Ward Macondray King House
Dorchester Illustration no. 2418 Ward, Macondary, King House
The Ward-Macondray-King House was a three-story Federal mansion, built on Adams Street about the year 1800, opposite Lonsdale and Mallet Streets.
Nothing seems to be known of Susan Ward, the first owner, other than that she died in 1835 about 63 years of age, and the executors of her estate conveyed it to Freerick Wailliam Macondray. The Clapp genealogy reports that Bela Clapp(1760-1812), a carpenter, constructed the house.
The next owner was Captain Frederick William Macondray, who was born in Raynham and lived from 1803-1862. While Frederick was still an infant, his father died, leaving two children to the mother’s care. She moved the family to Dorchester, but Frederick, who was asthmatic, had difficulty with his breathing. At a very early age he showed an interest in a sea-faring life, and before he was ten years old, in the year 1812, during the war, he went to sea in the care of Captain William Austin. After eight years of training Frederick, still under the command of Austin, set out on his longest journey, as Clerk and Fourth Officer on the sailing ship Panther on a two-year voyage to California to collect hides and tallow. Among his jobs was keeping a detailed log of the voyage. One year after the eventful trip on the Panther, the young Macondray was assigned the charge of his own vessel and received the title of Captain. Just after he had attained his majority, Captain Macondray was called to the command of a vessel sailing between South America and China.
At the age of 28, on September 22, 1831, he married Lavinia Capen Smith in Taunton, Massachusetts. Soon after their marriage, they set sail for China on the sailing vessel The Hamilton, and they lived in Macao for 8 years. Concerned for the health and education of his growing family Captain Macondray took his family back to Massachusetts on a journey that took more than two months.
The Captain purchased the home called “Rosemont” in Dorchester in 1842. The estate stretched from Adams Street to Neponset Avenue and from a line 15 to 20 rods south of the mansion to Mill Street (now Victory Road) on the north. He also owned 6 acres across Adams Street stretching toward Dorchester Avenue. The Chinese pagoda that he built on the crown of the hill in back of the house made a magnificent observatory.
Captain Macondray and his family lived in Rosemont for seven years. The estate was known for its beautiful gardens — Macondray was a practical horticulturist, and for years the exhibition of his fruit and flowers at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society were highly honored.
Although Macondray seems to have been already quite well off, after he heard the news of the gold excitement in 1848, he sold the house in Dorchester with its large estate in 1849 to Mr. Edward King of Boston for $26,000 and went to California. Within one month of his arrival, he established, with James Otis and Mr. Cary, the F.W. Macondray Co., which began as a commission house receiving the greater part of its merchandise from Boston. It became the largest commercial house in San Francisco, and in 1852, after its first shipment of tea, soon became the main importer of fine teas from China. In its infant stage, Macondray & Co. also functioned as one of the first banking facilities in San Francisco and served as agents of the North China Marine Insurance Co., and the Yang Tsze Marine Insurance Association, insuring hulls and cargo.
He became enormously rich. Among his other accomplishments Macondray is credited with bringing Zinfandel vines to California in the period 1852-1857.
Edward King, the next owner of the house, acquired a fortune in the paint and drug business and was retired when he bought the house in 1849. He was President and Director of the Dorchester & Milton Branch Railroad and President of the Mattapan Bank in the Harrison Square section of Dorchester. He was on the pulpit committee of the Third Unitarian Society at the corner of Neponset Avenue and Mill Street (now Victory Road).
The estate, which was conveyed to Charles Carruth in 1859 and back to Edward King in 1866, was then broken up and sold off in various parcels.
Painting from the Edward A. Huebener collection of brick from Dorchester buildings with the portrait of the building painted on the face of the brick.