Built by David Parish in 1810 the Parish Mansion, now known as the Frederic Remington Art Museum was constructed in the Federal Style. Popular from 1780-1820 this style features a center hall floor plan, symmetry and classical details. Dramatic windows are part of the Federal style as well. An addition in 1873 copied the three bay two story wing on the east side.
The original home sat in the center of an estate that was surrounded by an 8 foot tall brick wall and included horse stables, a coach house and a gardener’s lodge. The main entrance was moved to Washington Street in 1873 and an open porch was added.
There were a number of prominent citizens who lived in the Parish Mansion, but one who is not well known today was Nathan P. Woolley, who was born in Turin, New York, but came to Ogdensburg as a child in 1832. He was the son of Nathan Woolley and Hannah Woodworth, who were some of the earliest settlers in the area.
A Civil War veteran, Woolley was appointed chief of police in 1889, but the appointment was short-lived. Later, he opened a brokerage and a wholesale liquor store on Ford Street. He married Emma Hurlbut, who predeceased him in 1891. They had one son, Herbert, who survived to adulthood.
After George Parish left Ogdensburg, Woolley purchased the Parish mansion at auction in 1879 for $2,600. In the 1890s he sold it to shipping magnate George Hall, who remodeled it in the Victorian style.
Woolley was a lifelong mason, joining the Ogdensburg Lodge in 1866 and later becoming a charter member of the Acacian Lodge in 1870. When he died he was one of the oldest masons in New York State.
Upon Nathan Woolley’s death in 1914 the Ogdensburg Advance and St. Lawrence Weekly Democrat reported that he was Ogdensburg’s oldest citizen and in his early life he was “prominently identified with its growth.” Although he is not well known today he evidently made a great impact on the city where he grew up.
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