Gould-Goodnough-Lyman House // 1816

The largest house in the smallest town (in Middlesex County) of Ashby, Massachusetts, is this towering, three-story Federal period home on South Road. Local history states that the home was originally a two-story Federal style home with shallow hipped roof. The Goodnough’s “modernized” the home by the 1870s, adding a mansard roof and built a stable on the property. Lastly, the third major owner, Jesse P. Lyman, and his wife, Mary Chapman Lyman, had the home “modernized” again, in 1898, but in the Colonial Revival style, harkening back to the house’s original Colonial-inspired roots. Fitchburg-based architect Henry M. Francis converted the old mansard roof to a full third-floor, updated the carriage house, and added side wings to flank the main block of the house (similar to his design at the old Lyman School in town). The house recently sold for over $600,000 in 2020, which may be the best steal ever! This house is a stunner!