Helen Gould, daughter of financier Jay Gould, became enchanted with the village of Roxbury, where her father was born and raised. In 1894 she purchased the property next to the Gould Family church, which she had helped to build, and immediately began renovating and expanding the 1857 farmhouse, adding wings that tripled the size of the house. She decorated it with Gothic, Italianate, and East Lake Victorian details, and on the spacious grounds behind Kirkside added staff quarters, a barn, garages, an ice house, and a children's playhouse. Although originally intended as a summer residence, she spent more and more time there, calling Roxbury the "village of peaceful days." Her influence extended beyond Kirkside and the Gould Memorial Church, and she was reputed to have influenced residents to adopt a boulevard concept for the street, trees, and sidewalks along Main Street to unify old and new elements and create a more village-like atmosphere. In 1949, after Helen's death in 1938 and her husband Finley's in 1942, Helen's brother offered the Kirkside property to the Dutch Reform Church of America as a memorial to his sister. In 1950, Kirkside was dedicated as a home for aged ministers, missionaries, and other professional workers of the Church. In 1980, residents were notified that the facility would close that year and that the Church would put the property up for sale. A group of Roxbury residents fought the move, and a lawsuit was undertaken to block eviction of the residents and prevent the sale of the house and the 11-acre parcel. Kirkside Park was purchased from the Church by the community and deeded to the Town in 1981, which agreed to hold the premises forever as a public park for use by the citizens of the Town of Roxbury. The Kirkside Mansion, which had become a retirement community for local residents, was closed in 2017 because of high costs and low occupancy, and planning is underway to transform the mansion into a hospitality and entrepreneurship facility.