Clinton Hill History: 465 Vanderbilt Avenue, 103 Greene Avenue & The Gould Family

You likely already know from previous days’ postings about our interest in 465 Vanderbilt Avenue–a two family home currently rising between Gates and Greene in Clinton Hill. We stopped by the other day to marvel at how quickly the building is going up–and further research led us to a fascinating glimpse at a Brooklyn-Boston family with ties to the Plymouth Colony.

As we’ve mentioned before, Department of Building records show 465 Vanderbilt Avenue as an empty lot for about a decade before current construction began. In this Brooklyn Visual Heritage photo from 1958, however, we can see it–the farther right of two attached brownstones–in its former glory.

In an 1898 edition of Transactions of the Dental Society of the State of New York, 465 Vanderbilt is referenced in connection with dental surgeon H.S. Gould–although it is unclear whether he used it as a home and/or office. However, a Dr. Henry Sherman Gould did purchase 103 Greene Avenue just around the corner from previous owner “S. Sherwood” in April of 1900. Pickle dealer Charles K. Sherwood is noted in the Clinton Hill Historic District Designation Report as a one time owner of 103 Greene after 1882.

A Henry S. Gould of Massachusetts received a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from the New York College of Dentistry in 1875. An entry on blog Heirlooms Reunited names Dr. Gould’s wife as Rose Standish Gould (maiden name Converse), who was born in Monson, Massachusetts, and who attended Mount Holyoke College. The site clarifies that Dr. Gould was born in Ware, Massachusetts, and that both he and Rose were born in 1847. It appears that Dr. and Mrs. Gould had four children, although only two survived infancy–Frances (born 1883) and Howard (born 1886), who grew up in Brooklyn, are pictured on Heirlooms Reunited.

Frances married her first husband, Richard Hall Stearns Jr. (son of department store magnate R.H. Stearns), in 1908. The New York Times ran a blurb on the event, but The Brooklyn Daily Eagle‘s coverage is much more worthy of a read:

For a Brooklyn girl to be married in the Hotel St. Regis, Manhattan, is unusual enough to make of itself a piece of highly interesting news. Miss Frances Converse Gould of the Hill had that distinction yesterday. She was wedded in the St. Regis Royal Suite at 4:30 in the afternoon, under a bower of spring flowers and with a profusion of roses, tulips and hyacinths in the decoration.

Miss Gould, who is the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Henry Sherman Gould of 103 Greene Avenue, was married to Richard Hall Stearns, Jr., a Bostonian of many clubs and social affiliations. The Goulds themselves are Massachusetts people, and Miss Gould is a lineal descendant of Miles Standish. Her mother was a Miss Rose Standish before her marriage.

Frances and Richard had a daughter named Rose Gordon Stearns, with whom they lived in Boston.

Frances later married investment broker Frank Jenkins, with whom she lived in Brookline, Massachusetts, and vacationed in another neighborhood with stunning houses from the late 1800s–Boston’s Back Bay.

Heirlooms Reunited says that Howard’s WWII draft card lists his address in Brookline, as well.