N.G. Gooch; he also became a coal dealer on Kilby Street in Boston in 1865. During the Civil War he served in the Massachusetts 12th Company from November 12, 1863, to August 15, 1864. Nathan Gooch was also a Cambridge City Council member from 1865-1866 and a deacon of the Old Cambridge Baptist Church, a position he occupied until 1908. In 1906 he worked for Cox Bros. & Co., anthracite coal dealers in Boston.

A man holding a toddler next to a dog at 11 Fayerweather Street, undated. This could be Nathan Gooch and his granddaughter Margaret.

Nathan and Ellen Gooch had two children, William D. Gooch and Ellen M. Gooch. The family moved to Watertown in 1900 to a house that was once part of the Adams estate. Built in 1900, 35 Adams (or Fairlawn) Avenue was designed by F. Bryant & Co. It would continue to be the family’s home until the 1930s.

Aerial view taken from the Oakley Country Club showing Shattuck Avenue in Watertown before Adams Avenue was laid out.

The Gooch family also owned a summer residence in Marblehead on Marblehead Neck (sometimes called Nanepashment). Their first summer home was at the corner of Harbor and Harvard streets (formerly Spring Street). In 1892 Nathan Gooch had the house moved 25 feet. He later sold the property to Maria M. Stone and in 1901 moved the family to Ocean Avenue (likely located is now 372 Ocean Avenue). His brother, Johnson G. Gooch, also had a summer place in Marblehead on Atlantic Avenue.

A child holding a doll in a field with a man behind in the middle-ground. Beyond is the sea. The man may be William D. Gooch and the toddler his daughter, Margaret. This location could be in Marblehead. The image is undated.

The Gooch’s daughter, Ellen, married G.F. Rouillard, and they had sons Robert G. and Clarence D. Their son, William, worked as a bookkeeper before becoming an auditor for a drug and chemical company. He owned a motorboat named Dixie and continued to summer in Marblehead for a few years after his father’s passing in 1916. At some point William married Mary A. Pearce, and they had two children, Dana Appleton Gooch (1897-1972) and Margaret Caroline Gooch. Dana worked as an office clerk but was unemployed by World War I; his subsequent occupations are unknown. He was married in Beverly, Massachusetts, in 1934 and died in Florida on March 6, 1972.

A woman holding a baby on the porch steps of 11 Fayerweather Street. The woman is possibly Mary A. Pearce Gooch, William’s wife, and the baby may be Margaret or Dana.

Margaret Caroline Gooch (1891-1988), William’s daughter, is likely present in this collection since one of the original glass plate boxes was labeled with her name. While employed as a teacher, she married Eugene Judson Barney on December 10, 1917. Eugene was a refrigerator electrical engineer from Dayton, Ohio, and by 1920 they had moved back to his hometown. According to census records, they lived at 12 Seminary Avenue in 1920; 1438 Catalpa Drive in 1930; and 1827 Harvard Boulevard in 1940. Eugene and Margaret were the parents of Edward Barney.

Dana Gooch with a dog in a sandbox in Marblehead, ca. fall 1900. According to the *Marblehead Messenger*, Dana caught his finger in a bicycle spool on September 3, 1900, and had to get it sewn and bandaged; the bandage is visible on his left hand.

11 Fayerweather Street

In 1850, 3 Fayerweather Street was built as a 2½ story house for John B. Dana. After the Dana and Gooch families moved, the house was purchased by Mrs. Archibald Howe (Arria Sargeant Dixwell) in 1900. Mr. Howe (1848-1916), a lawyer and former member of the House of Representatives, ran for Vice-President in 1900 on the “National Party” ticket. His cousin Lois Lilley Howe (1864-1964), a pioneering female architect, remodeled 3 Fayerweather Street that year. The new design removed the interior partition (mentioned above), extended the house by four feet, and added three dormers to the front façade. It is likely that Lois Howe was the photographer of image G-2161: it is strikingly similar to photographs she took on April 30, 1900. (For a lot more information on Howe, get in touch with the Historical Commission.) The house was renovated by Lois’s architectural firm, Howe, Manning & Almy, in 1916. (No. 3 was renumbered 11 some time between 1916 and 1930.) The house was later owned by Louise McLennan, who altered it again, in 1939.

The collection includes images of beaches, fields, and mountain landscapes, possibly at Marblehead Neck and in New York state. There are also photographs of Harvard’s Memorial Hall, the Washington Elm, and the Old Cambridge Baptist Church after the fire of 1897.

Torn Down Tuesday: 18 Old Dee Road

Posted on August 6, 2019May 13, 2020 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

Old Dee Road 18_001 — The house at 18 Old Dee Road was set back from the road and nestled into the landscape. (CHC Collection)

Constructed in 1947 for Harold and Anna Ryan, 18 Old Dee Road typified the mid-century International Style residence. Located on a cul-de-sac off Larchwood Drive, the house was a one-story, shed roof, frame structure with vertical wood tongue and groove siding. Fenestration consisted of single glazed wood frame casement and fixed glass units, with a horizontal emphasis. A large brick chimney was positioned near the back of the house. The main entrance was recessed at the center of the façade, and a side entry door was covered by a small shed roof. The house had an unusual trapezoidal footprint that widened from the front façade to the back, in response to the irregular shape of the lot.

map old dee road — The site’s shape, outlined in red, informed the layout of the house. Note the address numbers are different on this plan dated 1952. (City of Cambridge Public Works)

18 old dee road_Page_3 — View of the back of the house just prior to demolition. (CHC Collection, gift of Peter Wasserman)

18 old dee road_Page_5 — Floor plan as documented in 2005. The footprint is original except for an addition on the north wall which dates from 2001. (Dingman Allison Architects)

18 old dee road_Page_1 — View of main living area with fireplace. (CHC Collection, gift of Peter Wasserman)

The house was the first design by The Architects Collaborative (TAC) in Cambridge. The firm was headed by Walter Gropius, founder of the famed Bauhaus design school in Germany. In 1934, Gropius moved to England as Hitler rose to power. He eventually came to the United States in 1937 with his family to chair the architecture department at Harvard Graduate School of Design. Other TAC partners included Norman and Jean Fletcher, John and Sarah Harkness, Robert MacMillan, and Benjamin Thompson. As the name of the firm implied, there was an emphasis on a team approach to design and a modernist aesthetic that involved clean lines, functionality, and a rejection of superfluous ornamentation. Several partners designed their own homes at Six Moon Hill in Lexington which are still extant today. The firm’s only other residential commission in Cambridge was at 15 Hemlock Road in 1952.

tac 02 — Portrait of partners of TAC, 1952. Left to right, Sarah Harkness, Jean Fletcher, Robert McMillan, Norman Fletcher, Walter Gropius, John Harkness, Benjamin Thompson, and Louis McMillen . (*The Architects Collaborative*, Arthur Niggli, Ltd.)

TAC went on to design a range of projects around the world including the University of Baghdad, the Rosenthal Porcelain Factory in Bavaria, and the United States Embassy in Greece. In Massachusetts, the firm designed the Harvard Graduate Center, Wayland High School, and the John F. Kennedy Office Building in Boston, among others. Gropius was a part of TAC until his death in 1969. The firm closed in 1995.

The house was demolished in 2005.

Sources

http://architectuul.com/architects/view_image/the-architects-collaborative/27096

Jean Bodman Fletcher

http://wiedler.ch/felix/books/story/182

The Asa Porter Morse House

Posted on March 7, 2019May 14, 2020 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

In relation to yesterday’s #ModernMonday posting on Woodrow Wilson Court (click here for that Instagram post), today we are highlighting the former Asa Morse Estate at 81 Magazine Street. Asa Porter Morse (1818-1906), the son of Daniel and Sarah Morse (first cousins), moved to Boston in 1840 and began business life as a bookkeeper in the house of Hayward & Morse, who were involved with West India trade. After accumulating enough capital to start a business for himself, Morse continued working in commerce and trade and moved to Cambridge in 1845. He served as a member of the Cambridge School Board, as an alderman, and as a state senator in 1879-1880.

instapost2

Morse became involved with developing sections of Cambridgeport near his home. In 1861, he built a large Italianate-style mansion with a central tower on Magazine Street, which was lined with large homes and churches frequented by some of the city’s elite.

Magazine St 81_Asa Morse House_0001

Asa and his wife Dorcas Louisa Short (1822-1864) lived at home with their three children. Upon Asa’s death in 1906, the house passed to his daughters Velma and Mary, who lived at home. Velma, the last living Morse, died in 1934 and the direct Morse line ended.

Magazine St 81_Entrance hall and front door

The 17-room mansion on Magazine Street, with its massive rooms, frescoed ceilings, crystal chandeliers, oak furnishings and paneling sat empty. In 1935, the Cambridge Chronicle reported that neighborhood boys were breaking in and removing items from the water heater to the slate roof. Outside, the garden with its once prim walks and flower beds became an overgrown tangle of vegetation, obscuring the once proud estate. The house was razed in 1940 and the lot was redeveloped into Woodrow Wilson Court years later.

Photographs taken of the interior by Charles Darling in the 1930s show the interior before it succumbed to vandals and the elements. The images were digitized by Historic New England.

Magazine St 81_Bedroom Magazine St 81_Bedroom2 Magazine St 81_Livingroom2

A major event in Morse’s life – and one that has often been omitted from his biographies – is his relationship with Anna Van Houten, a woman around 30 years old, who arrived in Boston from Spokane, Washington. Her life story is unclear, but it seems she grew up in South Carolina and San Francisco, and was married to a Mr. Van Houten, whom she divorced in 1889.

Van Houten and Morse met, and after a brief courtship, Morse proposed to Van Houten in 1891, buying her a $500 engagement ring and wedding dress. In 1892, however, Morse suddenly ended their engagement, claiming that Van Houten had concealed her earlier divorce. Van Houten sued Morse for $60,000 in damages for “breach of promise.” In 1893 she won her case and was awarded $40,000.

globe1 — Headline from the Boston Daily Globe, October 5, 1893

Later that year, however, Morse appealed, citing other reasons for breaking off the engagement. According to Morse, Van Houten had hidden her African-American ancestry from him. Van Houten denied this and presented photographs of her family in court to prove her white ancestry. Morse’s attorney contended that evidence showed that both Van Houten’s parents were black and that Van Houten was at least one-eighth black, and therefore that she had deceived Morse in the presentation of her lineage.

bostonglobe — Boston Daily Globe, November 19, 1893

The appeal was heavily reported and sensationalized in newspapers, and November 1894, the original verdict was overruled by the court. Van Houten returned to Spokane, and Morse died in 1906. The overruling would have a wide-ranging effect on future cases, however, in particular Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)*.

As this blog post only briefly covers this story, feel free to make a research appointment with us to find out more information on the trial.

*Miletsky, Zebulon V., “City of amalgamation: race, marriage, class and color in Boston, 1890-1930/” (2008). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 – February 2014. 931. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/931. 171-172.

Focus On: CHC Volunteers

Posted on October 24, 2018May 14, 2020 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

October might be almost over, but it’s still American Archives Month — and in celebration of all things archive-y, we will be highlighting some of our fabulous archives volunteers. This week we would like you to meet Kathleen Fox.

IMG_4870 (1) — Kathleen organizing correspondence from the Ellis and Andrews Real Estate Collection

Kathleen began volunteering at the Historical Commission in October 2017, and says she is “driven by curiosity.” We asked Kathleen a few questions to learn more about her volunteer work, and her life outside of the Historical Commission.

What collections have you worked on at the Commission? Tell us about them.

I began with processing a very large collection of maps and plans in the E.F. Bowker Collection, creating a spreadsheet listing each map or plan, the streets it pertained to, the owner, the surveyor, the date, etc. Bowker was a mainstream and very successful civil engineer/surveyor in Cambridge. This was interesting work because of the light it shed on real estate development in the city, and because it was the first collection I had processed.

Plan of St. Mary’s Parochial School, E.F. Bowker Collection

Bow and Arrow Streets, E.F. Bowker Collection

What is your academic and career background?

I received my B.F.A. in 1967, and went to work as a secretary in the Mabel Brady Garvan Collection of American Art at the Yale University Art Gallery. After two years in New Haven I moved to Boston where I worked briefly for an architecture firm, and then as an administrative assistant in the Department of Humanities at MIT. Following that, after two years at a private research commission I spent the remainder of my working life at the Harvard School of Government (1980-2009), ending up as Assistant Dean for Teaching Support.

At the same time as I was working in academe I was a practicing artist, and taught watercolor painting at Brookline Adult Education. In about 1970 I was co-founder of an art studio in Boston next to Symphony Hall – – the Kaji Aso Studio. The studio gave classes in watercolor and oil painting, calligraphy and ceramics. It also had a poetry program and a music program. The Studio continues to this day. I drifted away in the mid-80’s , but continued my work as an artist while I worked in academe to support myself.

Somewhere along the line in the late 1990s I drifted once again – this time away from making art as I got more and more interested in history.

Do you volunteer anywhere else?

I volunteer in the Historical Collections at the Mount Auburn Cemetery and also at the Massachusetts Historical Society. I do whatever needs doing – – mostly background research and elementary preservation work.

What do you like to do in your free time?

After researching the history of my own 1893 house I got interested in researching the history of equally old houses on my block in Arlington. This haphazardly expanded – – and now people commission me to research the history of their homes. I am now working on my 29^th history . Most have been in Arlington, but I have done two in Cambridge and a couple in surrounding suburbs. In the spring and summer I am also in the garden as much as possible.

What is the best (or your favorite) thing you’ve found in an archive?

At the CHC right now I am processing the papers from the real estate firm of Ellis and Andrews [old finding aid here; new one in progress]. The collection spans the period from c. 1893 to c. 1935. These real estate transactions provide a very interesting and enlightening view of the cultural and financial values of the time, not to mention the growth of the city of Cambridge in the late 19^th and early 20^th century . This and the Bowker collection together have completely changed the way I view the cityscape as I walk around Cambridge.

Correspondence to Mr. Melledge, Ellis and Andrews Collection

At the Massachusetts Historical Society there have been many memorable moments – – finding a flyer for a slave auction, listing the slaves by name; holding a book printed in 1504 (the oldest thing I have ever held); and a letter from a local Massachusetts businessman to President James Garfield offering to send him the water bed he had developed for good health – – in 1881!! At Mount Auburn there have been more interesting finds than I could possibly list.

Thank you, Kathleen!

Stayed tuned for another installment of our Focus On: CHC Volunteers series.