George Bucklin’s older brother William first constructed 8 Arnold Street in the mid-1810s. The brothers were apparently close, considering the fact that a little less than 10 years later, George commissioned the same architect for this home, and had it attached right to the eastern side of William’s. According to the Providence House Directory, George was a grocer and William was a barber. The Bucklin family had a commercial space at 283-297 South Main Street called the Eddy-Bucklin Block.

George Bucklin died fairly young, in 1845. Despite his untimely death, the home remained in the Bucklin family for the better part of a century. His second wife, Lydia Barnaby Simmons Bucklin, lived there until she died in the 1870s, at which point their son Frederick took ownership of the house. When Frederick died, it went to his sister Lucretia. The house then left Bucklin’s direct lineage, but Lucretia still willed the home to a family member — her maternal grand-nephew, John C. Burchard. John was only six at the time and never lived in the home he was willed.

It remained vacant for a number of years, until Dr. Caroline M. MacDermott Cassidy relocated there from Brooklyn with her adult son, Brown student George Livingston Cassidy, after the death of her husband.

Caroline was born in Rhode Island around 1860 to an English mother and Irish father — her father was a physician, which may have influenced her own pursuit of medicine as an adult. She graduated valedictorian of her class from the Boston College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1890 at the age of 30. As a student, she offered free health lectures in Boston.

She married George M. Cassidy the same year she graduated, and the two spent their early marriage living in Brooklyn. In census records, she is not listed as having been a practicing physician at this time. George, on the other hand, is recorded as a “salesman of art goods.” A couple of newspaper clippings from this time indicate that he was a dealer in rare and antique books.

For 10 years, the couple did not have children. In 1901, Caroline gave birth to a son, Fitz George Stewart, who died five days later. In July of 1902 around the age of 40, Caroline gave birth to another son, George Livingston Cassidy, with whom she lived for the majority of the remainder of her life. Unfortunately, George M. Cassidy died in 1919 of gas poisoning — the secondary cause of his death is listed in New York City records as suicide.

After her husband’s death, Caroline and her son moved back to her home state of Rhode Island, settling in Providence in late 1921 at 10 Arnold Street. George Livingston graduated from Moses Brown High School in 1922 and moved on to Brown University. There, he honed his writing skills — throughout his academic career, he was selected to represent Brown in a handful of writing competitions. At commencement, he delivered a speech as “Class Odist.” Caroline and her son are pictured in the Providence Journal together, as George Livingston escorted his mother to the graduation ceremony.

On a number of occasions, Caroline is mentioned in the “Society” section of the Journal, potentially implicating that she was a somewhat prominent member of Providence society during her final years. Many of the events at which her attendance was recorded were related to the Delta Upsilon Fraternity, which George Livingston may have been a part.

George Livingston Cassidy married pediatrician Mary-Light Schaeffer in 1926 and moved back to Brooklyn, where he was born, shortly after to pursue work as a writer and journalist. Dr. Caroline Cassidy died in 1929.

You can read our historic house marker report on 10 Arnold Street from 1964 here.

This research was done with help from PPS intern Mitzie Amare Johnson and PPS volunteer Beth Feltus.