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Quality Hill Neighborhood Tour Preservation Society of Pawtucket

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Quality Hill Neighborhood Tour Preservation Society of Pawtucket 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.
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