Colonial

Barnard Tavern, Deerfield, Massachusetts

by

The Barnard Tavern and adjacent Frary House in Deerfield, around 1920. Image from An Architectural Monograph on Old Deerfield (1920).

The scene in 2023:


This building stands on the east side of Old Main Street in Deerfield, just south of the common in the historic town center. It consists of two separate but adjacent structures, with the Frary House in the distance on the left and the Barnard Tavern here in the foreground. The Frary House is the older of the two sections, dating to around the 1750s, and the tavern was constructed around 1795.

As was the case with late 18th and early 19th century taverns across New England, the Barnard Tavern was not only a place for travelers to stop and have a meal or spend the night; it was also an important community hub for locals, and it was frequently used as a gathering place. The building had the bar room and kitchen on the first floor, while the upper floor housed a large assembly room that was used for a variety of meetings and other public events.

By the late 19th century, both buildings were in poor condition. However, in 1890 the property was purchased by teacher, historian, and author C. Alice Baker (1833-1909). Originally from Springfield, Baker had attended Deerfield Academy. During the 1850s she taught at a school in Illinois, and then at Deerfield Academy, and then started her own school in Chicago. She subsequently returned east, and became active in studying local history, particularly the history of Deerfield. She never married, but she lived with another woman, Susan Lane, who was described in contemporary sources as her “lifelong companion.” After purchasing this building in Deerfield, Baker worked to restore it, and she made the Frary House side into her home.

The restored Frary House/Barnard Tavern became an important landmark in Deerfield, and it was often photographed in publications about the town, as was the case with the top photo around 1920. The building was at one point owned by the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, but it is now owned by Historic Deerfield. It is one of the many properties that the organization has preserved, and both halves of the building are open to the public for guided tours on a regular basis.

Allen House, Deerfield, Massachusetts

by

The Allen House at 104 Old Main Street in Deerfield, on July 24, 1930. Image courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leon Abdalian Collection.

The house in 2023:

These two photographs show the Allen House, a saltbox-style home that was built sometime around 1734 based on tree ring analysis. It was originally the home of Thomas Bardwell. It has been heavily altered over the years, and was originally smaller, prior to the addition of the “saltbox” lean-to on the back of the house in the late 18th or early 19th centuries. According to the MACRIS inventory form for the house, it underwent a major remodel in 1832, which included the removal of the central chimney and a reconstruction of the interior to convert it into a two-family home.

The top photo was taken nearly a century later in 1930, and it shows the house in its altered appearance. By this point it was the home of sisters Frances and Mary Allen, who had lived here since the 19th century. Born in the 1850s, they grew up in Deerfield and became teachers, but they both had to leave the profession in their 30s because progressive deafness. Unable to teach, they instead took up photography, and they became two of the most prominent female photographers in the country during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The town of Deerfield was a frequent subject of their work, which often depicted scenes of old houses and pastoral landscapes, along with images of their family and neighbors.

Frances and Mary Allen never married, and they lived here until 1941, when they died just four days apart from each other at the ages of 86 and 82, respectively. The house was subsequently purchased by Henry and Helen Flynt, the founders of Historic Deerfield. They brought the design of the house back to a colonial-era appearance in 1945, although this restoration was largely conjectural due to the substantial alterations in 1832. Some of the design elements appear to have been based more on personal preference, including the ornate front doorway that replaced the 1830s-style door and sidelights from the top photo. The new doorway reflected the style that was used on many homes in the Connecticut River Valley during the mid-18th century, but there is no indication that this particular house ever had such a doorway.

Today, the house still stands here on Old Main Street, as shown in the bottom photo. Aside from the new doorway, the most noticeable exterior change from this angle is the central chimney, which was reconstructed as part of the 1945 restoration. The house is now one of the many historic homes on Old Main Street that is owned by Historic Deerfield, and it is periodically open to the public for tours.

Joseph Barnard House, Deerfield, Massachusetts

by

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.

Colonial Inn, Concord, Massachusetts (3)

by

The Colonial Inn at Monument Square in Concord, on October 15, 1929. Image courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leon Abdalian Collection.

The scene in 2023:

These two photos show a view of the Colonial Inn that is very similar to the previous post. It is taken just a little farther to the east, near the center of Monument Square, and the top photo was taken about a decade or two after the old photo in the previous post.

As explained in more detail in a post from several years ago, the Colonial Inn is a combination of several different historic buildings that were constructed during the 18th and early 19th centuries. The oldest section is on the far right side, and was built around 1717. The section in the middle was built later in the 1700s as a one-story structure, but was later expanded with a second story around 1800. Then, the section on the left side was constructed sometime around 1812-1820.

The three different sections sat on different parcels, and they had different ownership histories, but they were eventually all acquired by John Maynard Keyes in 1897. He opened the Colonial Inn here, and it has remained in operation as a hotel ever since. The top photo was taken by photographer Leon Abdalian on October 15, 1929, showing the scene outside the building just two weeks before the stock market crash triggered the start of the Great Depression. In nearly a century since then, not much has changed in this view of the building, although the hotel was significantly expanded in 1960 with an addition in the back that is partially visible on the far left side of the bottom photo.

Colonial Inn, Concord, Massachusetts (2)

by

The Colonial Inn at Monument Square in Concord, around 1910-1920. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

The scene in 2023:

As explained in more detail in an earlier post, the Colonial Inn is a historic hotel that stands at the northern end of Monument Square in the center of Concord. It was built over the span of many years, with the earliest section in the distance on the far right side of the scene. It was built around 1716, and was originally owned by James Minot Jr. , and subsequent owners included Dr. Timothy Minot, Ammi White, and John Thoreau, the grandfather of Transcendentalist author Henry David Thoreau. Henry himself also lived here for a few years as a teenager, from 1835 to 1837.

The central section of the hotel, which has the row of five windows behind the “Colonial Inn” sign in the bottom photo, was built later in the 18th century, but was originally only one story in height. It was used as a store, and it was one of the places in Concord where colonists stored munitions in advance of the Battle of Concord on April 19, 1775. This section of the property was sold to John White in 1789, and second story was added around 1800.

The section of the building on the left side was constructed around 1812-1820 as the home of John White, who later sold the left and central sections to Daniel Shattuck in 1821. Shattuck then purchased the section on the right side from the Thoreau family in 1839, putting all three buildings under the same ownership for the first time. He lived here until his death in 1867, but shortly before he died he gave the entire property to his daughter, Frances Surette. It was apparently in the 1860s, probably during her ownership, that the section on the right was altered with a Mansard roof. Frances’s husband, Louis Surette, was a dry goods merchant, and they also operated a boarding house here, which they named the Thoreau House.

In 1889, the central and right-hand sections were sold to John Maynard Keyes, who opened a hotel here. He later acquired the section on the left in 1897, and named the hotel the Colonial Inn. The top photo was taken soon after, probably sometime in the 1910s, and it shows the building from the southwest, at the corner of Monument Square and Lowell Road.

More than a century later, the building has undergone additional changes. Most significantly, this has included the addition of a large wing on the back of the hotel, which was added in 1960. Otherwise, though, the historic portion of the building remains much the same as it did in the early 20th century, and it remains in use as a hotel while also standing as an important historic landmark in downtown Concord.

Pellet-Barrett House, Concord, Massachusetts

by

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.