FORM B - BUILDING MASSACHUSETTS HISTORIC COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, state House, Boston,~.;1.' _: '.{.. 1. Town Marl borough In Area no. Form no. 91 Address 31 Northborough _~_Zo_a_d _ Name Samuel Bro\ m House 2. Present use Residence Present owner :Hr. hichael Duplessis 3. Description: 2 3tory Gambrel Date 1760 " '.. :Ii. :... 'l..~:~:..... ~j; ~ ". 4. Map. Draw sketch of bui ldirig location in relation to nearest cross streets and other buildings. Indicate north. ~".{.:": Source Pub. Local Histories Style Colonial Architect None Exterior wall fabric_~~j.::.~:.clapboard t Outbuildings (describe) None ---------- Other features Central chimney has been reduced. in si.:.ze,dormers are a later addition BOSToN POST RO,4..b o Altered Date Moved X Date 1803 5. Lot size: One acre or less Over one acre X Approxi mate frontage -.1:Q~~_._l;>_e_e_t _ Approximate distance of building from street ~ -..:.:'~.~......'....,...-. r "..( ~ j r --- ~-""'~ 40 Feet 6. Recorded by Ernest Ginnetti Organization NarlborouQh Historical Cotnm Ls s i.o n Date 9/18/78 ------ (over) )M-S-77
7. Original owner (if known) Cyrus Fe1 ton Original use Farm ----=-------------------------... --- Subsequent uses (if any) and dates Residence ---------------------------- 8. Themes (check as many as applicable) i! ~ Aboriginal Agricultural Architectural The Arts Commerce Communication Communitydevelopment x Conservation Education Exploration/ settlement Industry Military Political Recreation Religion Science/ invention Social! humanitarian Transportation 9. Historical significance (include explanation of themes checked above) ; Samuel Br-own '(vas born in 1763 and with his \-life E1izab~~th had t~n children. This house was moved by Samuel Br-own from the Cyrus Felton farm before 1803. Mr. Bro~m at that time was the only mason in all the borough tovffis. He lost his life September 27, 1817 in Sudbury by falling from the top of a chimney he was building at the age of 54. His wife died in 1841 at the age of 74. This humble dwel'i i.ng is the last gambrel roof house left in the city of any historic importance. 10. Bibliography and/or references (such as local histories, deeds, assessor's records, early maps, etc.) Historical Reminiscences of Marlborough, Ella Bigelotv, Marl. 1 1910. History of Marlborough Mass. Charles Hudson, Boston Mass. 1862.
t~:ventory FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property Massachusetts Historical Commission Marlborough Felton/Brown/Dunton House (Samuel Brown House) Form No. 91 Additional information 5/25/95: by Anne Forbes, consultant to Marlborough Historical Commission, ASSESSOR'S #79-2; 2.5 acres. PHOTOS #95-11: 18 and 19 ARCHITECTUR DESCRIPTION. This little 1 liz-story house, with its flared-gambrel roof, is the only example in Marlborough of a mid-eighteenth-century gambrel-roofed Cape Cod cottage. The flared front plane of the roof sweeps down over a low-walled facade, three bays wide (a painting reproduced in Bigelow [p. 150] shows a facade with five bays.) The diminutive center chimney is a replacement for a much larger one, and the pair of small, shed-roofed dormers and 6-over-l and 6-over-2 window sash are relatively new. The main entry has a plain, molded surround, and a door with six recessed panels, and glass in the top two. This building eventually took on the form of an "extended farmhouse". A 1 1I2-story, sheddormered section with a long glassed-in facade porch links the old house to a larger, higher gableend structure that may have been a barn. Both these sections were probably standing by 1900, although several of their additions, including a one-bay extension along most of the east side, may be later. Windows in these sections are 2-over-2, 6-over-l, and 6-over-6-sash. The main house is shingled, and stands on a fieldstone foundation. clad in wood shakes, and the ell has a rubble foundation. The east sections are largely HISTORIC NARRATIVE, cont. The source of the 1760 construction date given on the 1978 inventory form is unknown. If Ella Bigelow is to be believed, this house could have been built as early as 1752. (Bigelow 180). The form and style of the house, however, suggest that it could have been built anytime in the middle ofthe eighteenth century. Its first owner was undoubtedly Lt. Jacob Felton (1712-1789), who came to Marlborough in 1738. He settled on a farm on the old "Great Road" (later the Boston Post Road) just east of today's Felton Street, at about the point where Route 495 now divides the west part of Marlborough from the rest of the city. He had two wives, Sarah Barrett, who died in 1742 at the age of 27, and Hezediah (Howe), whom he married in 1749 and who lived to be nearly 94 years old. It is most likely that the house was built shortly after his second marriage. Jacob Felton was a Selectman in 1777, and his rank of Lieutenant probably comes from service during the French and Indian War. Jacob and Hezeiiah's son, Stephen Felton (1752-1827), was the next owner. In 1802, in preparation for replacing this little house. with a much larger one, he apparently sold it to Samuel Brown (1763-1817). who moved it several rods west, to its prese.nt location. He and his wife, Elizabeth, raised their nine children here near what, in their time, was caned the "Brown School" (later the Rice School, for District #4). (Cont.)
ii~ventory FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property Massachusetts Historical Commission Marlborough Felton/Brown/Dunton House Form No. 91 HISTORIC NARRATIVE, cont. After Samuel Brown's untimely death, the house played a role in one of the more romantic stories of the early nineteenth century. Catherine Gates, daughter of Silas Gates, keeper of the Williams Tavern, fell in love with a a dashing soldier, Capt. Thomas Dunton. Her parents refused to give their permission for their marriage, only relenting when Catherine nearly died. Thomas and Catherine were married in 1815, and her elder brother, Abraham, later bought the Samuel Brown house and farm (probably from Samuel's widow), and gave the property to his sister and her husband. By 1875 the house was owned by Maxim Mayott, who owned it at least into the 1880's. probably he who built the large gable-end barn or house to the northeast. It was ADDITION BIBLIOGRAPHY. Maps and atlases: 1803, 1830, 1835, 1856/7, 1875, 1889. Marlboro vital records Marlboro directories and tax valuations.... '.. --- -- --.:r [X] Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked, a completed National Register Criteria Statement form is attached.
Massachusetts Historical Commission Community Property Address Marlborough 31 Northborough Road Form No(s). 91 National Register of Historic Places Criteria Statement Form Check all that apply: [x] Individually eligible [ ] Eligible only in a historic district [ 1 Contributing to a potential historic district [] Potential historic district Criteria: [] A ll B [x] C [] D Criteria Considerations: [] A [] B [] C [] D [] E [] F [] G Statement of Significance by _At_l_n_e_F_o_I_b_es _ The criteria that are checked in the above sections must be justified here. The Felton/Brown/Dunton House, in spite of many additions over the years, meets Criterion C of the National Register as the only example in Marlborough of a mid-eighteenth-century gambrel-roofed Cape Cod cottage. Since its move took place at the beginning of the nineteenth century, it retains integrity of location, as well as design, setting, workmanship, feeling, and association.
:w.,... <~. ':;.. FORM B - BUILDING IvlASSACHUSETTS HISTORIC COMMISSION A~~;,.",... 4' tho Qon. ot!:l'r~t ~t!:lta HOlJ~e. Boston, ).'.'-.; /rn Area no. Form no... r>. Ro ad e Gershorn Rice House sent use Residence Metropolitan Life Ins. sent owner 1 1>ladison Ave. N. Y. 2t Story Brick End ource Pub. Local Histories e Colonial 4. Map. Draw sketch of building location in relation to nearest cross streets and other buildings. Indicate north. Architect None Exterior wall fabric Brick & Clapboa~?-_ Outbuildings (describe) 1 Barn other features Hipped 1<'00 and Bll o p ud L. E '/ s r on north Altered Moved side. Date Date 5. Lot size: o n One acre or less Over one acre X Approximate frontage 200 Feet ~cj Approximate distance of building from str-eet 50 Feet 6. Recorded by Ernest Ginnetti Organization Marlboro:ugh Historical Commission Date 6/17/78 (over)
, ii I, -~----------------------------' 7. Original owner (if known) GershoID Rj cg Original use F_a_rtn t- Subsequent uses (if any) and dates Residence ----------------------------- 8. Themes (check as many as applicable) r Aboriginal Agricultural Architectural The Arts Commerce Communication Community development x Conservation Education Exploration/ settlement Industry Military Political Recreation Religion Science/ invention Social! humanitarian Transportation 9. Historical significance (include explanation of themes checked above) Gershom Rice is a descend.ant of Edmond. Ride of Sudbury, he was born Ju~y 13, 1755 and married Susannah Howe. Gershom bought this ~and in 1802, and. completed this house in 1804 set to the points of the compass, and before he died in April 1837 at 82 it was kno~~ as o~e of the best farms in Marlborough. In the west parlor there are murals painted on the walls depicting, scenes of the Revolutionary War. 10. Bibliography and/or references (such as local histories, deeds, assessor's records, ear ly maps, etc.) Historical Reminiscences of Marlborough, Ella Bige~ow Mar~. 1910. J History of Marlborough Mass. Charles Hudson, Boston 1862. 1803 map of Marlborough, Silas Ho1ma.n Surveyor
I1\T\'ENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property Massachusetts Historical Commission Marlborough Gershom Rice House Form No. 24 Additional information by Anne Forbes, consultant to Marlborough Historical Commission, 5/25/95: ASSESSOR'S #78-28 49, 324 square feet PHOTO #95-l"1: 20 ARCHITECTUR DESCRIPTION This magnificent house was once part of a cluster of farmhouses on the Northborough Road near the site of one of the old garrison houses of 1711. Today, except for the very altered trio of small houses a few rods east at 31-61 Northborough, it stands nearly alone among modem residential and large commercial buildings as a reminder of the former farming community of west Marlborough. It is an excellent example of the large, square, hip-roofed brick-ended house of the Federal period, and the only one in Marlborough to retain all four of its high corner chimneys. A long 1 1/2-stOlY wing extends to the rear, connecting to what appears to be a former gable-end barn, possibly the one said by Ella Bigelow to have been built in 1862. An early-twentieth-century sun porch with multi-light casement windows abuts the west side of the house. Although the rear section of the building has some later windows, dormers, and a wooden deck, the main part of the house is quite well-preserved. Its front and back walls are clapboarded, its roof is slate, and the foundation is brick. The windows are reproduction 12-over-12-sash, (replacements for the former 2-over2's), with molded, projecting cnframements and louvered shutters. The main entry has a surround of flat pilasters with molded capitals, and an entablature with a molded frieze and triangular pediment. Other trim detail, all executed in wood, includes wide pilasters at the house corners which have molded capitals and a block detail at second story level, and a molded cornice with large bed molding. One outbuilding, a four-car garage, which stands northeast of the house behind a circular driveway, is located on an adjacent parcel. HISTORIC NARRATIVE, cont. As Ernest Ginnetti states in the 1978 inventory form, this house was indeed built by Gershom Rice, II (1755-1837), a wealthy trader of imported goods, who had it constructed for the princely sum of $1,004. As it appears on the map of 1803, it was probably substantiaijy completed in that year. It stands on the site of the Luke Howe Tavern, one of several taverns that stood on the Boston Post Road, (of which the Northborough Road was a part), in the late eighteenth century. This Gershom Rice was a fifth-generation descendant of original settler Edmund Rice, and brother of Thomas Rice of 475 Elm Street (see Form #57). He and his wife, Susannah, had five children, of whom their middle son, Edward (b. 1784), inherited the house. After Edward died, his wife, Susannah (Felton), lived here with their son, Edward G. Rice (b. 1814). Edward G. was known in his day as one of Marlborough's "most thrifty farmers, as his herd of nineteen cattle, large barn built in 1862, and the well tilled 65 acres testify. II (Bigelow 153). (Cont.)
INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Massachusetts Historical Commission Community Marlborough Property Gershom Rice House Form No. 24 HISTORIC NARRATIVE, cont. In about 1889, the property was sold to the L'Heureux family. A L'Heureux SOIl, Louis, fought in the Spanish American War. They evidently only owned it for a brief time, when it was bought by Charles F. and Blanche Holyoke. After a period of ownership by the Allen family, in 1938 the old farm returned to the Rice family, when it was purchased by Edward G. Rice's grandson, attorney John E. Rice, who called it "Broad Acres". Here he established one of the most successful twentieth-century orchardsin Marlborough, which included a large cold-storage building for the apples and a roadside farmstand. Both were demolished, along with the orchard itself, for the burgeoning late-twentieth-century commercial development along Route 20. ADDITION BIBLIOGRAPHY. Maps and atlases: 1803, 1830, 1835, 1856/7, 1875, 1889. Marlboro vital records Marlboro directories and tax valuations. Marlboro Historical Society: house files. South Middlesex News. 12/2/73. Worcester Evening Gazette. 4/18/75. [X] Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked, a completed National Register Criteria Statement form is attached.
Massachusetts Historical Commission Community Property Address Marlborough 139 Northborough Road Form No(s). 24 National Register of Historic Places Criteria Statement Form Check au that apply: [x] Individually eligible [ ] Eligible only in a historic district [ ] Contributing to a potential historic district [] Potential historic district Criteria: [] A [] B [x] C [] D Criteria Considerations: [] A [] B [] C [J D [] E [] F [] G Statement of Significance by _A_n_n_e_F_o_f_b_es The criteria that are checked in the above sections must be justified here. _ The Gershom Rice House meets Criterion C of the National Register as an excellent example of a large, square, hip-roofed brick-ended house of the Federal period, and the only one in Marlborough to retain all four of its high comer chimneys. Built by a wealthy trader of imported goods, in its stylish elegance it embodies one aspect of Marlborough's Federal period social structure that has been all but lost in other sections of town through demolition or alteration, and thus meets Criterion A. Screened by landscaping from the nearby modern commercial structures, the property retains integrity of location, design, materials, setting, workmanship, feeling, and association.