The (Second) House That Parley Built

No. 62 Montebello road. Is this the lost house of Samuel (Peter Parley) Goodrich?


Samuel Goodrich was one of Jamaica Plain's most noted citizens in his day. It is difficult to find an analogy to his success in our time. He was a combination of Sesame Street producer, Sunday School teacher and major textbook publisher. As I've discussed him before, I'll move on to the topic of this article. Around 1837, someone seems to have swindled Mr. Goodrich, and he lost much of his money. His estate in Jamaica Plain, (suitably known as Rockland, given its location near outcrops of Roxbury Puddingstone somewhere near today's Parley avenue and Rockview street) was sold off in various pieces; not just real estate, but a horse, pony, cow and calf. Refusing offers of assistance from Boston friends, he and his family moved into his former gardener's quarters to start anew. in the coming years, he would be come active in local Whig politics and serve in the Massachusetts legislature for several terms. Over time, by dint of hard work and the reputation of Peter Parley, he returned to a more comfortable financial state.



I've posted an 1878 article from the Boston Globe that describes a certain property as "the old Parley estate." Rather than being along Centre street, this property is situated between Washington street and Franklin Park. I speculated that a large masonry house on Montebello road might be this second Samuel Goodrich home, but I had no evidence. I've wondered ever since whether there actually was a second Goodrich house as suggested in the cited article, one that has otherwise been forgotten.

Town of West Robury - 1874. Washington street is marked in red. Forest Hill street forks off of Washington street near the bottom.

Existing property maps only go back to 1874, years after Goodrich had died. As described in the previous entry linked above, I suspected that the masonry building pictured above seemed to match the building footprint in the map above on the property of E.F. Parker, and also matched the location mentioned in the 1878 article. I suggested that this may be the old "Peter Parley" house, but it wasn't until I began examining deeds at the Norfolk County Registry of Deeds for another project that I realized that I would be able to track down Mr. Goodrich's property holdings and determine; 1. whether he ever owned a house between Washington street and Walnut avenue, and; 2. was the house pictured above the one? Here is what I found.

The land along School street between Lamartine street and Walnut avenue was donated to the Roxbury Grammar School by Thomas Bell in 1672 to provide income, as was common at the time. The land was leased out for a period, and later sold off to the leasees or others. We are interested in one such plot of land. Jumping ahead to June of 1803, Boston Merchant Thomas Amory paid $2,050 to John Lowell for two plots of land. One, which became the Amory "mansion estate", extended across both sides of School street, then known as the Road to Gamblin's End. The other, a 10 3/4 acre lot, was between the Road to Rocky Swamp (today's Forest Hills street), and Canterbury street, later called Back street, and finally known today as Walnut avenue. This plot is the one that interests us. As an aside to our investigation, the eminent Lowell family lived on an estate centered near today's Jackson square and the Bromley-Heath housing development.

On June 24, 1847, Elizabeth Amory, widow of Thomas Amory and mother of singlewomen Louisa M. and Anna McLean, sold the 10 3/4 acre lot to a Reuben A. Lamb for $6,000. Here is where we finally meet again with Samuel Goodrich. The same day, Lamb, who owned an adjoining property, sold the land, minus 51,000 sq. ft. adjacent to his own land, to Samuel G. Goodrich for the same $6,000 price. The deed, retaining the original lease, included "the unexpired residue and remainder of the term of 120 years from the twenty-first day of April, 1796." This refers to the original lease of the "school farm" land, as it was called at the time, by the Roxbury Grammar School.

In November of 1847, Mr. Goodrich agreed to pay David N. Skilling of Boston $7250 to build a villa and a stable. The house was to be designed by architect William Sparrell. Goodrich set a payment schedule in six parts, with partial payment due at the completion of each stage.

1. Frame raised, covered, chimney topped, well dug.
2. Roof shingled, furnace set, vault and drain finished.
3. Fitted for plastering, stairs up, window and door frames and clapboard finished.
4. Plastered, piazza finished, water-closet in, blinds hung.
5. Stable finished, all but last coat of paint done.
6. October 1, 1848, remainder due.

So there was a second house for Peter Parley in Jamaica Plain. Not only was it planned: in November of 1852, David Skilling accepted full payment and released all claim on the house. However, that same day, Samuel Goodrich sold his new house, stable and land to George R. Russell, a West Roxbury merchant, for $26,000. Peter Parley would never live in his second Jamaica Plain estate house. What happened? When the house was completed, Samuel Goodrich was living in Paris and American Consul to France. After spending time in New York and Washington D.C., he went to France in 1851, where he served as Consul until 1853, when a change of administration in Washington led to his replacement by a new political appointment. He and his family stayed in Paris until 1855, when they returned to the United States, but not to Jamaica Plain. Goodrich and wife settled in his home state of Connecticut, and he died while on a trip to New York.


Town of West Roxbury, 1874. Washington street marked in red. Forest Hills street and Walnut avenue run somewhat parallel from upper left to lower right.

Property plan. Surveyor, Alexander Wadsworth, 1860.


In 1864, George R. Russell sold the property to Albert Thompson of Boston. The Albert Thompson property held the House that Parley Built. The house was torn down by 1896, when the entire area had been laid out into streets and divided into the house lots we see today. The house sat near the intersection of the appropriately named Peter Parley road and Olmstead street. So now we know - there was a second Goodrich house (in name, if not in habitation), but not the one I originally guessed on Montebello road. So what can we learn about the Montebello road house? That's another story.



Sources:

Peter Parley, As Known To His Daughter; The Connecticut Magazine.
Daniel Bell and the Roxbury Grammar School land.
Works about Samuel Griswald Goodrich.
Samuel Goodrich, alias Peter Parley.


Norfolk Deeds:

19:198 6/02/1803 - Lowell ----->Amory
112:308 3/12/1845 - Amory ----->Amory
173:299 6/24/1847 - Amory ---->Lamb
173:299 6/24/1847 - Lamb ----->Goodrich
176:240 11/06/1847 - Goodrich engages Skilling
213:248 11/21/1852 - Skilling paid in full
213:248 11/21/1852 - Goodrich ---->Russell
304:37 6/06/1864 - Russell ----->Thompson
324:37 A.Wadsworth, surveyor's plan

Samuel Goodrich - Defended

Samuel G. Goodrich, writer and Jamaica Plain resident, was one of the best known men of his day. Before his time, books for children were imported from England. Under the pseudonym Peter Parley, he became the first great children's writer in American literature. His work was so popular that it would be difficult to find a literate child in antebellum America who had not read a Parley story. Their old friend Peter Parley taught them their history and geography, filled with moral lessons along the way. Goodrich had a strong aversion to the Mother Goose rhymes (odd as it may seem to us) and had set about to provide children with a literature that was both educational and morally uplifting. His books were translated and read around the world, and he fought pirated versions of his works and the Parley name both here and abroad. As a publisher, he introduced many leading writers to the American public, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, whose short stories appeared in the Token, his annual magazine. While living in Jamaica Plain, he was encouraged to become active in Whig politics, and served in the Massachusetts house and senate. In this entry, we learn (if we didn't know already) that politics has always been a nasty business in America. Alas, there have never been good old days for us to look back on.



The Salem Gazette November 7, 1837


Norfolk County


Samuel G. Goodrich, Esq. the reputed author of Peter Parley's Tales, is one of the Whig candidates for the Senate from Norfolk; and we notice that the locos are driven to the desperate expedient of opposing him by attempting to ridicule him out of the field as Peter Parley. If it were the rising generation who were to be affected by their electioneering tricks, or if the boys were voters, we never should have heard of this objection to Mr. Goodrich, we are sure. In contempt of such reasoning, the children of Norfolk would rise en masse, and chair their old and tried friend Peter in the Senate, by acclamation, and all the children of all the land would have said amen.

Seriously, it appears to us that the Tories of Norfolk, in thus attempting to undervalue Mr. Goodrich, have made a singular mistake. The argument -- if argument there be -- is this: Mr. G. has written sundry books under the name of Peter Parley; many books we might more properly say, for there is hardly a subject on which youth have not been entertained and instructed by the productions of Peter Parley. These books have acquired unprecedented popularity, at home and abroad. They have been translated into various other languages, and are spreading every day wider and wider among the reading people of the world. At this moment, it is probable Parley has more readers than any other living author. All of his books are of a good moral tendency, and they are exerting an extensively beneficial influence by banishing Mother Goose's Melodies; and the host of other such silly and pernicious books, and creating in the minds of children a taste for solid and useful reading. And for this Mr. Goodrich is unfit to represent the county of Norfolk! And who are the men whose claims are urged in opposition? A.H. Everett, Abel Cushing and B.P. Williams, forsooth1

To our mind, the argument, fairly stated, runs thus: A man who may justly be regarded as a benefactor of the age -- who has, by persevering industry triumphed over the want of early education -- who has gained an honored name in both hemispheres -- who in the higher walks of literature has shown a capacity for success -- who as a legislator has acquitted himself very creditably (witness the slavery resolutions and the report on the license law of the last session) -- who has, in short, the talents to command success in whatever he undertakes -- he is disqualified for a Senator; while Mr. A.H. Everett, who has shown himself a faithless politician, who is by education as aristocrat, and in feeling haughty and proud -- Mr. Cushing, who is a thorough radical of the lowest order of political radicalism -- and Mr. Williams, who is a nonentity -- they are the men who we are told, are "a sure combination of talent, virtue, and patriotism." Will this argument commend itself to the good old democratic county of Norfolk

They Just Don't Write Like This Any More

Montebello road, 2008



Richards, L.J. 1899 (copyright © 2000 by Cartography Associates)
David Rumsey Collection


This article was written in 1878, before Franklin Park was laid out. The late Samuel Goodrich had left an estate between Washington and Walnut streets, and an enterprising gentleman had decided to make a beer garden out of it. There is no further mention of it in the Boston Globe, and I fear he failed to get the liquor license he sought. The reporter must have been disappointed - he certainly did his best to push forward the endeavor. I must say; I respect a man who can juggle commas and semi-colons like this one can. People write today as if words were heavy stones to be carried, rather than doves to be released.

Washington street runs vertically up the left side of the above map. If I've got my bearings correct, the purple building on Montebello road on the map above is the old Goodrich estate. (Note: I got my bearings wrong. To read about the correct location of the Goodrich estate, go here). The writer makes it sound like the estate is in the middle of nowhere, but by that time Egleston square was already built up with worker's housing as far south as Chauncy place, just two blocks away today.

You can read more about Samuel "Peter Parley" Goodrich at the Jamaica Plain Historical Society web site here.

Addendum: I've just (3/5/2008) added the top picture. I just assumed that the old stone house was gone, so I never got to Montebello road until now. The footprint of the building seems to be about the same, although there's an addition to the left and out of sight in this picture. The sign out front says "Montebello Road Cooperative" and "Urban Edge Property Management." I'll have to see what the Landmark Commission report says about the building and report back.




Boston Daily Globe August 4, 1878

Boston's Beer Garden A Picturesque Summer Resort in Forest Hills - A Pen-Picture of the Shady Groves and Spacious Walks of the Old Peter Parley Estate.


"Peter Parley's old residence is about to be opened as a summer garden!" That was the rather startling announcement which caused your representative to board a Forest Hills car and proceed in all haste to the home of the children's storyteller to learn whether in had been really desecrated or not. Riding in an open car with a pretty girl on one side and an envious newspaporial friend on the other is not exactly the best place in the world for thought; but under these disadvantages and several others, such as an umbrella poked nearly two inches into one's back; a baby in front who would persist in slopping on to our new light kerseys, and the aforesaid friend's frantic endeavors to flirt with the gentle maiden on the left - one could not but bring up in memory's vision the old Parley estate as we knew it when the present Police Commissioner's father resided there. It is a grand old place, and one where it would seem one might forget the world and all its cares. The house stands about twenty rods from the street, embowered in trees, and backed by cliffs, hills and natural scenery of the wildest and most picturesque kind; little nooks, shut out from the gaze of the curious by the leafy screens; rocky cells, where lovers' vows may be spoken and heard only by the bird who sits dozing on the trees above; long, winding walks, canopied with green by the hand of the Creator, charming views, granny lawns, and, in fact, every kind of scenery which nature or art can crowd together in eleven and a half acres of land is to be seen there. It is this charming spot which Mr. J.B. Kendall proposes to convert into a summer garden, where, for a small admission fee, the members of the can't-get-away club can fancy that they are hundreds of miles from the hot, dusty city, enjoying themselves as thoroughly as their more fortunate brethren at their mountain or seaside retreats. A ride of thirty minutes sufficed to bring our little party to Forest Hills street, on which is the estate in question. From the street we could hear the music of the band, see the thousand many-colored lights, which twinkled from among the trees, and barely distinguish the silvery ripples of laughter from the more musical love whispers which seemed to fill the air with music all around us. A broad, winding avenue, overhung with Chinese lanterns,lead through the grove to the house, which, from the illumination, appeared like some fairy palace lighted up by the most radiant colors which the gnome kings could produce.

Strolling Through the Garden,

expecting to see simply a beer garden as they are represented in Boston, with a few sickly trees, and the vistas painted on dirty canvas, the effect produced by the brilliant illuminations and the crowd of 2000 ladies and gentlemen promenading to the strains of sweet music, can hardly be described. Although the admission is free to all, the most perfect order reigned on every part of the grounds, and not the slightest thing to offend the eye or ear was apparent. It had been and is the purpose of the present proprietor of this beautiful place to make it a summer garden in every sense of the word; but so far the all-wise magnates of City Hall have refused him a license, even as inn-holder, although he appeared before them, and declared that he would neither sell nor allow on the grounds any spirituous or intoxicating liquors, but only proposed to open a restaurant and sell beer. He was denied the privilege through the remonstrances of the property holders in the vicinity, the majority of whom live at least two miles from the garden, and proposes to show to the same neighbors, who although they declare that the garden is a nuisance, do not hesitate to avail themselves of the privileges which now cost nothing, that an orderly, well-regulated garden is an attraction and not a nuisance. Entering the house, and the long, wide hall, covered with light, cool-colored carpeting, from which the rooms used as ice-cream parlors and sitting rooms, are seen, and the bevy of fresh-looking waiter-girls, with jaunty lace caps, darting here and there with creams or ginger ale - the only beverage now sold - form a sweet rustic picture.

What the Proprietor Proposes to Do.

Should the present plan, viz: Opening the garden free to the public, in order to prove that it cannot, in any sense be objectionable, succeed, Mr. Kendall proposes to erect two large pavilions on the ground - one for ladies and gentlemen, the other for gentlemen only. This would be done in order that those visiting the house for refreshments might not be disturbed by those who simply wanted to drink beer. In that case, the music stand would be further down the lawn, instead of in front of the house, where it is now. Next week the grounds are to be illuminated with calcium lights, and soon as it can be enclosed and an admission charged, gas-lights will thickly dot the grove, which now seems fairly alive with squirrels and birds. On Sundays the grounds are open to all who wish to come, and ice-water is freely furnished, but nothing is for sale. The immense stable stands open for those who wish to use it, and picnic parties encamp on every portion of the grounds without fear of a bill for rent being presented. At present the whole thing is one gigantic charity more than anything else, and it is to be hoped that Mr. Kendall may receive such a license as will enable him to perfect the plan which promises so much pleasure to the public.