The 1790 House, also called the Joseph Bartlett House or the Bartlett–Wheeler House, is a

historic house A historic house generally meets several criteria before being listed by an official body as "historic." Generally the building is at least a certain age, depending on the rules for the individual list. A second factor is that the building be i ...

located at 827 Main Street,

Woburn, Massachusetts Woburn ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,876 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Woburn is located north of Boston. Woburn uses Massachusetts' ...

, and listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. It is close to the Baldwin House, with the

Middlesex Canal The Middlesex Canal was a 27-mile (44-kilometer) barge canal connecting the Merrimack River with the port of Boston. When operational it was 30 feet (9.1 m) wide, and 3 feet (0.9 m) deep, with 20 locks, each 80 feet (24 m) long and between 10 ...

running between them. The 1790 House, originally on Main Street, has been moved closer to the canal to make room for a hotel. It now faces more south than its original facing of southwest.

History

The

Federal style Federal-style architecture is the name for the classical architecture built in the United States following the American Revolution between 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815, which was influenced heavily by the works of And ...

house was originally built in 1790 on the banks of the

, for Woburn lawyer Joseph Bartlett. Shortly before completion it was purchased by Col.

Loammi Baldwin Colonel Loammi Baldwin ( – October 20, 1807) was a noted American engineer, politician, and a soldier in the American Revolutionary War. He is known as one of the earliest American civil engineers. His son, Loammi Jr., has been called "the ...

, noted engineer, who hoped to convince expatriate scientist and inventor

Benjamin Thompson Colonel (United Kingdom), Colonel Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (26 March 175321 August 1814), was an American-born British military officer, scientist and inventor. Born in Woburn, Massachusetts, he sup ...

, Count Rumford, to return to his home town. Although this idea never came to fruition, author

Frances Parkinson Keyes Frances Parkinson Keyes (July 21, 1885 – July 3, 1970) was an American author who wrote about her life as the wife of a U.S. Senator and also wrote novels set in New England, Louisiana, and Europe. A convert to Roman Catholicism, her later w ...

, who later spent childhood summers in the home, refers to it repeatedly in her memoirs as the Count Rumford House. The house also features in her autobiography, ''Roses in December''. In 1815 Hall Jackson Kelley conducted a private school for boys in the house, and there he first read the newly published ''Journals of

Lewis and Clark Lewis may refer to: Names * Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname Music * Lewis (musician), Canadian singer * " Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohe ...

''. Kelley conceived a passion for the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

and became the prime advocate of the United States settlement of

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

. He then migrated west to become a legendary "

mountain man A mountain man is an Geographical exploration, explorer who lives in the wilderness and makes his living from hunting, fishing and trapping. Mountain men were most common in the North American Rocky Mountains from about 1810 through to the 1880s ...

" and explorer. The house was purchased by the BNMC MA Realty LLC in March 2014. Previously, the house was owned by Woburn Daily Times Inc since 1981 and is currently used as office space. Before that it was owned by the North Congregational Church of Woburn, and used as a Sunday School.

Structure

The structure stands two stories tall beneath a

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downward to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope, with variants including Tented roof, tented roofs and others. Thus, a hipped roof has no gables or other ve ...

, seven bays wide and four bays deep. It is of frame construction covered with clapboard, except at the front where it is imitation

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

; wood

quoin Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th-century encyclopedia, ...

s ornament its corners. A two tier Doric porch projects from the front facade, with single-story Tuscan pillars supporting the porch, and two-story Doric pillars at the corners. The upper level has a balustrade with Chinese railings. The two sides and rear also contain entrances, and the rear facade was once graced with a large

Palladian window Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Republic of Venice, Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetr ...

. (As of 2005, the rear facade seems to have been obliterated in a large-scale extension to the building.) There are two interior end chimneys. At one time there was a large barn filled with old books behind the building; this was torn down in the late 1960s.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Houses completed in 1790 Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Middlesex County, Massachusetts Buildings and structures in Woburn, Massachusetts Federal architecture in Massachusetts Historic district contributing properties in Massachusetts

History

Structure

See also

References