At Home in Rochester: Samuel Baldrie Jackson House

This house on the north side of Seventh Street, east of Wilcox, was built in the fall of 1891 and is celebrating its 124th birthday in 2015.  Local carpenter and contractor Abram F. Burd built the house as a residence for his daughter, Maretta, and her husband, Samuel Baldrie Jackson, who had been married two years before, in 1889.

At the time, the Wilcox Paper Mill stood at the northern terminus of Wilcox Street, on the edge of today's Rochester Municipal Park. The Wilcox family was selling residential lots in the vicinity of the paper mill, and a number of new houses were being built in the area.

Jackson house as depicted in the 1897 publication Beautiful Rochester.

 The Rochester Era reported on September 18, 1891: "A. F. Bird [sic] is breaking ground for a new residence near the Rochester paper mill, between his home and that of W. H. LeRoy. It will be modern in all its appointments, and when completed will be occupied by Sam Jackson and family." About three weeks later, the Era further reported: "Sam Jackson's new home near the Rochester paper mill was raised last Tuesday by A. F. Bird." A photograph of the house appeared on page 17 of the promotional booklet Beautiful Rochester, published in 1897, and was captioned "residence of S. B. Jackson."

Samuel Jackson was associated with his brother, John F. Jackson, in the Jackson Foundry in Rochester. His father, William H. Jackson, had bought out the old Jennings Foundry in 1877, a business which had been located in Rochester since before the Civil War. Samuel Jackson attended school in Rochester and had the distinction of being the only boy in the Rochester High School graduating class of 1882.