Santa
Clara County
Biographies
LEVI
GOODRICH
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 interests was a
dominant 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 Capt.
David Goodrich of French and Indian war fame. A native of New York City, he was
born January 1, 1811. 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, with 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 the designs for the
imposing residence of E. W. B. Canning, in Berkshire county,
Mass. At that time, before there was a bay-window, or an architectural
representation of one in America, Mr. Goodrich was brought into 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. Hatfield, 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
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 clay taken
from the spot on which the Auzerais House now stands,
and on the site of the original juzgado, or court
house, built an adobe house for John Hoppe. For thirty-six consecutive years
Mr. Goodrich here followed his profession, erecting, as before mentioned, may of the more prominent residences and buildings of this
and adjacent counties, continuing thus actively 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 texture 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
Alum Rock Railroad in the summer of 1903. Mr. Goodrich married for his second
wife, January 15, 1879, Mrs. Sarah L. 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 occurring 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.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 297-298. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2014 Cecelia M. Setty.