Dorchester Illustration 2532 the first This Old House
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Today’s illustration shows the Eliza Clapp House, the first This Old House at 6 Percival Street, Dorchester. In 1979, Boston PBS station WGBH produced the first season of This Old House. The first series was about the renovation of the Eliza Clapp House. The show inspired many other home restoration television shows.
Eliza Clapp (1811-1888) was the adopted daughter of Isaac and Eliza (Cook) Clapp. Isaac and Eliza owned the western end of Jones Hill, and their house was located where the Strand Theatre is today. Eliza inherited the Clapp house, which stood on 363,129 square feet of land. Eliza sold the property to Julia K. Dyer, wife of Micah Dyer, Jr., in 1863. The Clapp genealogy notes that the Clapp House on Columbia Road (formerly Hancock Street) was remodeled, probably by the Dyers before they moved in. Eliza moved to 6 Percival Street, the house that, in the late 20th century, became the first This Old House.
Percival Street, which runs between St. Peter’s Church and this house, was named for Captain John Percival (“Mad Jack”), a naval hero of the War of 1812 and later the champion of the restoration of the USS Constitution. His house stood opposite this one on the location of St. Peter’s Church.
The following is from The Magazine of Poetry, a Quarterly Review, v. 1 (Buffalo, 1889)
Clapp. One of the most notable of the poems published in the now famous Dial, was one with the title “The Future is Better than the Past,” which has been generally been ascribed to Emerson. It is now known to have been written not by Emerson, but by Miss Eliza Thayer Clapp. As generally printed it appears only in part. Rev. George W. Cooke, of Dedham, Mass., who has written the history of the Dial, gives the poem in full. Mr. Cooke says of it in his history of the Dial: “The poem in the first number of the second volume, entitled, ‘The Future is Better than the Past,’ has often been credited to Emerson. It first appeared over his name n ‘Hymns for the Church,’ compiled by Rev. F. H. Hedge and Rev F. D. Huntington, in 1853. Then it was so printed in the ‘Hymns of the Spirit,’ by Rev. Samuel Longfellow and Rev. Samuel Johnson, and in Dr. James Martineau’s ‘Hymns of Praise and Prayer.’ It was contributed to the Dial, at Emerson’s request, by one of his most ardent disciples, Eliza Thayer Clapp.
Miss Clapp was born in Dorchester, mass, and has always lived a quiet home-life in that suburb of Boston. The transcendental movement brought new life to her Unitarian Faith, and she entered into its spirit with zeal. As a Sunday School teacher, having charge of a class of girls from ten to fifteen years of age, she prepared her own lessons for their instruction. These were published as ‘Words in a Sunday-school.’ A little later, in 1845, another book, prepared n the same manner, was published as ‘Studies in Religion.’ These little books were received with much favor Christian Register, but she has published only a few pieces. The five poems of hers printed in the Dial of July, 1841, all appeared there because Emerson solicited their publication. The one which has been so often credited to him is worthy of his genius, and it embodies, as no other poem of the period does, the very heart and spirit of the transcendental movement.”
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The Dorchester Historical Society’s historic houses are closed at this time due to the COVID-19 corona virus. We will announce when the houses will be once again open to the public. For now our programs have been suspended.