328 E. Main

Address:  328 E. Main

The George Speaker house
​
This block once known as the Old Wooden Row was the first business block in Dansville (Lowell). Built between 1846 and 1870, it contained 11 wooden buildings along the south side of Bridge (Main) Street between Monroe and Washington Streets. 328 E. Main was the first building on the east (left) on the southwest corner of Washington.

The building was a meat market in the 1870s and 1880s. D. C. Foster & Fred Sayles Meats operated here before 1885 and then it was D. C. Foster Meats. It had become a dwelling by 1892.

George B. Speaker, his wife Hattie, three children and a niece lived here. It became known as the Speaker house. In 1894, Mr. Speaker was listed as a miller for King Milling Co. He also drove on the bus line for many years making him one of the best-known men in Lowell. He was born in 1857 and when a small boy moved with his parents to Lowell. He married Hattie McFarland in 1876. To them three children were born: Carl, Mabel and Clarence. Mabel Speaker died at 3-years and 2 months old, (1886). About one week before she died, she sat at the organ, played and sang “Jesus Lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom fly.” The funeral was at their house.

Their niece, Minnie Ethel Cable, came to live at the Speaker house in 1905 after her mother died. She was 16. She passed away in 1910 at the age of 21 from the “lingering illness of tuberculosis.”  “She professed her faith in Christ and expressed regret that she had postponed it so long and that she would have no opportunity of uniting with the church. The confession and assurance given was a great solace to her in the closing days of her young life.” -Lowell Journal.

Two days after Minnie’s death, her Uncle George Speaker fell dead. George had gone to one of the grocery stores on an errand at 7 in the morning. He was returning and walking behind Marks Ruben on the sidewalk. He called “Marks!” who turned around in time to see the unfortunate man falling. Marks was unable to prevent the fall. He said Speaker took a couple of gasps and was still. The doctor ruled it cardiac asthma. There was a double funeral for Mr. Speaker and his niece.

In the 1920s, according to F. M. Johnson, editor of The Lowell Ledger, “While the Village Council was asleep, this house was “sneaked” (moved) up Washington Street, nearly falling to pieces enroute, then jerked across lots where it was set up as natural as life, opposite Sevenoaks, “a thing of beauty and a joy forever.”

In 1936, the lot became Lowell’s newest park spot. It was manicured by the village power lawn mower, and a bench was installed. A drinking fountain was also planned. The area is now a part of Hop Hog’s parking lot.

Images:

1870 Lithograph shows all 11 buildings of the Old Wooden Row.

The Speaker house was the first building on the left of the row.
​
George B. Speaker drove on the Bus Line for many years. A ‘Bus is short for Omnibus which is a covered horse-drawn coach in which multiple people could fit. They would be taxied from a depot to a hotel, for example. This is the Waverly Hotel on the corner of Broadway and Main Street with four omnibus drivers.