Dorchester Illustration no. 2394 Torrey House
One of the spectacular houses built in Dorchester was the Torrey House at the corner of Washington Street and Melville Avenue. Today’s illustration shows the interiors of two rooms from the late 19th century. When the building was demolished in the late 1920s or very early 1930s, the 67,000 square-foot lot was subdivided and a gas station took the small piece at the corner, a commercial building was built south of that, houses and an Odd Fellows Hall were built on what became Melvlle Lane and on the next two lots along Melville Avenue.
Elbridge Torrey (1837-1914) was the president of Torrey, Bright & Capen, whose carpet importing and sales business was located in Boston proper at 350 Washington Street. The business did well after its founding in 1875, and four years later in April, 1879, Elbridge’s wife Alice bought the property in Dorchester. They hired the architectural firm of Cabot and Chandler to design a grand house, and they moved into it in 1880. An artist’s rendering of the house appeared in American Architect and Building News in April of that year.
The 1880 census showed that they had only one live-in servant. In 1900 the Census listed them living in Cohasset with a housekeeper, cook, maid and coachman. But by 1910 they were back in Dorchester with two maids. Elbridge died before the Census of 1920, and Alice continued to live in the house until her death, sometime in the 1920s. Between her death and the publication of the 1933 atlas, the property was subdivided.
Elbridge served as a deacon at the Second Church in Codman Square and supported the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions. He traveled extensively, visiting missions in Ceylon and Turkey.
He served as a trustee of Mount Holyoke College from 1899 until his death; was elected a member of the Board of Trustees at Hartford Theological Seminary, where he served 17 years, the last 3 of which he held the office of President. He was President of Central Turkey College, and at the time of his death, of the Cullis Consumptives’ Home in Grove Hall. He was one of the original members of the Boston Congregational Club, a member of the Board of Council of the Home for Aged Couples and for fifty years was identified with the Second Church of Dorchester, where he was Deacon forty-five years and Chairman of the Board of Assessors of the Parish. for forty-two years. He was Vice-president of the Congregational Church Building Society and a Director in the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. He was for several years on the Board of Directors of the Elm Hill Home for Aged Couples. He was also for seventeen years on the Board of Trustees of Bradford Academy.