Goin Bailey House (1839)

In 1782, Eliakim Morrill (the model for the character Uncle Fly Sheril in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Oldtown Folks) built a tavern in South Natick, which he operated for seventeen years. He was followed by several other owners, until Goin Bailey took charge of it in 1849. In 1872, the original building burned and Bailey built a new hotel on the site, known as Bailey’s Hotel. After Goin Bailey’s death, in 1875, his son Almond Bailey ran the hotel, until 1907, when Mrs. R.G. Shaw bought the building and renovated it under the name of the Old Natick Inn. In 1930, she razed the old hotel and hired Charles Gorely to landscape a park in its place, which she gave to the town in 1932. Adjacent to Shaw Park is the Greek Revival house, built by Goin Bailey in 1839. When Moses Eames built a similar Greek Revival house in the same year on nearby Pleasant Street, he sought to distinguish his home from the Bailey House by adding a cupola and using Doric instead of the Bailey House’s Ionic columns. The Bailey House was occupied by Goin Bailey’s widow after his death and it now contains offices. Continue reading “Goin Bailey House (1839)”