Charles Wheaton (1761-1863) enlisted in the his local militia at just 14 years old and served in Colonel Robert Elliott’s Regiment of Artillery to protect Narragansett Bay. After the war, Charles settled in Warren, Rhode Island, and married Abigail Miller. They would have at least nine children, with one of their children, Charles Wheaton, Jr., (1791-1863) marrying Abiah Goodwin Turner in 1815, the daughter of a wealthy sea captain. Around the time of their marriage, they built this house on Liberty Street in Warren in the Federal style with a three bay facade, monitor on hip roof, and portico at the entrance with Ionic columns. By the end of the 19th century, the house was enlarged and a bay window was added over the entry portico.
Possibly the oldest building in Warren, Rhode Island, this historic farmhouse on Market Street, near the state line, has framing that possibly dates to the 1680s! After Sachem Massasoit and his oldest son, Wamsutta, sold land to Plymouth Colony settlers what is present-day Warren, Barrington, Swansea and Rehoboth, Massachusetts, the town of Swansea was established in 1667. Obadiah Bowen (1627-1710) was an original proprietor of Swansea and was listed as number 23 in the order to draw lots for the meadows on the northside of town. By 1679, he received a ten-acre house lot of uplands and salt meadow, reaching from the Palmer River inland and across Market Street to the Birch Swamp. He built a farmhouse on the rocky highland where he farmed the property until his death. His son, Thomas Bowen (1664-1743), later purchased the farm and added to it another 70 acres making the property a total of 170 acres. The old Bowen property was sold to Richard Haile in 1708 and remained in the Haile family until the late 19th century. After successive ownership in the Haile Family, the property became known as the “Judge Haile farm,” after owner, Levi Haile (1797-1854), a justice of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island, he served on the court that tried Thomas Dorr, the leader of the Dorr Rebellion, a struggle to extend voting rights in Rhode Island to non-property owners. Levi Haile made improvements on his house and farmed the land, as did his two sons. The property sold out of the Haile family in the late 19th century and remained a farm until the 1980s, when part of the property was subdivided for development and part donated to the Warren Land Trust, who maintains the property as the Haile Farm Preserve. While the farmland is protected, the old farmhouse is not protected as a town landmark nor through the community’s demolition delay bylaw.
The Southworth House, also known as the Old Stone House, in Deep River, Connecticut, is a significant example of a stone, Greek Revival style house built for an important local family. The Southworth House was constructed in 1842 for Deacon Ezra Southworth (1803-1859) from stone harvested from one of the Southworth family’s quarries. Ezra was the son of local shipbuilder, Job Southworth who began building ships at the Deep River landing in the 1790s. Ezra Southworth branched off into manufacturing, becoming a partner and patent holder producing ink wells. His son, Ezra Job Birney Southworth (1844-1919), went into business with his father-in-law in shipping and served as a member of the State Legislature twice. In 1882, Ezra Jr. added the wooden ell onto the rear of the Stone House along with the wrap-around veranda and likely the rear barn as well. Ada Gilbert Southworth Munson was Ezra J. B. Southworth’s only child to live to adulthood and inherited the family home. She was a founding member of the Deep River Historical Society and bequeathed her family home to the Society in 1946, who have maintained the significant home here ever since.
John Dean Sturtevant (1816-1889) was born in New Hampshire and became engaged there in local woolen mills, quickly growing into advanced management positions. He operated woolen mills in New Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, and settled in Brookline where he had access to other states via excellent rail service. When he died in 1889, John’s heirs inherited their late-father’s properties, and began to develop them as Brookline filled out in the last decades of the 19th century. This handsome double-house at the corner of Cypress and Waverly streets was built in 1892 by the Sturtevant Estate, who rented the property to two families of wealthy residents. The Sturtevant Double-House is a landmark and exceptionally preserved example of the Queen Anne style, with varied siding, asymmetrical forms, complex roofline with dormers, and applied ornament in the form of carved panels.
The Lindens neighborhood, located just east of the civic and commercial core of Brookline Village, was long an apple and cherry orchard known as Holden Farm. Beginning in 1843, the area became the earliest planned development in the town and was laid out as a “garden suburb” for those wishing to escape the growing congestion of Boston. As originally conceived in 1843, it reflected the latest ideals of planned residential development for a semi-rural setting on land owned by Thomas Aspinwall Davis. The streets, parks, and house lots here were laid out by civil engineer, Alexander Wadsworth, who two years earlier, laid out plans for Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, the first “Rural Cemetery” in America. Early homes were built on speculation by John F. Edwards, an architect-builder, for Davis, who was strict about high-quality designs in the Greek and Gothic revival styles in his newly laid out neighborhood. This house, at 53 Linden Street, was built in 1844 by Edwards, and sold soon-after to John G. Faxon (1793-1861), a lumber merchant who made his fortune in Lubec, Maine until he moved to Brookline. Faxon sold the house in 1851 to Thomas Howe, who likely added the Italianate style tripartite windows with the lower having scroll brackets.
This large First Period house in Wayland dates to the early 18th century and was originally located in Kingston, Massachusetts, and moved to its present location in the 40s. The historic home was built by 1713 for Jonathan Bryant (1677-1731). After 250 years in Kingston, the house was threatened with demolition, and was ultimately saved by Wayland resident, Allan Finlay. Allan was a member of the town’s Planning and School boards, and was active in overseeing the Modern expansion of Wayland’s schools in the 1950s and 60s. In 1941, Finlay had this house disassembled and rebuilt on land on Old Sudbury Road for his family. The house, with its expansive setback, overlooks preserved wetlands.
This house in Wayland Center was built for Dr. Ebenezer Ames (1788-1861) who had a medical practice treating patients in East Sudbury (later named Wayland) and other surrounding communities. Dr. Ames is believed to have built this house in about 1823, which is a five-bay, two-story Federal style house under a hipped roof. Dr. Ames moved to another home in the village by 1830 and this old residence was purchased by Judge Edward Mellen (1802-1875) who lived in the house from 1831 until his death in 1875. Judge Mellen was appointed Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Court of Common Pleas in 1855, and practiced law in Wayland from a small office that still stands in the center of the village. Mellen’s widow Sophia Mellen remained here after her husband’s death in 1875 until her death in 1893. The front porch was likely added in the early 20th century, but does not at all detract from the architectural significance of the 200 year old residence.
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.
Located in the Wayland Center village, this c.1844 Greek Revival style cottage stands out not for flourish or scale, but for its excellent design, proportions, and state of preservation. The three-bay facade has a recessed first story set under the pediment extending over the open porch. The pediment is carried by squared, tapered columns with dentils and the facade retains its unique flush-board siding and triple-hung first-story window sash. The house was built by 1844 for Warren Hunt, who operated a small dry goods store near the town common. Not long after he had the house built, Hunt sold the property and store to Luther B. White (1822-1884), who lived here for at least two decades. In 1888, Mrs. Alice Dickey and her husband, Charles F. Dickey, a carpenter, purchased the house and expanded it at the rear.
Buildings of New England 