THE
VALLEY OF HEART's DELIGHT
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LEVI
GOODRICH
Bio- Coast Counties
SURNAMES: PECK, KNOX
Endowed by nature with great
mechanical skill and ingenuity, and with eminent artistic ability, Levi
Goodrich, late of San Jose, was for many years the leading architect
and builder of the Pacific coast region. An earnest and faithful
follower of his profession he took great pride and pleasure in his
work, and while advancing his own material interest was a dominate
factor in the upbuilding of many of the larger towns and cities of this
section of the state. The architectural beauty and ornamentation
of many of its counties are due to his cunning hand, well-trained eye,
and fertile brain. More special mention may be made of Santa
Clara, Monterey and San Diego counties, in the latter two of which he
erected the court houses and jails, while in the city of San Diego he
made the designs for the Masonic Temple and Horton's Bank
building. In San Jose, he erected many of the more beautiful and
costly private residences, and a large number of the prominent public
buildings, including the following named: The First Presbyterian
Church, Knox block, the State Normal School building, the University of
the Pacific, Martin block, the San Jose Bank building, many of the
public school buildings, the court house and county jail, and the
convent of Notre Dame.
The descendant of one of the earliest
and most honored Puritan families of New England, Levi Goodrich was of
English ancestry, and traced his lineage back beyond the time of Oliver
Cromwell, even to the brave Charlemagne. He was a lineal
descendant of Captain David Goodrich of French and Indian war
fame. A native of New York City, he was born January 1,
1822. Left an orphan in early childhood, he was brought up and
educated in Massachusetts, among the picturesque Berkshire mountains,
spending his early years in Stockbridge, wit relatives. Under the
instruction of his cousin, Horace Goodrich, he learned the carpenter's
trade and after completing his apprenticeship became junior member of
the firm of Horace & Levi Goodrich, architects and builders.
His first work of importance, finished before he was nineteen years
old, was the drawing of his designs for the imposing resident of E. W.
B. Canning, in Berkshire county, Mass. At that time, before there
was representation of one in America, Mr. Goodrich was brought in to
prominent notice by being enabled, solely by the descriptions of
Catherine Sedgwick, a talented authoress of that day, who had recently
returned from a European trip, where she had seen and admired the
bay-windows that were so frequently seen abroad, to design and
construct a bay-window for the new residence of Miss Sedgwick, on which
he was then working. This task was studied over and given up by
the superintendent of the building, and by the older workmen, as an
impossibility, and its accomplishment was a great victory for the
hitherto almost unknown young architect. Miss Sedgwick was so
much pleased and gratified with the work that she gave Mr. Goodrich a
letter of introduction to R G Hatfiled, a prominent architect of New
York City, who at once admitted the youth to his office, where he gave
him a thorough course of instruction in his chosen profession. Mr
Goodrich subsequently met with excellent success as an architect and
builder, being kept busily employed in New York and New England.
In 1849, with the courage and
enterprise of the brave youths of his generation, Mr. Goodrich came by
way of Cape Horn to California, and with true Yankee thrift and
foresight brought with him a quantity of finished building material,
which, after his arrival in San Francisco, September 16, 1849, he sold
at a large profit. Immediately beginning the practice of his
profession, he drew the plans for a large wooden building on which was
erected on the site of the old Hall of Records, on the corner of
Washington and Kearney streets. Locating in San Jose in the
closing months of 1849, he subsequently became the foremost architect
and builder of this section of the state. In the spring of 1850
Mr. Goodrich built an adobe house at the corner of Market and Santa
Clara streets, making the adobes from the clay taken from the spot on
which the Auzerais House now stands, and on the site of the original
juzgado, or court house, bullt an adobe house fo John Hoppe. For
thirty-six consecutive years Mr. Goodrich here followed his profession,
erecting, as before mentioed, many of the more prominent residences and
buildings of this and adjacent counties, continuing thus actrively
engaged until 1886, when he retired from his professional labors.
He was thereafter employed in the development of his valuable quarries, located on the Almaden
road, south of San Jose. The sandstone taken from these quarries
was of a peculiarly smooth tecture and rich color, and so durable and
so near fireproof as to make it especially desirable for building
purposes, and is to be found in many of the buildings of Santa Clara
and near-by counties, the State Normal School, Lick Observatory, San
Jose city hall, the University of the Pacific, and Leland Stanford
University, exclusively used this stone; the Pioneer, History and Union
Club buildings of San Francisco, the children's playhouse at Golden
Gate Park, and other buildings of San Francisco and Oakland are also
constructed of this material, the number being too numerous to
mention. Mr. Goodrich was elected supervisor in 1852 and served
one term, but declined a re-election.
In 1854, in San Jose, Mr. Goodrich
married Julia Peck, a daughter of Judge Peck, and of their union one
child was born, namely: Edwin B Goodrich, who was killed by a street
car accident on the Alum Rock Railroad in the summer of 1903. Mr.
goodrich married for his second wife, January 15, 1879, Mrs. Sarah I.
Knox, widow of Dr. William James Knox, of whom a sketch may be found
elsewhere in this biographical work. After retiring from business
Mr. Goodrich did not live very long, his death occuring April 2, 1887,
at the Horton House, in San Diego, where he and Mrs. Goodrich were
visiting. While sitting at the dining table beside his wife, he
was stricken with apoplexy and died in a short time.
History of the
State of California of Biographical Record of Coast
Counties, California- Guinn, 1904, page 297
transcribed by cdf
SANTA CLARA COUNTY BIOGRAPHY PROJECT
SANTA CLARA COUNTY - THE VALLEY OF HEART's
DELIGHT