Dorchester Illustration no. 2395 Wales House
The Wales house is another house lost to history. The popularity of last week’s interior photos of the Torrey House has led us to find other interior photos.
The Wales House was located 93 Olney Street and was built at least by 1831. It appears on the 1831 map of Dorchester. The house appeared on plate 12 of the 1933 atlas, so it was taken down some time after that date. The photographs are scans from glass negatives of about 1900, provided by Philip Wales.
Nathaniel and Susan Wales came to Dorchester in 1635 on the same ship as the Rev. Richard Mather. There is a note in a biographical sketch of Benjamin Read Wales that Timothy Wales, one of the sons of Nathaniel and Susan found his second wife so disagreeable that he fitted up a cave in the woods, in which he lived many years. In the 19th century William Wales operated a nursery business, providing ornamental shrubbery, flowers and plants. S. Walter Wales was a president of the Dorchester Gentlemen’s Driving Club about 1900 and had a stable business at Grove Hall.
The Dorchester Historical Society’s historic houses are open on the third Sunday of each month from 11 am to 4 pm. Exception: in April the houses will be open on the 2nd Sunday. James Blake House, 735 Columbia Road (1661); Lemuel Clap House, 199 Boston Street (1712 and remodeled 1765); William Clap House, 195 Boston Street (1806).