This house dates from 1879 and was built with funds received through a donation of a parishioner of the First Church of Jamaica Plain. It was created for their pastor, Reverend Charles Fletcher Dole. Dole was the leader of the First Church for over 40 years and like General Sumner, he had extraordinary vision. Dole was an uncompromising pacifist. He published over 30 books and pamphlets. He preached the practical application of Christian ideals (such as love and service to others) in the business and international realms. He was an abolitionist and continually campaigned about racism in all its forms. His preaching and writing influenced his parishioners including Emily Greene Balch. She attended the First Church in her childhood and went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946.
Rev. Dole’s son, James Drummond Dole was born in Jamaica Plain (possibly in this house) attended Roxbury Latin School and then went onto Harvard College. He studied agriculture at the Bussey Institute (which is now the Arnold Arboretum). In 1899 he left JP with $1000 to invest in a venture in the Sandwich Islands (which we know as Hawaii). He sunk his money and energies into the Hawaiian Pineapple Company (incorporated in 1901) in Oahu. Eventually, the company became Dole Pineapple. And at his death in 1958, “the Pineapple King” was worth $35 million. A big part of the success of the Dole Pineapple Company was the new ideas and inventions James Drummond Dole came up with to mechanize pineapple growing and processing. However, he never patented any of his inventions because of the philosophy of service to others that his father’s teaching instilled in him. And he said “I have been particularly interested in trying to organize our business in such a way that every employee, so far as possible, may feel that his interest is that of the company, and vice versa.”