Mendon’s “Gem” Stone House The Nathan C. Aldrich House and Resthaven Chapel The Nathan Aldrich House and Resthaven Chapel, a distinctive farmhouse built in the Greek Revival style in the town of Mendon, Massachusetts, is historically significant for its association with Catherine Regina Seabury, who used the property to the benefit of female factory workers in Boston. Constructed around 1830 with dressed granite masonry walls, the house is notable among the town’s distinguished collection of early 19th-century public and domestic architecture. A descendent of George Aldrich, one of the founding fathers of Mendon, Nathan C. Aldrich (1799-1866) was a Quaker born in N. Smithfield, RI. Aldrich was the fifth generation of his family to reside in Mendon. In 1821 he purchased 140 acres from his brother, Luke Jr., and set out to reputedly build "the biggest stone house in Worcester County". He employed highly skilled Quaker stone masons to construct the dressed granite house with stone from local quarries. It is speculated that the tight-knit, self-supporting Society of Friends would have helped Nathan find good masons. The restrained design and ornamentation of the house aptly reflects the Friends’ principle of plainness. When his new large and distinctive residence was completed in 1830, along with its 130 acre farm, it reflected the wealth and status of its owner. Stone houses are rare in the region, although there were stone masons in neighboring villages. In 1824, the house was completed, along with its enormous dairy barn, and he began farming the land. He married his wife, Dianna, in 1825 and they had one child, Elizabeth, born in 1830. Nathan died of cholera 36 years later in 1866. His brief will conveyed one-half of his real and personal estate to his widow and the other half to his daughter and grandson. The house passed from family to friends until Catherine Regina Seabury purchased the house. Resthaven which is likely how it looked when built. Catherine Regina Seabury came from one of the most distinguished American Episcopal families, her great- grandfather being Samuel Seabury, the first appointed Bishop of the American Episcopal Church in 1789. Her father, Samuel Seabury, was an ordained Episcopal minister and was rector of the Church of the Annunciation on 14th Street in Manhattan from 1838 to 1863. He married for the third time on October 17, 1854 (his 2 previous wives were deceased), Mary Anna Schuyler, daughter of Hon. Samuel and Catherine (Schuyler) Jones, of which marriage was one daughter, Catherine Regina Seabury. He had several sons and daughters from his previous marriages. Catherine was consecrated into “religious life” in 1846* at the Parish of the Holy Communion in New York City and was received as full Sister of the Holy Communion in 1854. She attended to the sick and the poor and served in the parish infirmary, which became St. Luke’s hospital in 1858. Through her efforts, a Shelter for Respectable Girls and a Babies’ Shelter were established in the parish. She was a special student at Bryn Mawr College, N. Y. (1897-1898) and at Radcliffe College (1898-1890). She was a reader in the English Department at Wellesley College (1900-1901). During her time in Massachusetts, Seabury established the Women's Mutual Improvement Society in East Cambridge, Mass. in 1889 to improve the spiritual and recreational opportunities for working women, a time when organizations to aid female workers were uncommon. She also taught Sunday school at the Church of the Ascension in East Cambridge. After this time she became head of St. Agnes’ School of the Episcopal Diocese back in Albany, New York from 1901-1912. * According to the Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York published by New York Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Volume One -1913; Rev. Samuel Seabury married (third) October 17, 1854, Mary Anna Schuyler, daughter of Hon. Samuel and Catherine (Schuyler) Jones, of which marriage was one daughter, Catherine Regina Seabury. If their marriage date is reported correctly in their 1913 genealogical history and her parents did not marry until 1854, the date of her being consecrated into religious life in 1846 must be in error. Catherine R. Seabury and the Rev. Henry A. Parker family. Gurdon S. Parker (the architect of the chapel) is the young man sitting quite upright in the front row. Ms. Seabury is probably the woman at the center of the photograph. In her desire to find a vacation place for the members of the Women’s Mutual Improvement Society, Catherine Regina Seabury traveled throughout eastern Massachusetts. When she discovered Nathan C. Aldrich’s old farm in Mendon, her search ended. It had the unusual feature of a large and elegant stone house that would provide a comfortable residence for her and her family, as well as provide housing for the visiting women. Catherine Regina Seabury named the retreat Resthaven, and for the next ten summers she welcomed female factory workers for rest and recreation. Renovations to the house were needed for the Boston workers, with attic bed chambers and dormers. The women of Boston that came to Resthaven could not have afforded the luxury of the location without the Society. Her brother-in-law, The Rev. Henry A. Parker and his family, came to Mendon from Cambridge on Sundays to provide religious services. In 1899, Rev. Parker's sons designed and built Resthaven Chapel on the grounds from local field stone. The architect was Gurdon Saltonstall Parker, the eldest son, who was a student at Harvard Scientific School. Alas, Gurdon was called back to Harvard for football camp before the chapel could be completed, and so that first year the celebrants held services with only a roof of branches over their heads. Gurdon eventually went on to become an architect in Manhattan, and married Julia Deforest Tiffany, the daughter of Louis Comfort Tiffany. The Chapel built at Resthaven Catherine Seabury left her position at St. Agnes’ School in 1912 and opened a school of her own in the stone house at Resthaven. She was assisted in this effort by her aunt, Sister Catherine, who had retired to Resthaven after over 50 years of service in New York, and other friends who had worked with her in the past. An addition was built to the small chapel and much of the large house was also renovated during this time. The above ads are from A Handbook of American Private Schools by Porter E. Sargent, Boston – 1916. The girls' day began with breakfast at 7:45 am, followed by Morning Prayer in the chapel, Swedish gymnastics, singing, lessons, and school duties, so that by 3:00, everyone was out of doors. Then some of the girls would drive down to the village to the tiny post office, play games, or walk the fields and woods, collecting whatever was in season, be it blueberries, grapes, or ferns with which to decorate the chapel. The academic schedule included typical subject matter such as Literature, English Composition, History, and Mathematics, as well as Latin and French, Biology or Physics, Music (including weekly forays to the Symphony in Boston, and occasionally to the Opera House), and Bible study. Meals were also a source of instruction, so that the girls would naturally develop a talent for polite and "earnest discussion of worthwhile things". Each day ended with an early supper, study time, and story-telling before bed. According to the brochure, the Resthaven School for Girls charged $1000 for tuition, room and board, and incidentals for the 1916-1917 school year. The beautiful fields and woods of Resthaven where the students could roam and pick fruits and plants to decorate the chapel and, no doubt, for a little afternoon snack. Resthaven's 130 acres, delineated not by the straight lines of a ruler, but by drawings of stone walls, was punctuated with landmarks such as The Red Oak, The Skating Pond, and Indian Rock. One of the outdoor winter pleasures of old Resthaven was ice skating on the pond created by a dam at Spring Brook. One can see the remnants of the old dam, and where it once stood, as well as a nearby dug-out area which once served as the ice house, in which blocks of ice were cut and stored to last through-out the summer. Ice skating on the pond is mentioned as a winter activity in both the 1916 Resthaven School for Girls brochure. The old dam around 1918 The war forced the closing of the school in 1918, and while Catherine Regina Seabury always intended to reopen it, she was unable to achieve that goal. Efforts in 1924 were frustrated by a temporary bout of blindness. Before her death in 1929, she willed the property to her nephew Reginald S. Parker with a $2,000 trust for the preservation of the chapel. Dr. Joseph Ashkins (1902-1994) was a prominent local surgeon, a man who knew what he wanted, and set out to get it. He purchased Resthaven in 1940 from the Resthaven Trust established after the death of Catherine R. Seabury, and took two years to painstakingly renovate the house back into a single family home. He and his family lived almost a life of celebrity in the small town of Mendon, in which their every vacation, personal achievement, and party held at their estate was documented in the local newspaper. Resthaven after renovations by Dr. Ashkins. At Resthaven, it is fortunate to have picturesque Spring Brook flow through both the western and northern portions of the property, providing a wonderful and natural buffer of privacy. Its clear, rushing waters provide a soothing backdrop to the ears, and its coolness prevails throughout the summer, so that one can notice a significant temperature difference when sitting by the mossy stone covered banks. Ferns and spruce trees abound, and it's location down a small ravine creates an atmosphere in which one could imagine being out in the middle of the wilderness. Because the brook's water is clear and cold and its topography such that it is fast- running, combined with areas of calm, dark pools, it is the perfect environment for fish, and in particular, trout. Dr. Ashkins would frequently wake up early in the morning and go down to the brook to catch trout for his girls' breakfast. Dr. Ashkins always had cats and dogs (the dogs often named Bo), and the area where the "headstone" is located is the Pet Cemetery, where generations of Resthaven's pets were buried. The Pet Cemetery dates back before the Ashkins' ownership of the property, although how far back, we'll probably never know. Nonetheless, it is another unique little part of the history of Resthaven. Daring and adventurous, Dr. Ashkins was an avid pilot who owned several small airplanes throughout his lifetime. His last flight was a solo trip to Clearwater, FL at age 71, with his faithful dog, Bo III by his side. It was December, and as he flew off the coast of New Jersey, both engines on his Cessna-310 quit without warning. When he crash landed into the heavy surf about 250 yards off of the beach, he became trapped inside by the pressure of the mounting water as the plane sank. "I never thought I'd get out", he told his friends. "I wasn't so much afraid to die, but I thought to myself- what a way to go." He managed to get out, but was unable to save his Labrador retriever, which was afraid of the water. He then swam the 250 yards to shore, where a local judge who had seen the plane go down was able to assist him. Dr. Ashkins from a newspaper photo from the time of his plane crash (1973). It was the second time that he narrowly escaped death. More than 15 years before, while enroute to his home from Milford Hospital after operating until late at night, he dozed off and flipped his car into a gully, severing an artery. The doctor took off his belt and applied a tourniquet around his leg, and then dragged himself up the embankment to the highway, where a passing motorist found him. From The Milford Daily News Despite Dr. Ashkins brushes with death, he lived well into his 90s dying on May 4, 1994, and is now buried near his beloved Resthaven in Mendon’s Swan Dale Cemetery. The property has had several owners since his death. Most of the former acreage has been developed into private residences. The Resthaven currently contains 4.9 acres. A satellite view from “Google Earth” of the area around Resthaven. Nathan C. Aldrich House/Resthaven Chapel is located at 111 Providence Street in Mendon, Massachusetts. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on May 17, 2006 as NHRP reference # 06000399. A member of the Massachusetts Historical Commission commented that they believed that this was the only chapel on private residential property in the state. So it comes as no surprise that owners of the property have often used the estate to host weddings throughout the years. I can't imagine a more idyllic spot, particularly for those who prefer a more intimate ceremony, to share such an important day with their closest loved ones. A wedding at Resthaven Chapel The beauty of the house and chapel today is reflected in images taken during two colorful seasons. Resthaven Over The Years The house at Resthaven a bit later than the photo at the top of this article. Note the ivy has grown to the roof line. The chapel. It is difficult to clearly see, but the photo Photo may have been taken before the addition was built. The scenic entrance to Resthaven. Recent photos Resthaven house. The chapel as it appears in the summer. You can see the chapel’s bell over the entrance. Another view of the chapel. This time during the winter. You can see the chapel’s addition added after Resthaven became a school for girls. For the information about Resthaven and its owners, plus photos not from our archives, our thanks to: http://111providencestreet.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.html National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. U. S. Department of the Interior. http://www.nps. gov/nr/feature/wom/2007/aldrich.htm American Education, A New Series of New York Education by C. E. Franklin, Editor, Vol. 5, Page 170, published by the New York Education Company of Albany, 1902 Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York published by New York Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Volume One -1913 A Handbook of American Private Schools by Porter E. Sargent, Boston – 1916. Woman's Who's Who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada 1914-1915 by John William Leonard, Published by the American Commonwealth Company of New York Google Earth: earth.google.com Paul Doucette, Mendon Historian Mendon Menu . |