Some Old Houses In Westborough Mass And Their Occupants

Author : Westborough Historical Society
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781332159352
Total Pages : 88 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (593 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book More Old Houses in Westborough, and Vicinity written by Westborough Historical Society and published by . This book was released on 2015-08-04 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from More Old Houses in Westborough, and Vicinity: With Their Occupants The birthplace of Eli Whitney is only a memory. The picture reveals an edifice not unlike scores of others erected a hundred and fifty years ago by the moderate well-to-do in Massachusetts. The front, having two windows and a large door between them in the first story with three windows symmetrically placed in the second and the top of a great central chimney peering above the ridge of the roof, constituted a combination which a hundred years since might have been duplicated scores of times in a day's ride through Worcester and Middlesex counties. The scant cornice, the limited number of windows in the ends of the structure and the rear roof descending almost to the ground indicated not only a somewhat meager purse but schemes of convenience and household economy quite unknown to builders of later days. The trees and the numerous out buildings tell of thrift and some ideas of beauty as well as utility. The shop where the Cotton-gin inventor did his early experimenting, probably does not appear in the cut, unless that portion nearest the West end of the house be the part in question. Though no complete description of the interior, so far as known, is in existence, it doubtless had the usual small hall with doors on each side opening into rooms at the right and left with a winding stairway leading to the chambers above. Through these first floor rooms, dwellers must pass to the bedrooms and pantry and kitchen which were found in the rear of the house. The second floor was capable of many subdivisions according to the number and needs of the hired help and the children. The great chimney gave promise of at least three, and possibly four fire places in its first story and two or three in the second. The edifice was certainly well ventilated and was built to last indefinitely. Only a lack of paint and the utmost carelessness could cause the decadence of such old time houses. Miss Maria Grout of Westboro remembers the old house and her description of the interior, though the same vanished more than fifty years ago, furnishes the basis of the foregoing verbal picture. Occupied by at least four generations of people, were it not for its single notable dweller, it is probable the edifice and all that surrounded it would have faded away without a word of comment or of regret from the world at large, just as hundreds of other houses, having had their day and then, grown "eild and sair forfairn," have disappeared, leaving "not a rack behind." Erected in 1728, it stood for one hundred and twenty-six years, for it was not till 1854 it gave place to the more modern house which now occupies the ancient site. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.