![\"\"](\"http:\/\/mass.historicbuildingsct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Babson-Alling-House.jpg\")
<\/center><\/p>\nThe Cape Ann Museum<\/a> in Gloucester purchased<\/a> the Babson-Alling House<\/a> in February 2019 and the historic home<\/a> is currently undergoing restoration<\/a> to become part of a new museum campus<\/a> that will include a new storage and programming facility, slated to open in June 2020<\/a>. Located at the modern address of 243\/245 Washington Street<\/a>, the house was built in 1740 by Joseph Allen<\/a> (1681-1750) or his son, William Allen<\/a> (1717-1815), at what was then the town center, called the Green, adjacent to the White-Ellery House<\/a>, also owned by the museum. In 1765, William Allen sold the house to Isaac Smith<\/a> (1719-1797), a wealthy Boston merchant and slave owner who was the uncle of Abigail Adams<\/a>. Scipio Dalton was an enslaved person<\/a> who is thought to have lived in the attic of the house. He eventually gained his freedom<\/a> from Smith in 1783 after a period of indenture<\/a>.<\/p>\n Smith sold the house<\/a> in 1779 to John Low, Jr.<\/a> (1754-1801), a merchant and lieutenant in the militia. The house passed to his daughter, Eliza Gorham Low<\/a> (1786-1862), who married Nathaniel Babson<\/a> (1784-1836), a merchant and ship captain, in 1809. The house was eventually inherited by their son Gustavus Babson<\/a> (1820-1897). Most of his brothers became seafarers, but Gustavus<\/a> was a successful farmer on the property. He married his first cousin, Susan Stanwood Low<\/a> (1820-1880). Their daughter, Ann Prentiss Babson Alling<\/a>, moved to the house after the death of her husband in 1894 and maintained the property with her brother Nathaniel. Her daughter, Elizabeth L. Alling<\/a>, also lived in the house for many years. The house may have been a stop on the Underground Railroad before the Civil War. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Cape Ann Museum in Gloucester purchased the Babson-Alling House in February 2019 and the historic home is currently undergoing restoration to become part of a new museum campus that will include a new storage and programming facility, slated to open in June 2020. Located at the modern address of 243\/245 Washington Street, the house was built in 1740 by Joseph Allen (1681-1750) or his son, William Allen (1717-1815), at what was then the town center, called the Green, adjacent to the White-Ellery House, also owned by the museum. In 1765, William Allen sold the house to Isaac Smith (1719-1797), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,209,8],"tags":[18,113],"class_list":["post-8468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-colonial","category-gloucester","category-houses","tag-museum","tag-underground-railroad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mass.historicbuildingsct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mass.historicbuildingsct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mass.historicbuildingsct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mass.historicbuildingsct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mass.historicbuildingsct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8468"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/mass.historicbuildingsct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8498,"href":"https:\/\/mass.historicbuildingsct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8468\/revisions\/8498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mass.historicbuildingsct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mass.historicbuildingsct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mass.historicbuildingsct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/mass.historicbuildingsct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/245-Washington-St-Gloucester.jpg\")
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