HABS

Wells-Thorn House, Deerfield, Massachusetts

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The Wells-Thorn House at the corner of Old Main Street and Memorial Street in Deerfield, in November 1959. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey Collection.

The house in 2023:

This house was built around 1747 as the home of Ebenezer Wells (1691-1758) and his wife Abigail Barnard (1691-1772). They had no children, but their household here included at least two enslaved people: Lucy Terry (c.1733-1821) and Caesar (baptized 1734). Lucy is best remembered today for being the author of the poem “Bars Fight,” earliest known work of African American literature. The poem memorializes those who were killed during a 1746 Native American raid on a group of families that were working in the meadows, or “bars,” near the village. It seems unclear when the poem was first put down on paper, but it remained an oral tradition for more than a century before it was published by Josiah Gilbert Holland in his 1855 book History of Western Massachusetts. According to Holland, the poem reads:

August ’twas the twenty-fifth,
Seventeen hundred forty-six;
The Indians did in ambush lay,
Some very valient men to slay,
The names of whom I’ll not leave out.
Samuel Allen like a hero fout,
And though he was so brave and bold,
His face no more shall we behold.
Eleazer Hawks was killed outright,
Before he had time to fight,—
Before he did the Indians see,
Was shot and killed immediately.
Oliver Amsden he was slain,
Which caused his friends much grief and pain.
Simeon Amsden they found dead,
Not many rods distant from his head.
Adonijah Gillett we do hear
Did lose his life which was so dear.
John Sadler fled across the water,
And thus escaped the dreadful slaughter.
Eunice Allen see the Indians coming,
And hopes to save herself by running,
And had not her petticoats stopped her,
The awful creatures had not catched her,
Nor tommy hawked her on her head,
And left her on the ground for dead.
Young Samuel Allen, Oh lack-a-day!
Was taken and carried to Canada.

Because the raid happened only a year or so before this house was built, it is possible that Lucy was living in the house when she composed the poem. But either way, she appears to have lived here until at least 1756, when she married Abijah Prince, a free Black man who was from Curaçao. An article written by the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association suggests that the wedding may have occurred here in this house, as was customary for the time. Lucy appears to have gained her freedom around this time, and she and Abijah lived on the eastern part of the Wells property early in their marriage. By 1764, they had moved to Guilford, Vermont, where they owned land. Abijah died in 1794, and Lucy eventually moved to Sunderland, Vermont, where she died in 1821.

In the meantime, Ebenezer and Abigail Wells lived here until Ebenezer’s death in 1758. He left the house to his nephew Ebenezer Wells (1730-1783), and Abigail subsequently moved to Northampton. The younger Ebenezer lived here for the rest of his life, as did his wife Mercy Bardwell (1737-1801). Their son David then inherited the property, but sold it to lawyer Hezekiah W. Strong (1768-1848).

Strong repainted the house to a bright robins egg blue color, evidently in the hopes of drawing attention to his law practice. However, he only remained in town for a few years, and he sold it in 1804 to John Dwight. The house was later owned by the Ware family for most of the 19th century, and then in 1905 it was sold to Edwin (1874-1920) and Luanna (1874-1965) Thorn. Edwin was a physician, but both he and Luanna were involved in the Deerfield Arts & Crafts movement. They produced colonial-inspired household goods, including furniture and textiles, and they sold them out of a shop here in their home.

Edwin Thorn died in 1920, but Luanna outlived him by many decades. She was still living in the house when the top photo was taken in 1959, as part of the documentation of the house by the Historic American Buildings Survey. She eventually sold the property to Historic Deerfield in 1962, and the house has since been restored and opened to the public as a museum. On the interior, each room is decorated to match a different time period, beginning in the early 18th century and going through the mid 19th century. On the exterior, the house has been painted the same shade of blue that Hezekiah Strong had used in the early 19th century, as shown in the 2023 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.

David Billings House, Hatfield, Massachusetts

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The house at 18 Main Street in Hatfield, Massachusetts, in 1938. Image taken by Arthur C. Haskell. Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey Collection.

The house in 2024:

This house was built in 1783 as the home of Lieutenant David Billings (1731-1807). It stands on the east side of Main Street, between the street and the Connecticut River, with a lot that originally extended all the way back to the river. The house remained in the Billings family for many years, and subsequent owners included his grand nephew Joseph Dickinson Billings (1813-1882), and then by Joseph’s daughter Mary Billings Dickinson (1843-1922). It is an excellent example of an early Federal-style house, and in 1910 the A History of Hatfield, Massachusetts noted that [t]he house has the same appearance as of old, having been kept in excellent repair.”

The top photo was taken in 1938, as part of the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS). This federal program involved documenting historic architecture across the country, and this house was one of several here in Hatfield that were included. At the time, the house still retained its original exterior appearance, but later in the 20th century it was altered with the installation of modern materials, including aluminum siding. However, the exterior has since been restored, and it now much more closely resembles its original appearance when compared to how it looked a few years ago.

Aaron Bascom House, Chester, Massachusetts (2)

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The house across from the corner of Skyline Trail and Bromley Road in Chester, Massachusetts, in April 1938. Photo by Arthur C. Haskell, courtesy of the Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey Collection.

The house in 2024:

As explained in more detail in the previous post, this house was built in 1769 as the home of the Reverend Aaron Bascom, the first pastor of the church in Chester. He lived here until his death in 1814, and then in 1832 it was purchased by Dr. Thaddeus DeWolf. It would remain in his family for over a century, and during this time several of his children went on to become prominent figures. His oldest son, Oscar DeWolf, became a physician and moved to Chicago, where he served as the city’s commissioner of health. Thaddeus’s youngest son, DeWitt C. DeWolf, was active in state politics during the early 20th century, including serving as executive secretary to Governor Joseph Ely in the early 1930s, and as the state commissioner of labor and industries.

DeWitt DeWolf died in 1935, and the top photo was taken three years later as part of the documentation of this house for the Historic American Buildings Survey. It was still owned by his family at the time, but a few months later the property was put up for auction. The house had several other owners during the 20th century, but it has been vacant for many years. All of the other outbuildings on the property are gone, and the land around the house is overgrown with trees. The historic house still has many of its original features, including the 12-over-8 windows on the second floor, but overall the house is in poor condition, as shown in the second photo.

Aaron Bascom House, Chester, Massachusetts

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The house across from the corner of Skyline Trail and Bromley Road in Chester, Massachusetts, in April 1938. Photo by Arthur C. Haskell, courtesy of the Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey Collection.

The scene in 2024:

This house is one of the oldest surviving buildings in Chester, and it was built in 1769 as the home of the Reverend Aaron Bascom, the first pastor of the town’s church. The town had been incorporated several years earlier in 1765, but it was originally named Murrayfield, although it was later renamed Chester in 1783. At the time, this area on modern-day Skyline Trail was the town center. It was located along a ridgeline of rolling hills between the Middle Branch and West Branch of the Westfield River, and it was fairly close to the geographic center of the town. The center consisted of the meeting house, a schoolhouse, Rev. Bascom’s house, and several other nearby homes.

Aaron Bascom was originally from Warren, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard in 1768, and a year later he accepted the position as the pastor of the church here in Murrayfield. He was ordained on December 20, 1769, at the age of 23. According to the 1963 publication The First Congregational Church of Chester, his compensation included an initial settlement of 70 pounds, along with an annual salary of 40 pounds for three years, which would then increase five pounds per year until it reached 60 pounds. In addition, he was provided with firewood and, most significantly, a house, which is shown here in these two photos.

The house is typical for mid-18th century homes in Massachusetts. It features a front façade with four windows and a central door on the first floor, and five windows on the second floor. It originally had a large central chimney, but as was often the case, this chimney was later removed in order to create more space for a staircase and entry hall. Over the years, the exterior of the house also saw alterations and additions. The shutters in the top photo would not have been original to the house, and it seems likely that the Greek Revival style front entryway was probably a mid-19th century alteration.

Aaron Bascom lived here until his death in 1814, and the house was later purchased by Dr. Thaddeus Kingsley DeWolf in 1832. He was a noted local physician, and he lived here with his first wife Correlia Benham and their children Oscar, Homer, Sarah, and Martha. Correlia died of dysentery on August 7, 1847, and young Martha likewise died of dysentery five days later. However, Dr. DeWolf remarried rather quickly. Less than two months later, on September 28, the 46-year-old widower married 19-year-old Mary Phelps. They had two children together: Henry Clay DeWolf, who was born in 1850; and DeWitt Clinton DeWolf, who was born in 1864. DeWitt is known to have been born in this house, and the older children presumably were as well.

By the time the younger children were born, the town of Chester had undergone significant changes. In 1841 the Western Railroad was built along the West Branch of the Westfield River, in the southern and western part of the town. This spurred new developments in the valley, with the village of Chester Factories eventually becoming the town center, in place of the old town center here on Chester Hill, as it came to be called.

This shift was part of a broader trend in the rural hilltowns of Western Massachusetts. With more productive farmland available in the west, and new opportunities in the nation’s industrial cities, many towns and villages experienced population decline in the second half of the 19th century. Among those who left the area was Dr. DeWolf’s oldest son Oscar. He went to medical school, served as a surgeon in the U.S. Army during the Civil War, and then moved to Northampton before relocating to Chicago in 1873. There he became the city’s commissioner of health, a position that he held for 14 years.

During that time, Oscar’s younger half brother DeWitt joined him in Chicago, moving to the city around the late 1870s when he was 15. Rather than pursuing medicine like his father and brother, DeWitt went into business. He first worked for a shoe company, but then became involved in the coal industry, eventually serving as president of one coal company and vice president of another.

However, both brothers would eventually return home to Chester in their later years. Oscar left Chicago in 1891 and moved to London, where he practiced medicine for 12 years before retiring and moving back across the Atlantic to his old hometown. He had inherited the family home after his father’s death in 1890, and the 1894 county atlas indicated that he owned several other nearby homes. When he returned to Chester in 1903, he appears to have moved into the neighboring home at 346 Skyline Trail, which still stands just to the left of the old house, out of view in these photos.

Oscar DeWolf died in 1910, and then in 1915 his brother DeWitt moved back to Chester. Because DeWitt owned multiple properties, none of which had street numbers at the time, it is difficult to trace exactly where he lived, but it was apparently either his birthplace house here in these photos, or in the house next door that his brother had lived in. It seems that, over the course of his 20 years in Chester, he may have lived in both houses at different times.

The 1920 census does not indicate which house DeWitt DeWolf was living in, but it shows him in Chester with his wife Harriet and their daughters Elsie, Louise, and Virginia. Their household also included James H. Ellis, who was listed as a lodger. He later married their oldest daughter Elsie in 1926.

Shortly after his return to Chester, DeWitt DeWolf became involved in politics. He served in a variety of town offices, but he was also active in the state’s Democratic Party. He was a delegate at the Democratic National Convention in 1924 and again in 1928, and both times he was a strong advocate for New York Governor Al Smith, who earned the party’s nomination in 1928 but ultimately lost to Herbert Hoover in the general election. During the 1930 state gubernatorial election, DeWitt campaigned on behalf of his friend Joseph B. Ely of Westfield. Ely won the election, and he served as governor from 1931 to 1935. Upon taking office, Ely appointed DeWitt as his executive secretary, and DeWitt later became the state commissioner of labor and industries.

Despite working on Beacon Hill, DeWitt DeWolf continued to live here in Chester. His wife Harriet had died in 1922, and by 1930 he was living alone, probably in the house next door to this one. A 1930 article in the Springfield Republican, written after his appointment as executive secretary to Governor-elect Ely, indicated that his daughter Elsie was living in the old house, and also implied that DeWitt was not living in it at the time. However, DeWitt died in 1935, and the newspaper coverage stated that he died in the house where he was born, suggesting that at some point before his death he moved back into the old house.

The top photo was taken in April 1938, a few years after DeWitt’s death. The family still owned the house at this point, and the outbuilding on the left even had a sign that said “DeWitt C. DeWolf.” The building was photographed as part of the Historic American Buildings Survey, a Depression-era federal program that documented historic resources across the country.

The property was evidently sold a few months after the photo was taken, based on an auction notice that was published in the Republican in September 1938. The house would subsequently change hands several more times over the course of the 20th century, and in 1988 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing property in the Chester Center Historic District. This historic district is comprised of several other historic 18th and early 19th century buildings that all date back to when this small village was the town center.

The photographs that accompanied the National Register nomination form in the 1980s show the exterior of the house in reasonably good repair. However, the house has since been vacant for many years. All of the barns and other outbuildings are now gone, the property is overgrown, and the house itself is badly deteriorated. As shown in the second photo, the ground floor windows and doors are boarded up, and there is a sign next to the front door from the board of health, stating that it is unfit for human habitation. It is an important historic house, but in its current condition it is in danger of being permanently lost.

Buttolph-Williams House, Wethersfield, Connecticut (3)

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The east side of the Buttolph-Williams House in Wethersfield, in August 1938. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey Collection.

The house in 2024:

These two photos show the east side of the Buttolph-Williams House. Built around 1711, the house is one of the oldest in Wethersfield, and it is one of the many historic homes that line the streets of the town center. The top photo was taken as part of the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1938, and by this point the house had undergone many alterations from its original appearance, including newer windows and clapboards, and an ell on the back of the house.

At the time that the top phot was taken, the house was the home of siblings Kate and Frank Vibert. They had grown up in the house in the late 19th century, and they lived here until their deaths in the 1940s. The house was then acquired by the Connecticut Antiquarian and Landmarks Society—now known as Connecticut Landmarks—and it was restored to its original appearance in the late 1940s. This included re-installing diamond-paned casement windows, removing the rear ell, and removing the newer clapboards that had covered the original second-story overhang.

The house was once believed to have been built in the 1690s, but subsequent research has shown that it was actually built around 1711. Either way, though, it has many of the post-medieval architectural elements that were common on 17th century New England homes, and it survives as an excellent example of a First Period House. It is still owned by Connecticut Landmarks, and it is operated as a museum by the nearby Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum.