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.
Above: The Goin Bailey House (1839); Below: The Moses Eames House (1839)
Just a note….The Goin Bailey House was also occupied by Goin Bailey’s daughter, Ella Bailey who lived there until her death in 1940 at age 90, I believe having inherited the home from her mother, Mary Hoyt Bailey.
Upon her death, Ella Bailey left the Bailey House to the children of her niece, May (Mary) Bailey Way ( who was Almond Bailey’s daughter…May was deceased by 1940). Those children were Gordon Frederick Way, Dorothy Frances Way Merrill and Robert Bailey Way, all of Erie, PA. at that time.
Neither of them able to move to Natick to live in the Bailey house and unwilling to rent it because they wouldn’t be there to look after it, they sold it, regretfully. Each of them had spent some time on visits there as youngsters. Today, they are all deceased.
Robert Bailey Way was my father, Goin Bailey was my great, great grandfather. I have an old photo of part of the Goin Bailey House, a few heirlooms from that house including a very old child’s quilt made for my grandmother, May Bailey, ( 1876 – 1934) and some very old brochures from the Bailey Inn.
I wanna see the pics! Should I give u my email?