The Wellington House at 72 Main Street in Swansea, Massachusetts, is an early 19th century Federal period residence that was “modernized” in the mid-19th century into its current form. It is unclear who the original owner of the residence was, but the property was acquired by Julia and James Birch in the 1850s as they built their Italianate style mansion next-door. They modified this cottage in the Italianate style to match their home and likely rented the property to Dr. James Lloyd Wellington (1818-1916), a Harvard-educated doctor who split his time between Swansea and Cambridge. The house was later donated to the Town and rented for years with profits going to the Public Library, until it sold and was restored by area residents, with the proceeds for the sale funding the library as well.
The Swansea Town Hall in Swansea, Massachusetts, is one of the most unusual and architecturally eclectic town hall buildings in New England, and was a gift to the community from a wealthy resident. Built in 1891 from plans by Boston architect, James Merrill Brown, the building is constructed of randomly laid rubblestone with brownstone trim with a massive pyrammidal slate roof and offset turret and tower containing a historic clock. The building was the gift of benefactors, Frank Shaw Stevens and Elizabeth Case Stevens, who lived down the street in the town’s largest mansion. The Stevens’ donated the building with the stipulation that the building was to be available to every and any religious society desiring to hold funeral services there and to also provide space for a public library. The town obliged. The space was outgrown and the Stevens’ would later donate the town’s public library next door and a church, that also held funeral services for the community. The building has been home to the Town Hall since 1891.
This unique two-story house on Main Street in Swansea, Massachusetts, is said to date to about 1734 but for the most part, its appearance dates to 100 years later. It is possible this was once a one-story, brick house, but by 1836, the property was owned by Samuel Sherman Hull (1788-1862) and Sarah Waite Hull (1799-1863) who married in 1835. It was during their ownership, that the house was expanded and “modernized” in the Greek Revival style in the 1830s or 1840s, when the wooden upper floor was added with elaborate central entrance with sidelights and pilasters at the corners and entry. The property was farmed by Mr. Hull and by the end of the 19th century, was owned by Mrs. Caroline A. Chace. It is possible that the brick floor operated as a store with a residence above but now is a single-family home.
Built in 1855, the Birch-Stevens Mansion of Swansea, Massachusetts, is a grand Italianate style residence distinguished by its low hipped roof with belvedere, broad overhanging eaves with brackets, paired arched windows, and expansive wrap-around porch, all of a scale not commonly found in such a small community. The residence was built for James Birch and overseen by his new bride, Julia Chace. Before construction on the home, James Birch (1828-1857), not a wealthy man, worked as a stagecoach driver in Providence. His bride-to-be desired a large mansion in her native Swansea, equipped with servants and all the finer things of life. Since this dream was not attainable in his present circumstances, Birch, an enterprising 21 year old, decided to join the Gold Rush in California to make his fortune. In California, James became a stagecoach line entrepreneur and founder of the California Stage Company, the largest stage line in California in the 1850s. James made a fortune and returned to his wife in Swansea bringing money for her to begin constructing their grand mansion. James left again, this time establishing the San Antonio -San Diego Mail Line, the first transcontinental mail route in the United States. In 1857, while heading home, James sailed from San Francisco to Panama, took a train across the Isthmus, and sailed for New York on the steamer SS Central America. During the voyage, his ship was struck by a hurricane and later sunk. Many survivors clung to pieces of the ship’s wreckage for days with many dying to exposure or were swept away to their deaths, like James. He was just 28 years old. Back in Swansea, Julia was heartbroken but remarried her late-husband’s business partner, Frank Shaw Stevens, an equally successful businessman. Julia died in 1871, and Frank married a younger Elizabeth Case. The couple resided in this mansion for decades and donated substantially to their community, including funding the Town Hall, Public Library, Episcopal Church, and local public schools. In her will, Elizabeth Case Stevens bequeathed the large mansion in 1837 to the Frank S. Stevens Home for Boys which began as a boy’s orphanage. The organization remains to this day with an expanded mission, and maintain the sprawling estate and its various outbuildings, including the historic stable and farm structures.
Christ’s Church in Longwood, better known as Sears Chapel, is among the finest ecclesiastical buildings in Brookline and commands its site on a rise overlooking the Muddy River, now the Riverway in the Emerald Necklace park system. The area presently known as Longwood was originally marshland with a few farms until the building of the Mill Dam road out of Boston in 1821 that improved access to Brookline, which opened up its connectivity and development potential. Wealthy Boston businessman, David Sears (1787-1871) recognized this, and began buying the low-lying pasturelands in Brookline near the Boston border. By 1830, some squares were laid out and development began in the Cottage Farm and Longwood sections. He, with associates, began building country estates for friends and family to escape the crowded conditions of Boston. He is said to have named his neighborhood “Longwood”, after Napoleon’s estate on St. Helena where he spent his days in exile. An avid amateur horticulturist, Sears planted some 14,000 trees, many of them imported from Europe, in the course of developing his land. In keeping with his faith, Sears built this house of worship, Christ’s Church, which is said to have been modeled after St. Peter’s in Colchester England, likely giving Colchester Street, where Sears Chapel is located, its name. The Romanesque style church was designed by Boston architect, Arthur Gilman, who designed the building suitable for the Sears Family crypt which is underneath the structure and the burial site of many of the family. The congregation remains active to this day who maintain the significant structure and its many historic stained glass windows.
Built in 1886 as a summer house, this handsome Shingle style residence on Pleasant Street in Sharon, Massachusetts, is one of the finest examples of the Shingle style in the area. The house was built as a summer residence for Francis Lyman Willard (1845-1913), who was President and Treasurer of the Riverside Boiler Works in Cambridge, and maintained a primary residence in Jamaica Plain. He and his wife, Mary Smith Willard, had this home built as their country retreat, spending summers here to escape the hustle-and-bustle of city life. The architect could not be discovered at this time, but it appears to have been a Boston-area architect that specialized in the Shingle style due to its unique and high-quality detailing. The feature that stands out is the four-story wood shingled tower on the facade capped by a bell roof that includes a large 20-over-20 double-hung curved wood sash stair window.
Deborah Sampson (1760-1827) was born in Plympton, Massachusetts, and after a troubled childhood, she worked as an indentured servant until the age of 18. She subsequently worked as a teacher during the summer, though she had little in the way of formal education. In the early 1780s, Deborah tried to disguise herself in men’s clothing and enlist in the military to fight against the British forces. She was rebuffed but tried again under the name Robert Shirtliff (sometimes spelled Shurtleff) and this time was successful. Deborah was described as being exceptionally tall, plain looking, and masculine in appearance and mannerisms. She spent at least 17 months as a combat soldier and participated in several skirmishes and sustained multiple injuries. She was reportedly hit by musket fire in the summer of 1782 but refused medical treatment for a leg injury due to fears that her true identity would be discovered. Sampson is said to have extracted one piece of shrapnel from her leg by herself; another remained in her body for the rest of her life. Sampson’s time as a Revolutionary fighter came to a halt a few months before the end of the war, after she fell ill in Philadelphia and a doctor realized that Shurtleff was, in fact, a woman. Sampson received an honorable discharge and went back to Massachusetts. She married Benjamin Gannett (1757–1837), a farmer, on April 7, 1785, and the couple moved to this farmhouse in Sharon, Massachusetts, where she lived the remainder of her life as a farmer’s wife. After Deborah Sampson died at the age of 66, her husband petitioned Congress to receive a pension as the widower of a Revolutionary veteran. A committee ultimately decided to award him the money, concluding that the war had “furnished no other similar example of female heroism, fidelity and courage.” She was the only woman to earn a full military pension for participation in the Revolutionary army. The Deborah Sampson Gannett Farmhouse is a private residence.
The old Sharon Sanatorium was built on former farmland in Sharon, Massachusetts, as a medical facility for the cure of pulmonary infectious diseases. The rural medical institution was designed in 1890 by the architectural firm of Longfellow, Alden and Harlow and completed a year later. The Sharon Sanatorium for Pulmonary Diseases opened formally in February 1891 with the purpose to provide affordable care for patients suffering from Tuberculosis and other pulmonary diseases. At the time, tuberculosis was a major health concern and treatment often included fresh air, so facilities such as this were designed with access to open air sleeping porches and forested surroundings. The Sharon Sanatorium was sited to catch the prevailing breezes on the side of Moose Hill, the second highest ascent between Boston and Providence. In 1916, the Sanatorium opened a Children’s Pavilion, which was reserved for children less than fourteen years of age suffering from tuberculosis. By 1938, the threat of tuberculosis was under control, and the Sanatorium began admitting patients suffering from arthritis and rheumatic fever until the facility closed in 1947. The Sanatorium integrated with the Boston Children’s Hospital in 1949 and soon after, the property was bought by Henry Plimpton Kendall (1878-1959), a wealthy entrepreneur and industrialist, for use as the Kendall Whaling Museum, showcasing his personal collection of paintings, prints, and tools of the whaling industry in New England. In 2001, the museum merged with the New Bedford Whaling Museum and today, the property is managed by the Trustees of Reservations as their Archives and Research Center.
Sharon, Massachusetts, is a small suburban community south of Boston that is lesser known than its neighbors, but the community has some great old buildings! The Town of Sharon was originally part of a 1637 land grant given by the Dorchester Proprietors to encourage new settlement in areas southward. In 1726, the lands of the present towns of Sharon, Canton and Stoughton, were separated from Dorchester and called the Stoughton Territory. Settlers in present-day Sharon found it difficult to attend mandated church services centered around present-day Stoughton and petitioned the General Court in 1739 to set off as a separate precinct. The request was granted and the Second Precinct was established, and incorporated as Stoughtonham in 1765, changing its name in 1783 to Sharon, named after the Sharon Plain in Palestine. In 1813, the local congregationalists split due to theological differences and formed a Unitarian church. The Congregationalists moved and built a new church and the Unitarians remained on this site, but the larger building was too large for their needs. They demolished the original building and constructed this church in 1842, which somewhat resembles the 1839 Congregational Church of Sharon a stone’s throw away. Like its neighbor, the Unitarian Church too retains an original bell cast by the The Revere Copper Company of nearby Canton.
Located on North Main Street in Sharon, Massachusetts, the community’s Christian Science Church was built in 1928 and is a great example of a diminutive chapel designed in the Colonial Revival style. Before it was completed, the Sharon Christian Science Society had been meeting and holding Sunday services in rooms at the Town Hall and other churches until funding was secured for their own house of worship. Customary of all Christian Science churches, the Christian Scientist in Sharon needed to have the building completely free of debt before being dedicated. The church was designed by architect Prescott A. Hopkins, who was likely the first person to receive a master’s degree in architecture at MIT before moving to Atlanta to became the first head of the Architecture Department at Georgia Tech. The building features a large Palladianesque window at the facade and twin curved entry porches at the facade.
Buildings of New England 
