The Thomas Hobbs Jr. House is a historic house on Wells Street in
North Berwick, Maine
North Berwick is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The town was set off from Berwick in 1831, following South Berwick in 1814.
North Berwick's population was 4,978 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Portland– South Portla ...
. Built in 1763, it is one of the town's oldest surviving houses, and was for many years a tavern and social center of the community. it was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
in 1982.
Description and history
The Hobbs House is located on the south side of Wells Street (
Maine State Route 9
State Route 9 (SR 9) is a numbered state highway in Maine, running from the New Hampshire border at Berwick in the west to the Canada–US border with New Brunswick at Calais in the east. SR 9 runs a total of .
Route description
Sta ...
), just east of its junction with Elm Street (
Maine State Route 4
State Route 4 (SR 4) is a long state highway located in southern and western Maine. It is a major interregional route and the first such route to be designated in the state. The southern terminus is at the New Hampshire border in South Berwick, ...
) and west of the
Great Works River
The Great Works River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed June 30, 2011 river in southwestern Maine in the United States. It rises in central York County and flows gen ...
in North Berwick's village center. It is a -story wood-frame structure, five bays wide, with a side-gable roof, central chimney, clapboard siding, and a fieldstone foundation. The main entrance is sheltered by a small hip-roofed portico that is a later addition. The building has no significant styling: its upper windows butting against the eave in a typical Georgian fashion, and it has simple narrow corner boards and window trim. A single-story ell extends to the rear of the main block.
The house was built in 1763 for Thomas Hobbs Jr., a veteran of the
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...
. It became known locally as The Hostelry, because Hobbs provided food and lodging to travelers. Hobbs and his descendants were also active in local civic affairs, serving in the state legislature, and in the 1819 constitutional convention convened to draft Maine's constitution in advance of statehood. The house is now a private residence.
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See also
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hobbs, Thomas Jr., House
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine
Houses completed in 1763
Houses in York County, Maine
North Berwick, Maine
National Register of Historic Places in York County, Maine