Georgian

Joseph Barnard House, Deerfield, Massachusetts

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The Joseph Barnard House, also known as the Willard House or the Old Manse, on Old Main Street in Deerfield, around 1920. Image from An Architectural Monograph on Old Deerfield (1920).

The house in 2023:

Old Main Street in Deerfield is one of the best-preserved colonial-era town centers in New England, and it features many excellent examples of 18th and early 19th century architecture. However, this house stands out as perhaps the finest of these, representing sophisticated Georgian architecture here in what was, at the time, a very rural part of colonial Massachusetts.

The house was constructed starting in 1769, and it was completed in 1772. It was designed and built by Jonas Locke, and the original owner of the house was Joseph Barnard, a wealthy local merchant. Whether he actually lived here seems unclear, though, and he may have built it for his son Samuel. In any case, the house was owned by the Barnard family until 1794, when it was sold to Ebenezer Williams. He eventually sold it in 1811 to the Rev. Samuel Willard, for $3,333.

Rev. Willard was the nephew of Harvard president Joseph Willard, and he had become the pastor of the church in Deerfield in 1807. It was during his pastorate that, in 1824, the church constructed its brick meetinghouse that still stands across the street from his house. However, Willard retired from his position at the church in 1829 due to progressive blindness. He briefly moved to Hingham, but then returned to Deerfield and lived here in this house until his death in 1859.

The top photo shows the house in the early 20th century. By that point, the house had apparently undergone some alterations, including the installation of exterior shutters and 6-over-6 windows, along with 2-over-2 dormer windows, none of were likely to have been original to the house. However, the exterior has since been restored, and today the house has 12-over-12 windows, in keeping with colonial-era architecture. The house is now owned by Deerfield Academy, and it serves as the residence for the head of school.

Pellet-Barrett House, Concord, Massachusetts

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The house at 5 Lexington Road in Concord, around 1895-1905. Image courtesy of the Boston Public Library.

The house in 2023:

The house in these two photos stands on the north side of Lexington Road, just to the east of Monument Square in the center of Concord. The main portion of the house was built around 1728-1729, but according to its MACRIS inventory form, the rear wing of the house is even older, possibly dating to the 1670s. Assuming that date is accurate, the earliest owner of the house appears to have been Mary Dane Pellet, who lived here with her husband Thomas Pellet. The property remained in the Pellet family until 1706, when their son Daniel Pellet sold it to Josiah Blood. By 1728 the house was owned by Edward Flint, and then by the 1730s by Benjamin Barrett.

The main portion of the house, with the gambrel roof, appears to have been built by either Flint or Barrett. Subsequent 18th century owners included Ezekiel Brown Jr., a merchant who fell into debt in the years leading up to the American Revolution. His creditors had him imprisoned in Boston, during which time he studied medicine and later served as a surgeon in the Continental Army during the Revolution. However, after the war his creditors again pursued him, and he landed in jail in the late 1780s and ultimately lost his house.

The next owner was Abel Barrett, who purchased it from Brown’s creditor in 1792. The Barrett family owned it until 1818, and then sold it to Elisha Tolman, a shoemaker and church deacon who lived here until his death in 1858. According to the MACRIS inventory, Tolman likely made shoes in the wing on the west side of the house, in the distance on the left side of this scene. His son Benjamin subsequently acquired the property, and he and his wife Anne continued to own it throughout the rest of the 19th century, although it appears to have been used as a rental property for some of that time.

By the time the top photo was taken at the turn of the 20th century, the house was still owned by the Tolman family. However, the Tolmans sold it in 1908, and then a year later it was purchased by the Old Concord Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). Under the leadership of Harriet Lothrop, a noted children’s book author and historic preservationist, the DAR restored the house and used it as its headquarters for many years. During this time, the DAR added a wing on the back of the house in 1929. The organization ultimately sold the house in 1951.

Today, more than a century after the top photo was taken, there have not been very many changes to this scene. Both this house and the neighboring house to the left are still standing, as is the Colonial Inn in the distance on the far left side. The house is now apartments, with four units according to the town assessor’s property card. It stands as one of the many surviving 18th century homes that line Lexington Road, and it is a contributing property in the the Concord Monument Square–Lexington Road Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

Lexington Road, Concord, Massachusetts

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The view looking east on Lexington Road in Concord, around 1895-1905. Image courtesy of the Boston Public Library.

The scene in 2023:

These two photos show the row of historic homes that line the north side of Lexington Road, just to the east of the town center of Concord. Most of these homes have been featured in more detail in previous posts, including, starting in the foreground on the left side, the c.1752-1753 John Ball House. The next house, which does not yet have its own individual post on this site, is located at 47 Lexington Road, and it is said to have been built around 1650 as the home of Thomas Dale, although it was later enlarged in the 18th century. Beyond it is the c.1817 Captain John Adams House, and farther in the distance is the c.1720 Reuben Brown Saddler’s Shop and the c.1720 Reuben Brown House.

More than a century later, all of the houses from the top photo are still standing. A few of the trees also appear to be the same, including the elm in the foreground and the large sycamore in the distant center of the scene. Because of its level of preservation, and because of the road’s association with the Battle of Concord at the start of the American Revolution, this section of Lexington Road is part of the Concord Monument Square–Lexington Road Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

John Ball House, Concord, Massachusetts

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The house at 37 Lexington Road in Concord, around 1895-1905. Image courtesy of the Boston Public Library.

The scene in 2023:

The house in these two photos was built around 1752-1753 by John Ball, a silversmith who lived in the neighboring house to the east. He does not appear to have personally lived in this house, because he sold it in 1753. According to the house’s MACRIS inventory form, the house had a series of owners during the 18th and early 19th centuries. From the mid-1750s until 1773 it was owned by Joseph Butler, a tavern keeper who later served as a militia captain at the Battle of Bunker Hill during the American Revolution. In 1773 it was purchased by Thomas Cordis. He died young, and his widow Elizabeth remarried to Jonas Lee, and they lived here in this house until her death in 1808. Jonas then remarried to Martha Abbott, and then to Rebecca Colburn. It was in 1815, while he was married to Rebecca, that Jonas Lee enlarged the house with the large wing on the right side of the house.

The Lee family sold the house in 1827, and it saw a variety of owners throughout the rest of the 19th and into the 20th centuries. The top photo was taken around the turn of the 20th century, when it was owned by the Walcott family. It would remain a private residence until 1922, when artist Elizabeth Wentworth Roberts purchased it for the Concord Art Association. She had founded the association five years earlier, and this building became its first permanent home.

More than a century later, the Concord Art Association is still headquartered here, as shown in the bottom photo. Remarkably little has changed here in this scene, aside from the removal of the historically inappropriate shutters, and even the large elm in the foreground appears to be the same one that was growing here when the top photo was taken.

Reuben Brown House, Concord, Massachusetts

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The house at 77 Lexington Road in Concord, around 1908. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

The house in 2023:

As explained in more detail in the previous post, this house was built sometime around the 1720s. It was originally much smaller, but it was expanded sometime around the 1780s by Reuben Brown, a saddler who lived here with his wife Polly and their eight children. Brown had his shop in the building next door at 69 Lexington Road, which was later converted into a house. He lived here until his death in 1832, and the house was later owned by his son Reuben Brown Jr. and then by George and Julia Clark. Julia ultimately sold the house to the Concord Antiquarian Society in 1886, and it was converted into a museum.

The top photo was taken around 1908, when the house was still owned by the Concord Antiquarian Society. However, the organization, which was later renamed the Concord Museum, moved to its current facility just a little to the east of here in 1930, and this house subsequently became a restaurant and an inn, before being converted back to a single-family residence in 1955. It is still standing here today, with only minor changes, including alterations to the ell on the right side, triple windows beneath the gables on the third floor, and the removal of the historically-inaccurate shutters that were on the house in the top photo.

John Dickinson House, Hatfield, Massachusetts

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The house at the corner of South Street and Bridge Lane in Hatfield, in April 1934. Image taken by Arthur C. Haskell. Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey Collection.

The house in 2024:

This house, which is also referred to in some sources as the Morton House, was built around 1762 by John Dickinson. It is a saltbox-style house, with a second story on the front part of the house and a long, sloping roof in the back. This design was typical for mid-18th century homes in the Connecticut River valley, and the large center chimney was also a common feature from homes of this period. However, this house is probably best known for its elaborate front doorway. Such doorways were often found on higher-end homes in the valley during the mid-18th century, although this one is unusual because it is topped by a rounded pediment, rather than the more common flat-top or scroll pediments.

During the 19th century, the house was owned by the Morton family, with the 1873 county atlas showing an M. Morton here. By the time the top photo was taken in 1934, it was owned by Eugene E. Jubenville. The photo was part of the Historic American Buildings Survey documentation of the house, which also included a series of architectural drawings of the interior. By this point, the exterior of the house had undergone some changes, including the installation of exterior shutters and 2-over-2 windows, but overall it retained much of its 18th century form, including its distinctive doorway.

Today, the house is still standing here, as shown in the second photo. There have been some changes, including the loss of the outbuildings and barns behind the house, but otherwise the house itself has seen few changes. In some ways, it even looks more true to its historic appearance now than it did in 1934, due to the removal of the shutters and the installation of 18th century-style 12-over-12 windows. The ornate doorway is also still there, although it is now hidden from this angle by the large hydrangea bush. This plant must be around 100 years old now, because it is also visible in the 1934 photo, back when it was much smaller.