Winchester jeweler’s mystery house and tragic story

Albert Rand “A. R.” Baldwin (1867−1914) grew up in Winchester. His father died when he was nine years old, and his moth­er raised five chil­dren alone. Rand was the youngest. 

As a young man he and his broth­er Lee entered busi­ness with George Richter, a long-estab­lished jew­el­er in Winchester. After Richter retired from the busi­ness in 1891, the broth­ers part­nered for a brief time with J. R. Martin before form­ing their own firm. 

Their shop, locat­ed in the Citizen’s National Bank at the “Sign of the Big Clock,” was a down­town fix­ture for years. Creative busi­ness­men, they sold nov­el­ties, toys in sea­son, “opti­cal goods,” held art exhibits, and offered dia­mond rings priced from $2 to $150. Those were the days! 

In 1889 Rand mar­ried Edith Wheeler in Wabash, Indiana. They returned to Winchester, and in 1896 Rand built a new house for his grow­ing fam­i­ly. In a time­line almost beyond imag­in­ing today, he obtained a build­ing per­mit in ear­ly April and held a house­warm­ing par­ty in late July. 

The two-sto­ry, frame Queen Anne-style house has an octag­o­nal tow­er topped with a tall iron finial. The wrap­around porch is sup­port­ed by two dou­ble columns and the front façade fea­tures a sin­gle quar­ter arch window. 

A sales­man friend of Rand pre­sent­ed him with a hand­some pug dog that became a beloved fam­i­ly pet. As the sto­ry goes, “Trixie” imme­di­ate­ly became a favorite with the neigh­bor­hood children. 

One week­end, while the fam­i­ly was away, Trixie dis­ap­peared. There was weep­ing and wail­ing when they returned to find their ani­mal friend gone. The next day Rand went to the news­pa­per office to put a notice in the paper and offered a reward for her return. By the time he got back home, the dog had been found. 

A week lat­er the paper report­ed that, as of that writ­ing, twen­ty-sev­en lost dogs had been brought to him by those seek­ing the reward. 

Edith must have been a schol­ar­ly-mind­ed woman, as she helped found and served as pres­i­dent of the Mental Culture Club. At their month­ly meet­ings, they read from the clas­sics and deliv­ered orig­i­nal papers on a wide range of lit­er­ary topics. 

In addi­tion to his busi­ness, Rand par­tic­i­pat­ed in the Commercial Club, served as trea­sur­er of the school board, got elect­ed to two terms on the city coun­cil, and was cho­sen Esteemed Loyal Knight of the local Elks lodge. 

He served for many years as a direc­tor of the Winchester Savings, Loan and Building Association. His spe­cial inter­est was Winchester’s vol­un­teer fire depart­ment. In 1890, he was elect­ed cap­tain of the #2 hose wag­on, then in 1906 when Chief W. A. Attersall took the mayor’s office, Rand became the new fire chief. Under his lead­er­ship the fire depart­ment acquired its first motor­ized hose wagon. 

In 1902, Rand trav­eled east to take a spe­cial course at one of the best opti­cal schools in New York City. Upon his return he took the title of “Practical Optician,” and the Baldwin Brothers’ “Jewelers and Opticians” began run­ning opti­cal-relat­ed ads, such as “What About Your Eyes . . . Frequent exam­i­na­tions are nec­es­sary to strength­en and pre­serve your eyesight.” 

In a cru­el twist of fate, Rand soon began expe­ri­enc­ing prob­lems with his own vision. The Daily Democrat report­ed that “The many friends of A. R. Baldwin will regret to know that he is still suf­fer­ing with his eyes [and is] in Louisville under­go­ing treat­ment by a not­ed spe­cial­ist.” In 1914 he trav­eled to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, where he under­went radi­um treat­ment for can­cer of the face and throat. After suf­fer­ing for nine months, the paper announced that “Death Comes as a Great Relief to A. R. Baldwin.” 

Five months after Rand’s death, the tragedy was com­pound­ed when Edith, over­come with grief over the death of her hus­band, took her own life. 

The loca­tion of today’s “mys­tery house” will be revealed in next week’s article. 

Here’s the answer to last week’s mys­tery house: The James L. B. White House is locat­ed at 10 Euclid Avenue. When White erect­ed the house, Euclid was called Haggard Street, which was laid out in 1890 as part of the Witherspoon Addition. Today the exte­ri­or is in need of maintenance.