history of owners of handy house - smith and tripp

8/12/2019 History of Owners of Handy House - Smith and Tripp

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THE CADMAN-WHITE-HANDY HOUSE

A HISTORY OF OWNERS AND FAMILIES


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THE CADMAN-WHITE-HANDY HOUSEA HISTORY OF OWNERS AND FAMILIES

THE WESTPORT HISTORICAL SOCIETY

WESTPORT, MASSACHUSETTS

ERIC GRADOIA

ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY & CONSERVATION

SCHAGHTICOKE, NEW YORK

COPYRIGHT 2014

THIS WORK WAS SUPPORTED BY A GRANT FROM

THE NATIONAL TRUST FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION,

CYNTHIA WOODS MITCHELL FUND FOR HISTORIC INTERIORS


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Detail of Westport from Hammonds New Road Map of Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts, 1917. Hammond & Company, New York. Boston Public Library, Norman B. Leventhal Map Center.


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Abbott Smith 1911 - 1937

A bbott Pliny Smith is perhaps best known forbeing an accomplished New Bedford business-man, with a career spanning nearly seventy yearsthat included involvement in whaling, real estatedevelopment, the building of numerous mills andother commercial ventures, as well as the construc-tion of a number of local railway systems.

Abbott Smith married Sarah Emeline Metcalf Jan-uary 15, 1879. They had three children that sur-

vived past infancy:

Florence R. Smith (b. August 11, 1881, d. May3, 1977)

Ruth Smith (b. Unknown, d. Unknown)

Abbott M. Smith (b. November 11, 1890, d.April 13, 1967)

Abbott Smith was born to Henry and Ruth (Wil-cox) Smith on a farm in Westport on October 7,1853. Both Henry Smith and his father-in-law,Henry Wilcox, were agents in the whaling indus-try. Henry Wilcox owned shares in a number of

barks including the Theophilus Chase (operatedbetween 1844-1847), Rajah (1844-1847), Janet(1848-1869), Governor Carver (1850-1867), Mex-ico, a brig (1853), Mattapoisett (1851-1860), andGreyhound (1851-1860). Both Henry Smith, andAbbott would go on to act as agents for the Matta-poisett (1860 and 1886) and the Greyhound (1860-1920). Abbotts father passed away on October 28,1873, just a couple of weeks after Abbotts twen-tieth birthday. Following his fathers death, he as-

sumed the responsibilities of agent for the barksGreyhound and Mattapoisett, a practice he contin-ued for approximately 12 years (1885). 122

On September 15, 1876, Abbott set sail from Bos-ton, Massachusetts aboard the Azor, a supply ship

122 Smith Family Whaling Ships. Document of the West-port Historical Society archives. Westport Historical Society,Westport, Massachusetts.

servicing whalers in the Azores. These ships typical-ly carried fresh supplies to the whale ships operat-ing out of foreign ports and in turn returned to NewBedford with whale oil the whalers had gatheredduring their tours at sea. Seizing the opportunitythat presented itself, Abbott continued his travels farbeyond the Azores over the better part of the follow-ing year, venturing on to Madeira, Lisbon, Gibraltar,Malta, Egypt, Palestine, Constantinople, Russia, Slo-

vakia, Holland, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, and vari-ous other parts of Europe. 123

As the whaling industry began to wane, Abbott shift-

ed his activities into other enterprises. By 1880, Ab-bott Smith ventured into real estate development,constructing numerous houses and stores throughoutNew Bedford. He went on to build the AcushnetRailway in 1885, and promoted the New BedfordSafe Deposit and Trust Company, serving as the rst

vice president of the company. In 1894, Smith wenton to build the Dartmouth and Westport Railway,and in 1898, he built the Middleboro and BrocktonRailway. The 1890s saw Abbott involved in the pro-motion and building of a number of mills includingthe Dartmouth Mill (1895), Soule Mill (1901), ButlerMill (1902), Kilburn Mill (1905), Tabor Mill (1906),Quansett Mill (1907), and the Quisett Mill (1910).In 1910, Abbott also opened the New Bedford Stor-age warehouse, one of Abbotts last ventures was thepromotion of the Old Colony Silk Mills Corporationin 1925. 124

While Abbott held memberships to numerous publicand private clubs. A number of these memberships

were with history-based organizations. With respectto his family history, Abbott was a member of both

123 Abbott Smith, 89, Succumbs; Was Business, Civic Lead-er. The Standard Times, New Bedford, Massachusetts. March 18,1943.

124 Abbott Smith Observes His 80th Birthday. The Stan-dard Times, New Bedford, Massachusetts. 1933. Photocopy ofnewspaper article. Westport Historical Society archives. West-port Historical Society, Westport, Massachusetts.


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the Massachusetts Society of May ower Descen -dants and the Sons of the American Revolution. Ab-bott was also a member of the Society for the Pres-ervation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA, nowHistoric New England), a regional museum organi-

zation formed in 1910 with a focus on collecting andpreserving objects from New England life. At a locallevel, Smith was actively involved with the Old Dart-mouth Historical Society (which eventually becamethe New Bedford Whaling Museum).

Abbott is also known to have attended the Centenni-al Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876. While the of-cial title of the exposition was the InternationalExhibition of Arts, Manufacturers, and Products ofthe Soil and Mine, the uno cial theme celebratedthe one-hundredth anniversary of the signing ofthe Declaration of Independence. Highlighting thistheme were a great many exhibits celebrating thelife and times of colonial America, including recon-structions of eighteenth century American buildings,exhibits of colonial furniture and the constructionof a New England Log-House, lled with oldfashioned furniture and Revolutionary relics. Forthose readers familiar with the exposition, this wasthe site of the colonial kitchen built as a contrast tothe modern 1876 kitchen. [Ingram, J. S. The Cen-tennial Exposition, Described and Illustrated, BeingA Concise and Graphic Description of this GrandEnterprise. Hubbard Brothers: Philadelphia, Penn-sylvania, 1876. pp. 706-708.

Abbott Smith was sixty-seven years old when he pur-chased the Handy house and thirty- ve acres fromDaniel W. Baker on July 9, 1920. 125 He purchasedit for the property taxes due for that year. Abbottsprimary residence was 95 Hawthorn Street in NewBedford and he continued to live there even after ac-quiring the Handy house. Although he made nu-merous repairs and improvements to the house overthe sixteen years he owned it, the Handy house wasnever his primary residence. By all indications, theHandy house appears to have been a retreat of sorts

125 Daniel W. Baker to Abbott P. Smith, 9 July 1920, BristolCounty, Massachusetts, Deed Book 503, Pages 295-296.

for him.

An interesting reference found in a document heldby the Westport Historical Society suggests Abbotteither may have had greater plans for the house orwas simply celebrating his take on the history of thehouse. The document states:

Coughlin (who lived across the road) said there wasonce outside stairs for the help to use when Abbottwas planning to have it for a Tavern. The east end[attic] oor still has grass matting and there was acloset too! Louis [Tripp] used those boards. Therewas also a very nice sign with black background +gold letters Handy Tavern. This Louis gave to theMens Club. The Club was in the barn on the

corner of Adamsville + Main Road. The men wereraising money selling donated items. 126

Abbotts period of ownership was the rst era cap -tured to any great degree in photographs, with nu-merous images of both the exterior and the interior.Close study of these images tell us a lot about bothAbbott Smith and the house. By all indications,Abbott was the quintessential follower of the Colo-nial Revival movement popular in America duringthe latter half of the nineteenth century and earlydecades of the twentieth century. It is clear by theorganizations he was a member of that Abbott hada strong interest in American colonial history, espe-cially as it related to his ancestry and the area he wasborn and raised in. His photographs of the Handyhouse show us that he had an extensive collection ofcolonial period (i.e., seventeenth, eighteenth, andearly nineteenth century) antiques composed of fur-niture, textiles, framed art, ceramics, and ironworkamong other things. When looked at in this context,his purchase of the Handy house appears to be alogical addition to his collection. A typed documentthat appears to chronicle Louis Tripps (see followingsection) purchase of the house from Abbott Smithcontains a single sentence that seemingly explains

126 Unidenti ed handwritten note, likely Eleanor Tripps.Collections of the Westport Historical Society. Westport, Mas-sachusetts.


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why Abbott bought the Handy house:

He [Abbott Smith] said the reason he bought theproperty in the rst place was because I was born inWestport and Dr. Handy was our family physician, so fromboyhood [I] was interested in this estate.127 [Italics addedby the author]

Based on early twentieth century photographs of theHandy house, by the time Abbott took possession ofthe building, it appears that it was very much in needof considerable work. 128 No records detailing the fullextent of improvements made by Abbott are known;however, based on his photographs of the buildingand the remaining physical fabric, it appears Abbottwas responsible for:

Residing the exterior sidewalls. This probablyentailed some frame/vertical plank repairs as well.The East wall of the rst oor may have been re -framed (either partially or in its entirety) at this time.

Removing the two frontispieces and doors at theSouth entries replacing them with simple, relativelyunadorned frames with sidelights.

Construction of a large, semi-enclosed porch onthe front (south elevation) of the building. This in-cluded converting the westernmost window openingon the rst oor into a door opening, necessitatingthe moving of the bulkhead here around the corner,to the West side of the building.

Construction of the dormers on the north andsouth sides of the roof. Presumably, this was done toprovide habitable space throughout the attic of thebuilding. As photographs show a number of the rstand second oor rooms tted with beds (all antiques),

it may be that the attic was relegated to servants and/or guest lodging, storage or a combination of these.

127 Type written notes from the Handy house scrapbook.HH B2 I/R 36-90 folder, Westport Historical Society, West-port, Massachusetts.

128 For a more detailed account of the changes and im-provements made to the house see The Cadman-White-HandyHouse Architectural Investigation, October 2011. WestportHistorical Society archives, Westport, Massachusetts.

Installation of an electrical service to the build-ing.

While Abbotts exterior improvements considerablyaltered the outward appearance of the building, itappears he did little to change the interior of thehouse, largely respecting what was there. Based onAbbotts photographs of the interior, it appears hewallpapered all of the rooms as part of his renova-tions. This would suggest he likely painted the wood-work in a number of the rooms at this time as well,although he respected those surfaces that either hadnever been painted or had only a single coat applied.

While practically no records are known chroniclingAbbott Smiths use of the Handy house, one partic-

ularly vivid account written by his grandson, Abbott,has come to light. The article is his grandsons ac-count of a Thanksgiving dinner Abbott held at theHandy house in 1927. He wrote of the event:

The logistical and culinary planning and executionof such an a air was delegated to the family butler(Maurice), who proved stunningly up to the task...Pots, pans, china, silverware and high and low chairswere volunteered and delivered by various fami-liesAnd such food as turkey and pies that couldbe all or partially precooked was done that way in

various family kitchens, and delivered to our familycook, Anna.

Young Abbott wrote that he particularly recalled thenoise level,

being quite high as impatience and hunger stirredup the volubility and some crying and screaming byhungry young as well as the adults who competedto be heard above the crowd. At 3 p.m., after hisgrandfather led the crowd in a prayer of Thanksgiv-ing, dinner was served. Various borrowed maidsand Maurice scurried hither and yon feeding thetribe, wrote Smith. The gargantuan turkeys werecarved at both ends of the table, one by Grandpaand the other by Uncle Arthur Delano, a senior-in-law. The maids did yeoman service keeping every-ones plate full, following Maurices quiet directions


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from the house dining room where he could ob-serve everything by opening the door just a crack.

The major event an accident, really hap-pened as the gravy was being served, wrote Smith.Maurice appeared with a large gravy boat andstarted down the outside of the table. Suddenly helost his footing on the unfamiliar oor, the gravyboat crashed, and a river of gravy started to owdown the wooden porch oor. At the same instant,some of us could see a strange object scuddingalong on the top of the gravy river, he recalled. Itwas Maurices perfect toupee, upside down in thestream of gravy (and) at the same time, stretchedout fully was shiny pated Maurice, swimming face

down in the ow.

Once he grabbed his toupee and stood up to ex-pose his soiled tux and shamed face, some people(like me) just couldnt keep from laughing brie y,he said. Finally, we all bushed and stored up ourlaughing for some later and more private time.The red-faced butler would not be seen again thatday, said Smith, although his trembling voice

could be heard from behind the door instructingthe maids on whom to serve next, and we alsoheard the occasional restrained tittering of the girlsas they passed him going in and out. Smith said

no one had a clue that the butlers perfectly-coi edheadpiece was not his own hair. His humiliationwas felt by all.

After the Maurice incident, the family agreed sucha massive family meeting was not to be attemptedagain...the strain was just too great. 129

Abbott Smith sold the Handy house to Louis andFlorence Tripp in September 1936. On March8, 1943, Abbott Smith su ered a fall resulting in a

fractured hip. Ten days later, while still recuperat-ing in the hospital, Abbott passed away as a resultof complications brought on by his accident. He

was 89 years old.

129 Westport Historical Society. (November 22, 2013) AHandy House Thanksgiving. Retrieved from Westport His-torical Society online. http://www.wpthistory.org/news/ar-chives/000551.html 29 January 2014.

The Handy house with exterior improvements made by Abbott Smith. Circa 1930.


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Handy house circled in red. Detail of Westport from Department of Public Works Tra c Division map of Bristol C Massachusetts, 1939.


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Eleanor Tripp Louis Tripp


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Louis and Eleanor Tripp 1936 - 2003

Louis Tripp, and his rst wife, Florence, boughtthe Handy house on September 4, 1936. Thestory of exactly how Louis and Florence found thehouse is perhaps best told by Eleanor Tripp, Louisssecond wife. In an interview performed by Westporthistorian Mary Giles in 1976, Eleanor explained justhow Louis came to buying the Handy House:

Louis and his rst wife, Florence, were just ridingaround Westport and they had in mind buying aboat and when they came down Handy Hill theysaw a sign in front of this house on the fence andit said, Get the key at Mike Coughlins. He lived

across the road. When they saw all the beautifulreplaces, (the house was empty at the time) andwoodwork and beautiful construction they decidedto buy the house instead. That was in September1936. They decided to use it for vacations until theyretired. He [Louis] retired in 1948; she [Florence]had died before that and I [Eleanor] had marriedLouis and was living in Washington with him, so in1948 we came up together on our honeymoon. In1941, we spent a month here. The rst thing wehad to do, of course at that time we were at war, andlawnmowers or anything like that were not availableso we were using sickles to hack down the grass. Therst thing we did was to take wallpaper o and patchcracks to get ready and the windows -- hardly any ofthe windows had much putty left so that was the bigproject. We worked together. It was fun and we fellfor the whole setup right o the bat

Louis Hillman Tripp was born in Westport on June11, 1884, the son of Jonathan and Lucy Tripp. Lou-

iss father, Jonathan Potter Tripp, was a Master Mari-ner, born in Westport, and his mother Lenea LucyEtta (Manley) Tripp, was born in Lowell, Massachu-setts. 130 They married December 31, 1874, in FallRiver, Massachusetts. Louis was their only child.

130 Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records,1620-1988 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.comOperations, Inc., 2011.

Louis attended Westport and Fall River publicschools as a youth. He graduated high school in1902 and went on to attend the Massachusetts In-stitute of Technology (MIT). 131 Louis graduatedMIT in 1906 with a degree in Mechanical Engi-neering. 132 Tripp wrote his senior thesis on the heat-ing and ventilation systems of the Reichstag, Berlin,Germany. 133

Prior to moving to Washington DC, Louis lived inNew York City where he had been in charge of themarine department for a trans-Atlantic steamshipcompany and had acted as a design and test engi-

neer on a project for a large steam boiler manufac-turer. 134

Louis entered work for the Government Service onMarch 1, 1907, in the O ce of the Supervising Ar -chitect of the Treasury Department. In 1910, Lou-is became engaged to Florence Dennis. 135 Theywere married on April 25, 1911, in Newton, Massa-chusetts, where Florence and her family resided. In1913, Louis transferred to the O ce of the Quar -termaster General, War Department. He was com-missioned a Captain in 1917 and advanced to therank of Major shortly thereafter.

By 1918, Louis was a commissioned o cer in theUnited States Army holding the rank of Major. 136

131 Fall River Massachusetts School Committee, AnnualSchool Report of the City of Fall River, 1902. J.H. Franklin& Co.:Fall River, 1903. p. 74, 79.

132 Unidenti ed document, photocopy with heading Lou -is Hillman Tripp, Westport Historical Society, Westport Mas-

sachusetts.133 Louis_Tripp info 2.doc le. Westport Historical Soci -ety archives, Westport, Massachusetts.

134 Unidenti ed document, photocopy with heading LouisHillman Tripp, Westport Historical Society, Westport Massa-chusetts.

135 Personal and Social News, The Boston Herald, Boston,Massachusetts, 7 November 1910, p. 7.

136 Unidenti ed document, photocopy with heading LouisHillman Tripp, Westport Historical Society, Westport Massa-


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At this time, Louis was in charge of mechanicalengineering design for the construction divisionof the United States Army within the Quarter-master Corps. Through the 1920s and 30s, Louisand Florence lived in Washington DC. The 1920Federal census lists Louiss occupation as Major inthe United States Army. He was discharged fromthe Quartermaster Corps on September 30, 1920.From March 1923 to May 1946, Louis worked asthe Director of Construction for the Veterans Ad-ministration. 137 By 1933, Louis was identi ed inthe Washington DC City Directory as Director ofConstruction Services for the Veterans Administra-tion.

Louis and Florence purchased the Handy housefrom Abbott Smith on September 4, 1936. 138 While

chusetts.

137 Untitled typed notes on Louis H. Tripp, documentheaded with Louis Tripps name and Westport address. West-port Historical Society, Westport Massachusetts.

138 Abbott P. Smith To Louis and Florence Tripp, 4 Sep-tember 1936, Bristol County, Massachusetts, Deed Book 781

the deed between Abbott and Louis simply statesfor consideration paid, personal notes of theTripps state Louis paid $2,000.00 for it. 139 Theparcel still contained about 35 acres more or lessas it had when Abbott Smith acquired it. On July19, 1938, Louis acquired an additional two acres tothe east of the house, on the opposite side of DriftRoad; he paid $417.00 for this parcel. 140 FlorenceTripp passed away in 1939, before she and Louiscould retire to Westport and the Handy house. 141 In Florences obituary, Louis was identi ed as aColonel. Louis married his second wife, EleanorSwanteson, in 1941. Born in Boston, Massachu-setts, Eleanor grew up in Washington DC for the

better part of her life.

Page 256.

139 Untitled typed notes chronicling work performed onthe Handy house by Louis and Eleanor Tripp. Westport His-torical Society, Westport Massachusetts.

140 Ibid.

141 Obituary, Mrs. Florence Tripp, The Boston Herald, January 23, 1939.

The Handy house after restoration by Louis and Eleanor Tripp.


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Louis contracted a number of Westport carpentersand trades people to perform repairs and make im-provements to the house while still living in Wash-ington DC. On vacations to Westport, Louis andEleanor would also work on the house in prepa-

ration for moving into it permanently. Many ofthese projects were recorded by Louis and Eleanorin the form of correspondence to contractors and/or notes led away in their personal papers. LikeAbbott Smith, much of the work done by Louisand Eleanor is chronicled in photographs. In 1948,Louis and Eleanor left Washington DC and relo-cated to Westport, making the Handy house theirhome. 142

The work Louis and Eleanor are responsible forlargely repaired, restored, and improved the Handyhouse, so that it preserved the historic building,while at the same time made it comfortable for

year-round living. Louis largely undid the exterioralterations Abbott Smith introduced to the house,including the roof dormers and the front porch.Louis modeled his repairs on old photographs ofthe building, and essentially restored the house backto its mid-nineteenth century appearance. While

142 Handy House, 1794 or Earlier. Eleanors tour.doc, p.1. Westport Historical Society Archives, Westport, Massachu-setts.

Louis and Eleanor updated critical convenienceslike the kitchen, bathroom, and heating system,they respected the historic nature of the house anddid little to a ect the architectural nishes.

Louis Tripp died on September 11, 1963. 143 Heis buried with his rst wife, Florence, in Arling -ton National Cemetery. Following Louiss pass-ing, Eleanor continued to live in the Handy housethroughout the rest of her life. Eleanors passionfor history was not limited simply to the Handyhouse, but covered a broad spectrum of interestsas they related to Westport and the area in general.In 1992, the same year the Handy house was listedon the National Register of Historic Places, Elea-nor was made an honorary member of the West-port Historical Commission, in recognition of herwork documenting Westports history. In an e ortto preserve the house in perpetuity, Eleanor placedan easement on the property so that it could not besigni cantly altered by future owners.

After living in the Handy house for 55 years, Elea-nor passed away August 16, 2003. Eleanor was 93

years old.

143 Louis_Tripp info.doc Westport Historical Society Ar-chives, Westport, Massachusetts.


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Detailed notes of repairs and improvements made by Louis and Eleanor Tripp.


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history of owners of handy house - smith and tripp

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