Wood Family Mausoleum; Charles Austin Wood, 1818-1898, and Caroline Elizabeth Wood, 1822-1892
no. 14939 Charles Austin Wood
no. 23788 Mausoleum
no. 16737 Mausoleum doorway
The mausoleum was erected in memory of Caroline Elizabeth Wood, 1822-1892, beloved and devoted wife of Charles Austin Wood, 1893
In the 1840s and early 1850s, Charles Austin Wood purchased a number of large tracts of land on Port Norfolk. The Old Colony Railroad commissioned a map of Dorchester in1850, which shows that development at that time was still limited to a few buildings.
Charles Austin Wood was born in Ashland, Massachusetts, May 5, 1818. He died on July 31, 1898. On April 1, 1830, or possibly 1840, he moved to Neponset, where he lived for forty years. For many years, he was a river pilot. In 1842, he established the first wood and coal yard in Neponset in connection with a grain business. Just before the Old Colony Railroad was built, Mr. Wood bought up a considerable amount of real estate in the neighborhood, and after selling out his coal and grain business, he began building extensively. Before he left Dorchester, he had erected more than forty buildings including his home and the large brick block which bears his name. In 1855, Mr. Wood established the Dorchester Mutual Fire Insurance Company. In the same year, he was one of the Selectmen in Dorchester.
no. 6532 the Wood home at 2 Woodworth Street, now demolished
no. 23789 Wood Block
The Wood Block referred to was the building later occupied by the Dorchester Mutual Fire Insurance Company and the attached buildings behind it. On February 12, 1862, Charles Caroline Wood sold the property to Otis Wright. It was described as “a lot of land situated in said Dorchester with a building thereon called Wood’s Block with a tenement adjoining the main block.” The block still stands at 5-11 Woodworth Street, Dorchester.
The original portion of the Hotel Vendome in Boston was built for insurance agent and real estate investor, Charles Austin Wood. In 1870, Charles moved to the hotel, and Charles entered the insurance and brokerage business on State Street, with offices in New York. He did a flourishing business in real estate investment in the Back Bay. He managed the Hotel Vendome for eight years.