Elisha Rice (1784-1841) moved to Wayland, Massachusetts in 1800 and built this charming house on Bow Road for himself and his family. Elisha worked as a wheelwright, a craftsman who builds and repairs wooden wheels, and was able to build this home near the village. While built and later occupied by later artisans, the community has become an exclusive and wealthy Boston area suburb, which has subsequently made it so many “working class” citizens can no longer afford such a house, but has also allowed many of these great old homes to be lovingly preserved and maintained for future generations.
Built on a hill on Concord Road in Wayland, Massachusetts, the Reeves-Goodell House is a beautiful vernacular Federal period residence owned and occupied by a local builder and architect. The house was constructed by Henry Reeves (1789-1878), a local carpenter and descendant of Jacob Reeves (1720-1794) a tavern-keeper in town. In the 1920s, this property became the home of Edwin B. Goodell, Jr. (1893-1971), a prominent local architect who designed area houses before becoming a partner in the firm Andrews, Jones, Biscoe and Goodell of Boston. It was Goodell who added on the rear, three-bay addition to the residence, which blends in with the 1810s aesthetic. Interestingly, Edwin Goodell lived in this historic, vernacular house but designed some of the earliest International style modernist homes in New England.
One of the many great old houses in Wayland, Massachusetts, is this well-proportioned Federal style residence at 30 Cochituate Road. The house was built sometime between 1818 and 1821 when owner Mark C. Sibley (1792-1876) married his first wife, Nancy Rice. Mark Sibley was the innkeeper at the Pequod Inn (no longer extant) that had served as an inn and stagecoach stop from when it was built in 1771. Mark Sibley remarried after Nancy died in 1839 and relocated to Weston. The Sibley House was acquired numerous times by real estate speculators. From 1886 until 1922, the property was owned by Anna Bennett, a widow. The five-bay, two-story Federal style house has a center entrance and six-over-six double-hung windows, all with a historically appropriate color scheme.
Derby, Connecticut was settled by colonists in 1642 as a trading post with local Native people under the name Paugasset. The community was eventually named after Derby, England, in 1675 and incorporated 100 years later in 1775. Like all communities in New England, it was required to have a meeting house, where religious services and town business would take place. Derby had its first meeting house built in 1681, a rustic, square structure which was eventually replaced with a new meeting house on “The Common”, now the East Derby Green. The building served its purpose for over 100 years, with sermons led by Rev. Daniel Humphreys (1706-1787) for 54 years. In that church, his son, David Humphreys (1752-1818) was baptized, he later became George Washington’s aide and most trusted general, later becoming the first presidential speech-writer. That meetinghouse was eventually outgrown, and the present Congregational Church of Derby was built on its present site on the eastern banks of the Naugatuck River in 1821. The Federal style church building was built by Williams and Barnum from Brookfield, who likely utilized plan books by Asher Benjamin for the finishes. The Congregational Church of Derby has watched as the commercial “downtown” of the city shifted to the other side of the river and has stood here for over 200 years as a landmark of “old Derby”.
This stately Federal style residence constructed of brick sits atop a lovely hill in the town of Bolton, Massachusetts, and has been lovingly maintained by its owners for over 225 years. The home was built by Caleb Moore (1768-1826) just before his marriage to Achsah Whitney in 1796. Caleb was a merchant and later a shareholder and president of the Lancaster & Bolton Turnpike Corporation, chartered in 1805, to collect tolls for travellers from or to Boston from central Massachusetts. Caleb and Achsah had eight children, sadly, five of their children died as teenagers or young adults. The farmhouse was inherited by Alpheus Moore (1802-1882), who operated his late-father’s store and held a liquor license, possibly running the home as a tavern along the turnpike.
This charming old home on Burnham Road in Bolton, Massachusetts, was built in 1822, but as a one-story three-quarter cape house with the additional story added later in the 19th century. The residence was built for William Coolidge, a Revolutionary War veteran. After successive ownership, the property was sold in 1855 to Reuben Burnham, a carpenter, who soon after added the second floor onto his new home, keeping the original cornice which now serves as a visual reminder of the home’s changes. Sadly, around 100 years later, the highway cut through the town, bisecting this property, which now abuts the busy road, but owners have maintained and preserved this stunning property which is evocative of the early days of Bolton.
This exceptional vernacular example of a brick, Federal period house in Bolton, Massachusetts, sits on the town’s Main Street in the East Bolton village. Built in 1827, this house with attached wooden ell was the home to Abraham Wilder, a local blacksmith who followed his father’s footsteps in his professional pursuits. The house is two-stories with historic six-over-nine sash windows. The main center entry, rather than displaying a common elliptical fanlight for the period, is surrounded by trim boards, four-pane sidelights and a vertical-board door. Abraham’s blacksmith shop was once located next-door but was moved and reassembled in Old Sturbridge Village in 1957.
This grand federal-period house was built around 1793 by Capt. Samuel Blood (1749-1834), who had served in the American Revolution. He came to Bolton from Lancaster by 1788, and purchased a farm here, where he began working as a hat manufacturer, building a large shop where he made beaver and silk hats. The land As his business grew, his original house was demolished to make way for this more stately, Federal-period home which dates to around 1793. Samuel Blood and his wife, Lucretia (Heywood) had twelve children. Their eldest son, Thomas (1774-1848) became a doctor and settled in Peterborough, New Hampshire, but returned to Bolton to take charge of the factory as his father got older. The family sold the home and the property, then about 120-acres, operated as a farm by subsequent owners. In 1916, the property was sold to Howard Atwood, who had been a successful Boston wool merchant, and he raised pedigreed cattle, thoroughbred horses, and sheep on this property, possibly as a gentleman’s farm. He and his wife, Rose, built a large new barn near the main house where they held many parties and barn dances over the years. The couple also renovated the old house, adding the dormers, porticos and side additions, creating the current composition we see today. The property has been owned by a corporation and appears to be offices today.
The building that became the Bolton Historical Society in Bolton, Massachusetts had unusual beginnings. According to town records, this residence-turned-historical society was built around 1805 as an addition to the famed Holman Inn, which stood in town from 1767 until its demolition in the 1870s. The wing contained a ballroom on the first floor, and guest chambers on the second. The main part of the inn was eventually torn down in 1874, but the east wing, this structure, was moved down the street to the present site, where it was converted to a house by owners Charles S. Rich, a Civil War veteran, and his wife Mary. In 1904, the house was bought by Arthur H. Nourse, who enlarged the property by purchasing adjacent land from his uncle, and bought two small buildings from the Town of Bolton, the historic engine house and old hearse house, which he moved to the site. The house was purchased in 1923 by Perley and Florence Sawyer. Mrs. Sawyer was a charter member of the Bolton Historical Society at its founding in 1962, and later, by 1970, she gave the house, with over three acres of land, to the Society. The property is still owned by the Historical Society, which operates it as a house museum and a repository for local historical documents.
Built in 1800-1801, this house on Main Street in Bolton, Massachusetts, had multiple owners in quick succession until 1806, when it was purchased by Dr. Amos Parker. Amos Parker (1777-1861) was born in Hubbardston and later moved to Bolton to work as the town’s doctor, and also served as Bolton’s first Postmaster, from an ell that was once attached to this residence. Dr. Parker and his wife, Elizabeth (Whitney,) had at least four children, who of which died as infants and two daughters remained unmarried. Elizabeth Lydia Parker (1809-1882) and Louisa Jane Parker (1812-1900) inherited their parent’s home and lived here until their deaths. Louisa worked as a teacher in Bolton schools, and was forced to remain unmarried to keep her teaching position by law. In 1904, the Parker home was acquired by the local Baptist church and occupied as a parsonage and was later sold to private owners who restored the home to its near-original condition.
This stately Federal period mansion in Lancaster, Massachusetts, was originally constructed as a Georgian, two-story, five-bay house for Levi Willard (1727-1775), the son of a major landholder and descendant of one of the earliest settlers in the town. The residence is said to have been built by Levi’s cousin, Aaron Willard around 1760. Sometime after Levi’s death in 1775, the property was acquired by William Stedman (1765-1831), a notable attorney who served as town clerk of Lancaster 1795-1800, later becoming a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1802-1810. It was during Representative Stedman’s ownership that the house was remodelled into the fashionable Federal style appearance we see today, with the third floor added with shallow hip roof and classical entrance with pilasters and fanlight. In the mid-19th century, the house was operated as different boarding schools, though more information is needed. Today, the residence has been preserved and maintained as a single-family home, contributing to the charming Lancaster Center Village.
Built in 1816, the First Church of Lancaster is one of just two extant church buildings designed by famed American architect, Charles Bulfinch, and is said to be one of the finest churches in the Federal style in the United States. The fifth meetinghouse of the Unitarian First Church of Christ in Lancaster, this building was constructed of local brick, slate, and lumber from master-builder, Thomas Hearsey. Hearsey is said to have modified Bulfinch’s design, which had proposed one tall center arch flanked by two lower arches to reflect the unequal heights of the three vestibule doors behind them; instead going with three, identical arches. Other than this change, the church remains substantially as originally built, even without artificial lighting or central heat inside. Besides the iconic arched portico, the two- stage brick tower topped by a beautifully proportioned wood cupola surrounded by Roman Ionic columns, and fronted by a giant arcuated portico, is especially noteworthy. The congregation, which dates back to 1653 as a Puritan congregation was the first parish established in Central Massachusetts and remains active to this day.
Buildings of New England 