Category: Sturbridge

Pottery, Old Sturbridge Village (1819)

by Dan//Commercial, Industrial, Outbuildings, Sturbridge, Vernacular

Harvey Brooks (1779-1873), of Goshen, Connecticut, began work at the age of sixteen as an apprentice potter. After 1819, he worked for himself as a rural farmer-potter, producing 26 different varieties and sizes of redware pots, pans and jugs. He had a pottery shop and an adjacent kiln, where he burned his last batch of ware in 1864, long after most other redware potters had given up practicing their craft. Brooks‘ pottery shop, built around 1819, was moved to Old Sturbridge Village in 1961 and a replica kiln was built in 1979.

Salem Towne House (1796)

by Dan//Federal, Houses, Sturbridge

In the early nineteenth century, Salem Towne, Jr. was a businessman and a leader in public affairs in Charlton. In 1825, Towne inherited an impressive hipped-roof house, built for his father, Salem Towne, Sr., in 1796. The house had a ballroom on the second floor, later divided into bedchambers, that was used for Masonic meetings until 1806. The house’s builder was influenced by the illustrations in the 1792 American edition of William Pain’s Practical Builder, a guidebook of designs for English carpenters. The Salem Towne House was moved to Old Sturbridge Village in 1952 and the interior has recently been restored, with original colors and reproductions of period wallpapers.

Levi Lincoln, Jr. House (1836)

by Dan//Greek Revival, Houses, Sturbridge

Levi Lincoln, Jr., distantly related to and a supporter of Abraham Lincoln, was a lawyer and politician who served as governor of Massachusetts (1825-1834) and in congress (1834-1841). He later returned to his native Worcester, where he served as mayor. He built a Greek Revival house on Elm Street in Worcester in 1836. When Lincoln’s heirs sold the property for development in 1949, it was rescued by Old Sturbridge Village, where it was moved in 1952. Too much of a urban mansion to be suitable for the Village itself, the Lincoln House was placed instead along Route 20, near the entrance to the museum. It was opened to the public as a restaurant at first, became a fabric shop in 1968 and has housed a branch of Country Curtains since 1982.

John Fenno House (1704)

by Dan//Colonial, Houses, Sturbridge

The Fenno House at Old Sturbridge Village was moved there in 1950 from its original site in the town of Canton, where it stood ouside the center village. This property was acquired by John Fenno in 1694 and either he or his son, also named John, is thought to have built the house in 1704 (although recent dendrochronological work suggests it was built later, around 1724. The house remained a Fenno family residence until 1810, when Jesse Fenno built a new home and converted the old house into a barn and storage building. It was purchased from the Fenno family in 1913 by Caroline S. Saltonstall. Later donated by the Saltonstalls to the Canton Historical Society, ownership of the house passed to Old Sturbridge Village in 1949. The house has been reconstructed several times in its history, with much of its original fabric being replaced.

Asa Knight Store (1838)

by Dan//Commercial, Greek Revival, Sturbridge

In the early nineteenth century, Asa Knight operated a general store in the village center of Dummerston, Vermont. In 1826, Knight bought the store, the oldest section of which had been built around 1810, and added a storekeeper’s office. He further expanded the building with a new main wing in 1838-1839. The older section became an ell, attached to the new two-and-a-half story building. By the 1870s, the building ended its period as a store and remained mostly vacant and unmodernized for the next century. In 1972, it was moved to Old Sturbridge Village, restored and restocked to represent a village store of the 1830s. The earliest section, built in 1810, had been removed in 1909 and was reconstructed, based on old photographs and archaeological research.

Center Meetinghouse, Old Sturbridge Village (1832)

by Dan//Churches, Greek Revival, Sturbridge

The Baptist Church in Sturbridge was organized about 1750 and early on met in a school house, enlarged and converted into a house of worship. A new meetinghouse was erected in 1784. These first two structures were located on Fiske Hill. As described in An Historical Sketch of Sturbridge, Mass. (1838), by Joseph S. Clark, by 1832:

Their first Meetinghouse, by this time was going to decay; and as it stood at an inconvenient distance from many of the Society, in 1832 they erected a new and far more commodious one, in the centre village, on a corner of the old Burying-ground. It was dedicated Jan. 8, 1833, […] The Baptist Society have just completed [1838] the removal of their Meetinghouse to Fiskdale village, about 2 miles from its former location. As this arrangement brings the Sanctuary to the doors of many who have hitherto found it inconvenient to attend Church statedly it is presumed that they will hereafter avail themselves of that privilege.

As mentioned in the 1844 book, History of the Baptist Churches Composing the Sturbridge Association,

During the present year, (1842,) the house, having been struck with lightning, and injured to a considerable extent, has undergone a thorough repair, at an expense of about $300.

In 1947, when the Sturbridge Baptist Society was joining with another denomination, it agreed to give the meetinghouse to Old Sturbridge Village in exchange for an organ in their new church. The 1832 structure was then moved to the Village, where it is referred to as the Center Meetinghouse.