Georgetown

Adams Hall // c.1828

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According to local histories, this significant Greek Revival style property on Elm Street in Georgetown, Massachusetts, was owned by Josiah Adams (1757-1852), a farmer, a Revolutionary War veteran, and a fourth-generation descendant of the immigrant Robert Adams, who arrived here from Devonshire, England by about 1629. In March 1849, the town’s Congregational Society purchased Adams Hall for eight hundred dollars to house the church vestry, which remained in the building for forty-one months until a new building was built for that purpose next door. Later, Adams Hall was owned by Moses Tenney (1808-1903), operator of a prosperous saw mill in Georgetown, and served at one time in the state senate. The structure retains its significant temple-front with four, two-story Doric columns supporting the portico. Also special on this residence is the use of flush-board siding and the oversized first floor windows.

First Congregational Church of Georgetown // 1874

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The First Congregational Church of Georgetown, Massachusetts, is significant both architecturally as a Victorian Gothic/Stick style church designed by a prominent architectural firm, and historically as an important gathering place for the town’s members for 150 years. The congregation however is much older than 1874, as when Georgetown was then a part of Rowley, Massachusetts, members here in 1731 petitioned to create their own parish in Rowley to travel a shorter distance to services. The church, then known as the Second Church of Christ in Rowley, was organized in 1732 with services held in a rustic Meeting House. A second meetinghouse was built in 1769, which was both outgrown and in much need of repairs by the time the congregation decided to build a new building on a new site in the new commercial center of town. The congregation hired the esteemed firm of Peabody & Stearns to design the church which today, is the most high-style and architecturally grand building in the suburban town.

Moody-Hall House // 1830

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Transitional Federal/Greek Revival style houses are among my favorite. You can see the emergence of Classical architecture blending with American architecture with features of both styles, which work well together. This example can be found on Elm Street in Georgetown, Massachusetts. The dwelling appears to have been built for Dr. George Moody, one of four physicians in Georgetown in 1840, who began his practice in town in 1830. In his first years there, he oversaw patients during Typhus and Dysentery outbreaks and was credited with having determined that a high sulphur content in the local water supply accounted for the increased cases. Dr. Moody died in 1866, and his widow continued to live in the house until her death in 1880, after which it was sold to Mrs. Charlotte Sawyer Hall, the widow of local shoemaker Seth Hall.

Eleazar Spofford House // 1765

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One of the many pre-Revolutionary homes in Georgetown, Massachusetts, the Spofford House is located on Andover Road, an important route which was occupied by many residences of the Spofford Family. In 1667,  John Spofford and his family became the first permanent (European) residents in what would become Georgetown. Generations later his ancestor, Eleazar Spofford (1739-1828) would build this home in 1765 to be occupied by his new wife married that year, Mary Flint, and their new family. The Georgian farmhouse has been significantly altered since its original date of construction, but retains its general form and character even with later 19th and 20th century additions, porches, and windows. The Spofford’s had six children in this home and would later move to Jaffrey, New Hampshire after the Revolution, but returned and settled in nearby Groveland. Later generations of the Spofford’s would live-in and modify the home until it finally sold out of the family in the 20th century.