Harvard – Page 4 – Historic Buildings of Massachusetts

Daby-Bigelow House (1880)

by Dan/May 7, 2014/Harvard, Houses, Victorian Eclectic

The lot at 5 Fairbank Street in Harvard was purchased by Asa Daby (died 1813) in 1797. He built a house there that eventually burned down in 1880. By that time the property was owned by Daby‘s two sons, Asa (1797-1887) and Ethan (1799-1876), who soon built a new house on the site. Asa Daby, Jr. served as town selectman in 1837-42 and 1844-47, was elected a state representative in 1839 and 1841, and was town treasurer from 1847 to 1879. He was also director of the Lancaster Savings Bank. Later occupied by his widow, Kate Daby, the house was purchased in 1907 by Albert H. Bigelow.

Bromfield School (1878)

by Dan/May 7, 2014May 7, 2014/Harvard, Libraries, Romanesque Revival, Schools

The Bromfield School in the town of Harvard was founded by Margaret Bromfield Blanchard (died 1876), who left a bequest in her will to establish a private secondary school. The Romanesque Revival school building, designed by Peabody & Stearns, was built in 1877-1878 at 24 Massachusetts Avenue on the land where the colonial house of Mrs. Blanchard’s great-grandfather, Colonel Henry Bromfield, had once stood. Built as the residence of Rev. John Seccomb, the house became the summer residence of Col. Bromfield in 1767. The house burned down in 1855 and Mrs. Blanchard acquired the land for her future school. The Bromfield School eventually became a public school in 1940. It moved out of the old building in 2003 to a new building (12 Massachusetts Avenue). The Old Bromfield School was then extensively restored and reopened in 2007 with an 11,500-square-foot addition as the new home of the Harvard Public Library (4 Pond Road).

Reuben Whitcomb House & Store (1825)

by Dan/April 1, 2014/Colonial Revival, Commercial, Federal, Harvard, Houses

The house at 11 Fairbank Street in Harvard was built between 1823 and 1831 by Reuben Whitcomb, who used it as both a residence (the south section) and a store (the north section). Whitcomb’s widow sold the building in 1865 to Alfred Farwell, who continued its use as a residence/store. For some years, the store section had been used by Gale and Dickson, owners of the town’s General Store, first for storing grain and then as a roller skating rink! In 1895, W.P. Farwell converted the former store area into a two-family residence. In 1946, Rachel and John McTigue bought the house from Gertrude Farwell Sawyer and restored the building to become the Harvard Inn, which had eight rooms for guests, three dining rooms and two sitting rooms. The Inn was converted to apartments in 1953 and from 1993 to 2012 served as affordable housing for the elderly.

Joseph G. Harwood House (1800)

by Dan/February 4, 2014/Federal, Harvard, Houses

In the late eighteenth-century, a farming community developed along Still River Road in Harvard. The house at 200 Still River Road was built around 1800 by Joseph G. Harwood, who had obtained a license to sell alcohol. Around 1850 the house was acquired by William F. Bateman, who was postmaster of Still River (also a librarian). His widow, Louisa H. Bateman, took over his postmaster duties after his death in 1877. In the 1890s, the house was acquired by Amos H. Keyes and in 1907 by Arthur Hunter, an engineer with the Boston & Albany railroad. It was then owned by F. S. Savage, Sr., author of Memoirs of Old Harvard Days (1924). Savage also sold real estate. For many years it was a double house with a long garage addition on the northeast side. It has since been converted to a single-family home, with a new front entry molding and the old addition shortened.

Harvard Shaker South Family Dwelling House (1846)

by Dan/September 5, 2013September 5, 2013/Harvard, Houses, Organizations, Vernacular

Harvard Shaker Village was divided into separate complexes known as the Church, North, South, and East Families. Among the buildings that survive from the South Family is the large Dwelling House (or Dormitory), constructed in 1846/1848 (its current address is 101 South Shaker Road). It is joined at the rear to the laundry, or washhouse, built in 1823 (or perhaps as early as 1800). With their numbers dwindling in later years, the Shakers sold the building in 1899 and the remaining members of the South Family moved to join the Church family. The Dwelling House was later used as a chicken coop and in the 1940s as a fresh-air camp for city children. In 2003, it was converted into living space. The Dwelling House has a bell tower containing its original bell. The building also retains 65 original windows. Continue reading “Harvard Shaker South Family Dwelling House (1846)”

Harvard Shaker Ministry Shop (1847)

by Dan/September 3, 2013/Greek Revival, Harvard, Houses, Industrial, Organizations

The Ministry’s Shop at Harvard Shaker Village was built in 1847-1848. For half of each month, it was the residence and workplace of the Ministry–the Elders who governed a bishopric that included both the Harvard and Shirley Shaker villages. The building, at 84 Shaker Road in Harvard, is now a private residence. It has a wing and ell that were added in the 1930s by architect Stanley Bruce Elwell.

Harvard Shaker New Office Building (1841)

by Dan/September 3, 2013/Commercial, Greek Revival, Harvard, Houses, Organizations

Replacing an earlier office next door (now at the Fruitlands Museum), the Harvard Shakers built the structure known as the New Office Building (or Second Trustees’ Office) the at 78 Shaker Road in 1840-1841. Here the Harvard Shakers had their dealings with the outside world. The large building housed the community’s Trustees, hired help and visitors (among whom were Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne). A shop on the first floor sold the Shaker Sisters’ fancy work. In 1935/1936, architect Stanley Bruce Elwell remodeled the interior of the building as a summer residence for Robert Treat Paine. The novelist Thomas Wolfe was once interested in buying the house which, like the other buildings of the Harvard Shaker Village, remains a private residence.