W.W. Goodrich Residence (1890) – Inman Park, Atlanta

The W.W. Goodrich Residence, located at 177 Elizabeth Street NE in Atlanta’s Inman Park neighborhood, is the city’s only known extant work designed by William Wordsworth Goodrich (1841-1907), professionally known as W.W. Goodrich, an architect who practiced in Atlanta between 1889 and 1895.

Firm biographical details for Goodrich are difficult to find, as he was, by all indications, a pathological liar who fabricated much of his backstory. He was born in New York¹ and began practicing in Kingston, New York, circa 1875,² before moving to Denver, Colorado, circa 1879,³ leaving in 1881 after he was arrested for check fraud and larceny.⁴

In the 1880s, Goodrich spent short stints in Boise, Idaho;⁵ Seattle;⁶ San Francisco,⁷ and Oakland, California.⁸ In 1883, he was arrested in both Los Angeles and Boston for check fraud. ^{9 10}

Goodrich’s career in Atlanta was unremarkable, and based on his feeble attempt at the Eastlake style with his own home, he had equally mediocre design skills. Only 2 other works from Goodrich’s Atlanta years are known to survive: the Leslie Dallis Residence (1891)^{11 12} in LaGrange, Georgia, and Yonah Hall (1893)^{13 14 15} at Brenau University in Gainesville, Georgia, both uninspired designs.

The Goodrich family didn’t stay long in this home, which was built in early 1890.^{16 17 18} In November 1891, the city marshal auctioned off the property for Goodrich’s failure to pay taxes,¹⁹ and the home was purchased by W.C. Hale.

In 1893, Goodrich moved to Norfolk, Virginia,²⁰ apparently relocated his practice to Baltimore around 1895,²¹ and finally ended up in Oregon by 1904,²² where he died in 1907. As one newspaper obituary said, in part: “…he had his faults, as all mortals have…”²³

A better storyteller than an architect — although he wasn’t good at either — Goodrich managed to get many of his outlandish tales published in newspapers, some of which will appear here in due time.

References

1. United States Census, 1850, William Goodrich, Harmony, Chautauqua, New York, United States. ↩︎
2. Advertisement. The Daily Freeman (Kingston, New York), October 5, 1875, p. 1. ↩︎
3. Advertisement. Rocky Mountain News, May 24, 1879, p. 2. ↩︎
4. “Held to Answer”. Rocky Mountain News, March 26, 1881, p. 2. ↩︎
5. “Architect”. Idaho Tri-Weekly Statesman, March 14, 1882, p. 3. ↩︎
6. Advertisement. Seattle Daily Post-Intelligencer, September 29, 1882, p. 2. ↩︎
7. “Brevities”. Seattle Daily Post-Intelligencer, July 25, 1883, p. 3. ↩︎
8. “A New Architect”. Oakland Daily Evening Tribune, July 23, 1885, p. 2. ↩︎
9. “A Worthless Check”. The Boston Herald, November 27, 1883, p. 1. ↩︎
10. “An Old Fraud Heard From”. Los Angeles Herald, March 16, 1884, p. 4. ↩︎
11. “Building in LaGrange.” The Atlanta Constitution, December 13, 1890, p. 3. ↩︎
12. Downtown Walking Tour, Historic LaGrange, GA ↩︎
13. “A Great School for Gainesville.” The Atlanta Constitution, May 25, 1893, p. 3. ↩︎
14. “An Elegant Building.” The Atlanta Journal, June 22, 1893, p. 1. ↩︎
15. “Gainesville Gossip.” The Atlanta Constitution, June 23, 1893, p. 3. ↩︎
16. “Growing Atlanta.” The Atlanta Constitution, January 13, 1890, p. 4. ↩︎
17. “The City In Brief.” The Atlanta Constitution, January 24, 1890, p. 5. ↩︎
18. “Street Railroad Extension.” The Atlanta Journal, May 7, 1890, p. 5. ↩︎
19. “City Marshal’s Sales”. The Atlanta Constitution, October 26, 1891, pp. 9-10. ↩︎
20. Advertisement. Norfolk Virginian, April 4, 1893, p. 8. ↩︎
21. “That Building Disaster.” The Sun (New York), August 14, 1895, p. 2. ↩︎
22. Advertisement. The Oregon Daily Journal (Portland, Oregon), August 1, 1904, p. 13. ↩︎
23. “Capt. Goodrich”. St. John’s Review (St. John’s, Oregon), February 15, 1907, p. 1. ↩︎
24. Atlanta Historical Society. Atlanta in 1890: “The Gate City”. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1986.  ↩︎