Quality Hill Neighborhood Tour Preservation Society of Pawtucket

The Quality Hill neighborhood is named such because the prominent and influential citizens of 19th and early 20th century Pawtucket chose the hill as the location for their houses. Quality Hill is a residential neighborhood; you won’t find the mills or factories here. The homes in this area are collectively the largest and finest in the city. On this walk, you’ll not only see great variations in architectural styles, but will also learn about the individuals and families that first settled this beautiful neighborhood.

Randall/Pearce House, 98 Summit ​ Nehemiah Washington Randall partnered with John Francis Adams in 1862 to establish the firm of Adams and Randall, which was later (1869) merged into the Hope Thread Company, of which Nehemiah was the General Superintendent. He built this house in 1867 and another house at the corner of Spring and Denver Streets, where he lived until 1899. Mr. Randall sold this house in 1872 to Mrs. Hannah T. Cleveland, the widow of Dr. George Cleveland. Hannah married Ellis Pearce, of Pearce & Larkin, dealers of hay, grain, and groceries. Twenty years later they were divorced; Hannah resumed her first husband's name and lived out her days here.

Albert A. Jenks House, 90 Summit ​ This house was built in 1904; it is the largest on Summit Street and is in the Colonial Revival style. After Pawtucket’s Cotton Centenary Celebration (1890) and the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago (1893), there was a resurgence of interest in American heritage, which inspired this architectural style. Albert Alvin Jenks was the President of the Fales & Jenks Machinery Company, a textile machinery plant in Central Falls. Albert’s father, Alvin Fales Jenks was the donor and namesake of Jenks Park on Broad Street in Central Falls.

Everett P. Carpenter House, 72 Summit ​ Everett Payson Carpenter was born in Pawtucket in 1834. As a teenager, Carpenter was learning the jewelry trade, but the chemicals burned his eyes. He eventually founded Carpenter & Company, Pawtucket’s largest house furnishing emporium in the late 19th century. He was also a director of the Pacific National Bank and a member of the First Baptist Church. This house was built in 1880.

Cross Summit Avenue and walk through the park. Look toward Walcott Street and you’ll see the Pitcher-Goff house just over the highway.

Pitcher-Goff House, 58 Walcott Street ​ The Pitcher-Goff House was built in 1840 for Ellis B. Pitcher, a cotton textile manufacturer. Pitcher was the son of Larned Pitcher, a pioneer machinist. Ellis formed a partnership with Alanson Thayer, and the company produced cotton goods in the Yellow Mill on the eastern bank of the Blackstone River, near the Falls. In 1844, he went into partnership with other investors and formed the Pawtucket Manufacturing Company.

In November of 1869, Ellis’ wife Julia (Walcott) died, and three weeks later their daughter Annie died. A month after that, Ellis learned that his son's thread manufacturing business - in which he had invested $30,000 - had failed. Ellis was distraught and shot himself in the head. In May 1870 the Pitcher heirs sold this house to Colonel Lyman Bullock Goff. The two families were related - Colonel Goff’s brother Darius L. had been married to Annie Pitcher.

Lyman B. Goff was the son of Darius Goff, one of Pawtucket's most successful 19th century manufacturers. Lyman began his career as a clerk in the family firm. In 1872 he became a full partner with his father and brother Darius L., and the firm became known as D. Goff & Sons. In 1880, he assumed the position of treasurer of the Union Wadding Company, a firm started by his father, and said to have been the largest manufacturer of cotton batting in the world at that time. Upon the death of his father, Lyman B. was elected President of Union Wadding. He was a director of several Rhode Island banks, including the Rhode Island Hospital Trust Company. He and his brother Darius L. organized the Pawtucket Electric Company.

Colonel Goff deeded the Walcott Street mansion to his daughter, Elizabeth Goff Wood in 1922. Nineteen years later, Mrs. Wood gave the property to the Pawtucket Congregational Society, specifying that the house be offered to the Red Cross, rent-free, for use as a chapter house. The Red Cross accepted the offer, and occupied the building for twenty-five years. The house was later the first home of the Rhode Island Children’s Museum. Keep walking on Summit toward Walcott Street

Oliver Starkweather House, 60 Summit ​ This elegant Federal-style mansion was built in 1800 by Oliver Starkweather, the first to build a house on the hill. Starkweather served a brief term as a soldier in the American Revolutionary War. By 1800, he was one of Pawtucket’s wealthiest and most prominent citizens, having earned his fortune in yarn and cloth manufacturing. He was also a politician, serving as a Representative for Seekonk from 1812-1818, and was a member of the Bristol County State Senate. This house originally occupied a spacious Walcott Street lot. Walter H. Stearns purchased the house in 1901 and turned it 90 degrees to face Summit Street. It was moved a second time to escape demolition during the I-95 highway construction in the 1960s.

Turn right on Walcott

John Blake Read/Joseph Ott House, 67 Walcott ​ John Blake Read, a hardware merchant, built this house in 1842. John was born in 1801 in Freeport, ME and later served as a long-time commanding general of the Massachusetts militia. His father had been a prisoner on the Old Jersey prison ship during the American Revolutionary War. In 1862, the Read mansion was purchased by Joseph Ott, founder of Royal Weaving. Ott, born in Germany, came to America when he was 23 to escape military duty. He worked for the Slater Cotton Company and left there to begin manufacturing silk in Central Falls. He eventually moved his mill to the Darlington neighborhood where the building still stands across the street from the Oak Grove Cemetery entrance.

The HMS Jersey was a 1736 ship in the British Royal Navy that also was a prison ship during the American ​ Revolutionary War. The ship became infamous for the extremely harsh conditions in which the prisoners were kept. From 1776 to 1783, the British forces occupying New York City used abandoned or decommissioned warships anchored just offshore to hold the soldiers, sailors, and private citizens they had captured in battle, or arrested on land or at sea (many for refusing to swear allegiance to the British Crown). About 11,000 prisoners died aboard the prison ships during the war, most from disease or malnutrition. Many of these were inmates of the notorious HMS Jersey, which earned the nickname "Hell" for its inhumane conditions and the high death rate of its prisoners. The British captured more prisoners than the Americans did, and General George Washington did not want to exchange veteran British soldiers for ragtag American troops, since that put his army at a greater disadvantage. When the British evacuated New York at the end of 1783, the Jersey was abandoned and burned.

Greek Orthodox Church, 97 Walcott ​ The Greek community in Pawtucket was established around 1896 by a small group of young men who had emigrated from Greece. They rented halls and houses in the downtown area to hold liturgy services whenever a priest was available. By 1910, the community had grown to nearly 75 members and they needed their own building. In one year of campaigning they raised $750, and in 1911 purchased property on George Street. The parish council was formed in 1912 and the church was given a charter from the State of Rhode Island. In the Fall of that year, a ceremony was held for the laying of the building’s cornerstone and a year later the first Divine Liturgy was celebrated in the new church. In 1914, the church was given its official name, Hellenic Orthodox Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. In 1966, Interstate 95 displaced many families and businesses; buildings were either demolished or had to be moved at the expense of their owners. The church was forced to leave George Street, so they moved up to Walcott Street and purchased the former mansion house of John Blake Read and Joseph Ott, and held services in the renovated carriage house. In May 1966, ground was broken for the construction of the current church building and in 1967 the parish moved into its new building. The Read-Ott mansion House was renovated for offices and living quarters for the priest.

Walcott-Goff House, 123 Walcott ​ This house was built in 1814 for Benjamin S. Walcott, a cotton manufacturer and one of Samuel Slater’s competitors. It was remodeled in the Italianate style around 1865 for Darius Goff. Darius Goff (1809-1891) was one of the foremost textile manufacturers in the country and was a leading citizen of Pawtucket. He was born in Rehoboth, MA into a family that owned textile mills. His father, Lt. Richard Goff, was a partner in the Union Manufacturing Company in Rehoboth, dyeing yarn which would be made into cloth. Darius worked in his father's factory until it closed in 1821. In 1826 (age 17) Goff went to Fall River to learn from John and Jesse Eddy, but he suffered a serious accident and his factory career was put on hiatus. While he recovered, he worked as a grocery store clerk in Providence. He later partnered with his brother Nelson to buy the Union Cotton Mill in Rehoboth in 1836, but it was soon afterward destroyed by fire, and Goff then turned his attention to the cotton waste business. Darius began contracting with local cotton mills to buy their refuse and he started the Union Wadding Company in 1947 to process the waste into a wadded form, which was then sold to paper mills. By 1861 Goff had begun the manufacture of worsted braids, first under the name of the American Worsted Company, then in 1864 under the name D. Goff & Son, with his son Darius L. Goff as partner. When his other son Lyman joined the company, it became known as D. Goff & Sons. Goff wanted to produce mohair plush for upholstery and sent representatives to Europe to learn the process, but they failed to obtain the knowledge. Goff therefore created his own process through trial and error, and in 1882 became the first manufacturer of plush in this country.

Turn right on Arlington

Albert H. Humes House, 15 Arlington ​ Albert Hadfield Humes (1867-1947) was a local architect who designed many private residences and several schools in Pawtucket. He served as the mayor of Central Falls from 1903-1904 and was the Bull Moose party candidate for governor in 1912. Humes attended Scholfield's Commercial College in Providence, and worked for noted architects William R. Walker & Son for six years. He opened his office in Central Falls in 1887 and in 1895 moved it to Pawtucket. Albert built this house for himself in 1906. He continued to practice at least through the early 1940s, but little is known of his work after 1910. He was buried in the Moshassuck Cemetery in Central Falls.

Edward J. McCaughey (1844-1922) House, 51 ​ Arlington This house was built in 1918, in the bungalow style which was popular in the 1920s. Edward McCaughey was the Vice President of the Home Bleach and Dye Works, which was established in 1881 and incorporated in 1902. At age 14, McCaughey was employed in the Potter cotton mill and later at the Dunnel print works. He learned the trade of masonry, which he did for 11 years before working as a clerk and manager for a grocer on School Street. McCaughey served as a city councilman and alderman from 1888 to 1906.

Charles Shartenberg House, 50 Arlington ​ Charles Shartenberg was the founder and Vice President of Shartenberg’s department store, which was called the “new idea store.” Shartenberg was born in Pawtucket in 1888 to German immigrant Jacob Shartenberg and later attended Andover Academy and Yale University. His department store was at the corner of Main Street and Park Place in downtown, the current site of the municipal parking garage.

Turn on Homestead

Darius Lee Goff House, 1 ​ Homestead Darius Lee Goff, born in 1840, was the son of Darius Goff (1809-1891) and Harriett Lee, and the brother of Lyman Bullock Goff. Darius graduated from Brown University in 1862 and in that same year, upon the organization of the American Worsted Company (by his father), Darius L. became an equal partner in the business with his father and the Sayles brothers (William F. and Frederick C.). The Goffs pioneered the American manufacturing of worsted braids and yarns. As one of the first incorporators of the Pawtucket Electric Company, Darius helped introduce electric lighting in the town. He was a founder of the Pawtucket Boys Club and served as President of Royal Weaving and of the Bridge Mill Power Company, in addition to being a trustee of the Pawtucket Congregational Church. Darius married Annie E. Pitcher, daughter of Ellis B. Pitcher and Julia Mann Walcott (occupants of the Pitcher-Goff house at 58 Walcott). He retired on his 81st birthday and is now buried in the Swan Point Cemetery. He had this house built in 1917.

Goff Coach House, 7 Homestead ​ Darius Lee Goff inherited his father’s estate in 1891, but continued to live at 11 Walnut Street. The Homestead property was used by family members. He built the coach house, which originally faced Maynard Street, for his horses and imported cars. The house was moved back from Maynard St. to accommodate John A. Teeden’s house (on the corner). Homestead street became an official street in 1915.

Turn left on Maynard

Frank Leonard House, 44 Maynard ​ This house was designed in 1911 by R.C.N. Monahan. Frank Leonard was the “first paying teller” of the Industrial Trust Company in Pawtucket. In 1894, he was the manager of the Pawtucket Maroons baseball team in the New England League.

Walter F. Field House, 38 Maynard ​ Walter Field was the purchasing agent for the Phillips Insulated Wire Company. This house was built for him in 1913. It is now the McHale Administration Building for the Saint Raphael Academy.

Saint Raphael Academy St. Ray’s, as it is colloquially known, is a college preparatory school, founded in the tradition of Saint John Baptist de Lasalle. In 1922, buoyed by the success of LaSalle Academy in Providence, and with a deep conviction for the value of Catholic education, Bishop William Hickey began to raise funds to construct two new Catholic high schools, one in Pawtucket and the other in Newport. By 1924 he had enough money. The Pawtucket school was started in a mansion on Walcott Street (the Walcott-Goff mansion at 123 Walcott), which was renovated to accommodate a classroom, library, and science lab. The school opened with 59 students (all boys), three faculty members, and an athletic director. The school very soon outgrew its building, and they needed a gymnasium and cafeteria. On January 1, 1929, the "new Saint Raphael Academy" was opened, featuring a gymnasium, six classrooms, a science lab, and a principal's office. By this time, the school had 160 students overseen by eight faculty members. By the 1970s, the enrollment at Catholic high schools had begun to decline and the condition of the St. Ray’s facilities were deteriorating. In 1975, the school accepted 112 young women from St. Jean Baptiste Academy, which had closed the previous summer. However, they needed more space to accommodate the new students, so they began leasing the former Saint Joseph's Elementary School, just up the street. The now co-educational Saint Raphael Academy had 550 students, and enrollment continued to rise through the late 1970s, exceeding 700 students by the mid-1980s. A capital campaign was launched to fund the construction of Barbara Farley Hall, which opened in 1986, featuring a computer center, music room, art room, and classroom, with athletic facilities in the basement.

Turn right on Walcott

St. Joseph’s Church and School The St. Joseph’s parish was established in 1874 by a group that had set off from St. Mary’s. The original St. Joseph’s church building looked almost identical to the St. Mary’s building (on Pine Street). The building survived until 1977, when it was destroyed by fire. The former convent and elementary school buildings are now part of the Saint Raphael complex.

Turn left on Walnut

William H. Park House, 24 Walnut ​ William H. Park was the manager of the Pawtucket branch of the Industrial Trust Company. He built this house in 1910. Just seven years later he died suddenly at the age of 70 at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in NY.

Walter H. Stearns House, 22 Walnut ​ Walter H. Stearns was the secretary treasurer of the Rhode Island Cardboard Company and an associate of the Goffs in the Union Wadding Company He had a reputation for being flamboyant, which is evident in his elaborately designed house, built by Albert H. Humes in 1893. In 1901, Stearns sold this house and purchased the Federal-style Starkweather mansion, which was then on Walcott Street (now on Summit).

Darius Lee Goff House, 11 Walnut ​ Darius Lee Goff built this house around 1890. His daughter’s society debut ball was held in December of 1906 and to accommodate the event and the guests, Goff added another wing to the house. The three-story addition contained a ballroom on the 3rd floor and extra sleeping quarters on the lower floors. Charles Greenhalgh purchased the house in 1952 and later gave it to the Pawtucket Congregational Church with the stipulation that the Weeden Manor, founded in 1905 by Elizabeth Higgins Weeden would occupy the house. The Weeden Manor closed in 2010 and this house has been privately owned since 2013.

Turn right on Armistice

T. Stewart Little House, 43 Armistice ​ The house was designed in 1929 by Monahan and Meikle for T. Stewart Little, the President of the John W. Little Company (John Watson Little was his father). Before this house was built, Stewart Little lived next door, at 55 Armistice, which was designed by R.C.N. Monahan.

Go to corner of Denver and Armistice

R.C.N. Monahan House (14 Denver) ​ Robert Charles Nicholson Monahan (1873-1963) was a prolific Pawtucket architect. His house was built in 1903, just after he had opened his office in town. He practiced alone until 1926, when he made Robert R. Meikle a partner in the new firm of Monahan & Meikle. In 1943, Carl F. Johnson was also made a partner, and the firm became Monahan, Meikle & Johnson in 1951. In 1962, Monahan retired, and died the year after that. Johnson took over the firm with a new partner for a while, but it was soon dissolved in 1968.

Walk back down Armistice

Dexter Houses on Armistice Henry Bowers Dexter purchased the Benjamin Pitcher estate and divided it into lots for multiple-family rental houses, most of which were constructed between 1885 and 1910. Henry B. Dexter was born in Pawtucket in 1827, a seventh generation descendant of the Rev. Gregory Dexter, who accompanied Roger Williams on his 1644 return voyage after securing a charter to establish the colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Henry apprenticed with Brown & Clark to learn the machinist trade and later was hired to manage the shop of John H. Potter. After retiring from the machinist business in 1858, Dexter bought the cardboard and glazed paper industry of his brother-in-law Ray Potter and erected a new brick building on Exchange street, known as the Rhode Island Card Board Company. In April, 1889, Mr. Dexter sold his interest in that company and sailed to Europe. Turn left on Maynard Street

Pitcher/Dexter House, 11 Maynard Street ​ This is a remnant of the Benjamin Pitcher House, a one and a half story Gothic cottage of the 1840s. Pitcher, a cotton mill owner, was instrumental in developing Quality Hill in the 1840s and 1850s. His house was altered by Henry B. Dexter in the latter half of the 19th century, and was later converted into a double tenement house. Dexter subdivided the Pitcher estate in the 1880s and erected about fifteen rental houses on it.

Turn Right on Walcott Street

George T. Greenhalgh House, 140 Walcott ​ George T. Greenhalgh was the manager of the Perry Oil Company and secretary treasurer of the Burgess Mills. This house was built in 1903.

Lucius Bowles Darling House, 124 Walcott ​ Lucius Bowles Darling, Jr. (1860-1922) was the fifth son of Lucius Bowles Darling, Sr. (1837-1896). His uncles were Edwin Darling and Lyman Morse Darling, two of Pawtucket’s most successful and well-known businessmen. Lucius attended public school in Providence until age 15, then went to private school in Foxboro, MA, before returning to Classical School in Providence. Directly after graduating he joined his father’s firm and in 1881 became a partner in L.B. Darling & Company, which was later incorporated in 1884 as the L.B. Darling Fertilizer Company. The company’s offices and stock yards were on Mineral Spring Avenue, near the railroad line in what is now the Fairlawn neighborhood. When his father died, Lucius became President, managing the company with the help of his uncle Lyman. After his brother Ira died in 1891, Lucius was responsible for the Chicago branch of the business and spent nearly two years in Chicago organizing the company. Lucius also became a trustee of the Music Hall building, which his father had built on Main Street in downtown Pawtucket. Lucius moved into this house, designed by Pawtucket architect Albert Humes in 1882. After Lucius’ death, the house was occupied by his son Randolph, who was a World War I veteran, having served in France. Margaret Deery was a nurse caring for Randolph and she eventually married him. The Darling family is buried in Swan Point Cemetery in Providence.

William A. Ingraham House, 112 Walcott ​ William Augustus Ingraham was the son of Elijah Ingraham who was a textile “giant,” along with the Walcotts, Slaters, and Oliver Starkweather. William’s house was built in 1850 and in 1866 was purchased by Thomas Anthony Lee, who was the proprietor of the Lee Block on Main Street (demolished in 1970).

Turn right on Underwood

Herbert O. Phillips House, 48 Underwood ​ Herbert O. Phillips and his brother Edgar B. Phillips were the founders of the Phillips Insulated Wire Company. By the time this house was built, in 1907, Phillips Wire had moved to the Darlington neighborhood from Central Falls, and was operating very successfully.

John W. Richardson House, 36 Underwood ​ The front entrance of this house is nearly an exact copy of the entrance to the Starkweather mansion on Summit Street. The architecture firm of Monahan and Meikle obviously referenced that house when they designed this one in 1931.

End at Underwood and Walcott ______What style is this house?

1. Colonial Revival (1880-1955) symmetrical façade medium pitch, side-gable roof with narrow eaves hipped roofs and dormers centered entrance with columns and/or a hooded porch fanlight, sidelights, and/or a paneled door brick or wood clapboard siding

2. Federal style (1780-1820) rectangular construction exterior symmetry, including windows in evenly spaced rows grand entrance often highlighted by columns elaborate details, such as molding front-facing, low, gabled roof

3. Georgian (1700-1780) symmetrical form and fenestration multi-pane windows side-gabled or hipped roof stone or brick walls transom window over paneled front door pediment or crown and pilasters at front entry cornice with dentils water table or belt course corner quoins

4. Greek Revival (1825-1860) front gabled roof front porch with columns front facade corner pilasters broad cornice attic or frieze level windows

5. Italianate style (1840-1885) balanced, low-pitched hipped roofs, often of tile. wide overhanging eaves with decorative brackets. stucco, stone, or brick exterior slightly recessed or enclosed entry, with columns or pilasters arched doors and windows

6. Queen Anne (1880-1910) asymmetrical, often L-shaped footprint cross-gabled or hipped, medium pitched roof highly ornamented spindlework, half timbering, patterned masonry towers, turrets placed at front corner of facade wrapped porches

7. Stick Style (1860-1890) steeply pitched gable roof cross gables decorative trusses at gable peak overhanging eaves with exposed rafters wood exterior walls with clapboards horizontal, vertical or diagonal decorative wood trim - stickwork porches with diagonal or curved braces towers

8. Tudor style (1890-1940) steeply pitched, multi-gabled roof large chimneys often with decorative details brick and stucco construction with stone trim ornamental half-timbering tall and narrow multipaned or geometric leaded windows ______Sources: 1. Quality Hill Walking Tour booklet, Preservation Society of Pawtucket, 1992 2. Wikipedia 3. "Illustrated History of Pawtucket, Central Falls and Vicinity," Henry R. Caufield, 1897 4. American Wool and Cotton Reporter, April 7, 1921 5. http://assumptionri.org/history.htmburgess 6. Findagrave.com 7. SAH Archipedia 8. “Pawtucket Past and Present,” Slater Trust Company, 1917 9. National Park Service, Inventory Nomination form, Quality Hill Historic District 10. Henry B. Dexter Papers, Rhode Island Historical Society 11. https://www.historicnewengland.org/preservation/for-homeowners-communities/your-old-or-historic-ho me/architectural-style-guide/ 12. https://www.wentworthstudio.com/historic-styles/tudor/

This tour was developed and written by Barbara Zdravesky for the Preservation Society of Pawtucket, 2018.