Elbridge Torrey was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, in 1837, to a farming family. He attended the public schools in Weymouth and went on to graduate from the Bridgewater State Normal School. He became the principal of an elementary school, then principal of the South Weymouth High School. From 1862 to 1874, he was businessman in Boston. In 1875, he became a partner in Torrey, Bright & Capen, a carpet retailer. His firm imported many fine carpets, some of which are now in American museums.
Elbridge Torrey served as president of Torrey, Bright & Capen Co. until he retired in 1907. He was a “corporate member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, from 1876, also a member of its Prudential Committee, serving until he resigned in 1893; Trustee of Mount Holyoke College from 1899 until his death; was elected a member of the Board of Trustees at Hartford Theological Seminary, and served 17 years, the last 3 of which he held the office of President. He then declined a re-election; President of Central Turkey College, and at the time of his death, of the Cullis Consumptives’ Home. He was one of the original members of the Boston Congregational Club. He was at one time unanimously elected its President but declined to serve. He was also 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, was Deacon forty-five years, and Chairman forty-two years of the Board of Assessors of the Parish. 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. He was a pillar in the Second Church of which he was a member for fifty years. His mind took delight in dwelling upon great themes.”
Torrey was wealthy enough to have the house in today’s illustration built at the corner of Washington Street and Melville Avenue. The image is a photograph of the Torrey House published in American Architect and Building News, April 3, 1880. Cabot and Chandler, architects. Corner of Melville Avenue and Washington Street.
Elbridge Torrey died at his home in Dorchester, Massachusetts, Jan. 2, 1914. The house was taken down in the 1930s.
Source: Samuel Atkins Eliot. Biographical History of Massachusetts. (Boston, 1914)