There are three photographs in this collection. There are two more postcards in the postcard collection.
The Bodwell House was built in the first decade of the 18th century by the Bodwell Family at what is now the southeast corner of East Haverhill and Elm Streets. It was owned successively by Henry Bodwell Sr. (a native of North Wales), his son Henry Jr., Henry the 3rd, and Joseph Bodwell, the father of a Governor of Maine, Joseph R. Bodwell. A tree, later known as the Bodwell elm, was supposedly planted at the birth of Henry the third in 1729. In the 1920s the tree was 150 feet high and the trunk was 15 feet in circumference.
The Lawrence Telegram saved the house once in 1921, but no one came to the house’s aid in the 1950s and both the tree and the house came down. Wood from the mantle is carved to look like the house and is on display on the 2nd floor of the Lawrence Public Library. There are also postcards of the house in the Library’s postcard collection. Part of the land where the house stood now lies vacant and bears a memorial to the house.
Filed under: B, Collection, Memorials, Photographs | Tagged: Bodwell elm, Bodwell family, Bodwell House, Lawrence MA, Memorials |
Queen City Massachusetts 
[…] Perhaps the first memorial constructed was the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in honor the the Civil War dead. Since then the city has named monuments, intersections, bridges, waterways, schools, parks, as well as bandstands, a marina, and an airport after a variety of individuals and groups. The first square was Durant Square, a small triangle of land on East Haverhill Street. Durant Square La Scola Square Regan Square Deasy Square World War II Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument Bongiorno Square World War I Monument Vandekerkove Bandstand Diodati Brothers Memorial Square Kattar Square Moore Square Frodyma Square Tortora Square Sr. Elinor Rose Flynn SND Corner Papparlardo Corner William Lord Monument Giouard Flagpole Donohue Square Callahan and De Caesare Water Tower Lee Square Vietnam War Memorial Wolfendale Square Callahan Waterway Bodwell House […]
[…] Bodwell House […]
Thank you for this great entry about the Bodwell House. I found out about the house researching Emily Greene Wetherbee, for whom the school is named after. She lived there and wrote a poem about the tree. You can find it on google books at: History of Essex County, Massachusetts: With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Duane Hamilton Hurd on page 863.
I’m a descendent of Henry Bodwell. Thank you so much for this entry — I had no idea about the mantle carving or the postcards and am eager to check them out. Such a shame that the house was destroyed!
My mother is a direct descendent of Henry Bodwell. We visited this site and also saw the carved mantel piece in the library. Would have loved to have seen this house.
Nice write-up. The Bodwells were original settlers of Lawrence, and this homestead made up what became the city’s eventual downtown. It’s a shame the house was knocked down after 250 years.