Mrs. Cochrane’s School
Dorchester Illustration 2630
Rev. John Codman, scion of a wealthy family, enlarged the old Thayer place at the top of Codman Hill. The estate, which had acres of sloping fields and looked out over Lower Mills and the Blue Hills, was a popular stop-over for ministers on their way from the countryside to theological gatherings in Boston. The Codman mansion was the scene of heated debates during the Congregational church’s “Great Schism” during the early 1800’s, when the more liberal Unitarian wing of the church broke away from the more conservative Trinitarians. Following Codman’s death in 1847, the junction of Washington Street, Norfolk Street, Centre Street and Talbot Avenue, known as Baker’s Corners, was renamed Codman Square in honor of the beloved reverend.
The house remained in the Codman Family until the Civil War. After the Civil War it was leased to a boarding school for young ladies, operated by Miss Hannah Perkins Dodge. In 1868, the Codman heirs sold the home property with the estate house and over six acres of land to Charlotte Cochrane, who operated a school for young women. The Codman heirs retained about thirty-nine acres of open land. In 1870, Charlotte’s resident students included Edith Blackler, 18; Lucy Abbott, 18; Lucy Hagar, 18; Eliza Nichols, 19; Alice Waterman, 17; Ella Richardson, 16; and Hattie Jenkins, 12. Giselle Dondist, a Fench teacher, also lived in the house along with three servants and Charlotte and her children, Arthur, 6; and Agness, 4.
The land from the former Codman estate was subdivided during the late 19th century and the early twentieth century. The Codman Mansion was destroyed by fire in 1928.