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 The site encompassing the MIT Endicott House traces its history back to the
late 1800s, to Civil War hero Brigadier General Stephen Minot Weld. He was
the direct descendent of a Puritan who came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony
in 1632 seeking religious freedom. General Weld, an author, successful
businessman and a civic-minded gentleman, was also an avid horticulturist.
He later became president of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society.
After the war, Weld established a successful cotton brokerage business, and
married Louise Rodman of Dedham in 1869. He proceeded to buy up large tracts
of land in town, amassing 1,000 acres to the Westwood line. He built an
imposing mansion, which he named Rockweld, on 25 acres of a rocky hilltop on
the property above the Charles River.
Weld had a vision for his new estate, a blending of natural landscape with
more formal, planted areas. He created an irrigation system using a man-made
pond and five natural ponds on the property, built greenhouses, and erected
a water tower. One of the ponds still irrigates these gardens today. His most
significant accomplishment was the creation of a formal rock garden, with
an estimated 500 different species on spectacular display, including
rhododendrons, azaleas, primrose, candytuft, auricula, imported alpines,
Star of Bethlehem, spring wildflowers and Trout Lily. It was considered the
first great rock garden in North America. The existence and use of rock
throughout the estate is apparent everywhere, making the name Rockweld
appropriate.
The estate was passed down to Weld's heirs, then sold to Francis
Saltonstall, who sold it in 1931 to a close Dedham friend, H. Wendell
Endicott, a descendant of another prominent Massachusetts family, which
operated the very successful Endicott Johnson Shoe Company. Endicott was
more sophisticated and worldly than Weld, but they shared an appreciation
for horticulture. A private investor, Endicott was a member of the Board of
Trustees of Public Reservations, a member of the Massachusetts Horticultural
Society, and a member of the Board of Directors of Chase National Bank, R.H.
Macy & Co., the First National Bank of Boston and Sears Roebuck. His
cultural interests included affiliations with the Metropolitan Opera Company
and the Boston Opera Association.
Wendell preserved the gardens, but razed the Weld mansion, replacing it with
a French manor style mansion designed by prominent New York architect
Charles Platt. The house took Þve years to construct. Workmen were brought
in from Italy to paint the ceiling in the Living Room, and many of the
Þreplaces in the house are European antiques.
Wendell was also an avid outdoorsman and he traveled to many parts of the
world on hunting and Þshing expeditions. A portrait of Wendell, in sporting
attire, along with his prized trophies and sporting equipment are on display
in the Gun Room.
Many of the Endicott's original furnishings including rare paintings,
antiques, tapestries and oriental rugs still grace the halls and rooms of
the mansion. Among the more interesting antiques are a pair of gothic choir
stalls, on the ground floor, and the Flemish tapestries in the dining room
and main staircase.
Wendell, his wife, Priscilla, and their three children, Bradford, Priscilla
and Martha, lived in the mansion until Wendell's death in 1954. Wendell
specified in his will that the mansion and 25 acres, including the rock
garden pond, be donated to an educational, scientific or religious
organization; they were offered to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
in Cambridge, which in 1955 opened the Endicott House as a conference
center.
MIT horticulturists, who grow all plants and flowers in Endicott's
greenhouse, maintain the site's magnificent gardens.
In 1983, the modern Brooks Center was built to accommodate MIT's expanding
conference programs. The center was named after Edward Pennell Brooks, the
founding dean of MIT's Sloan School of Management and a close friend of
Wendell Endicott. Although the Endicott House is owned by MIT, it operates
as a self-sustained department, and is overseen by a Board of Governors
drawn widely from the administration and various schools of the Institute.
The Endicott House is available to the MIT community, and private
organizations and corporations, for meetings, conferences and special
events.
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