FORM B BUILDING Assessor’S Number USGS Quad Area(S) Form Number
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FORM B BUILDING Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 44 – 0 – 107 Lowell, DRA.76 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION MA DRA.77 MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town/City: Dracut BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place: (neighborhood or village): Photograph Address: 737 Mammoth Road Historic Name: Thomas H. Connell House Uses: Present: Single-family Residential Original: Single-family Residential Date of Construction: 1875-1884 Source: Maps, deeds Style/Form: Italianate / End House Architect/Builder: Unknown Exterior Material: Foundation: Cut granite Wall/Trim: Wood/ wood Locus Map (North is Up) Roof: Asphalt shingle Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Low wood and stone fence at front property line Major Alterations (with dates): None Condition: Excellent Moved: no yes Date: Acreage: 43,560 sq. ft. Setting: In a still-rural area of Dracut with several farms directly abutting the property, on the well-traveled Mammoth Road. A former piece of the property has been developed (see below) with a group of recent condominium units immediately to the north. Recorded by: Jennifer B. Doherty Organization: Dracut Historical Commission Date (month / year): December, 2016 12/12 Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET DRACUT 737 MAMMOTH ROAD MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 DRA.76 DRA.77 Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked, you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form. Use as much space as necessary to complete the following entries, allowing text to flow onto additional continuation sheets. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION: Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community. The Thomas H. Connell House is an Italianate style end house connected by a series of ells to a large gable-front barn. Constructed between 1875 and 1884, the house sits on the east side of Mammoth Road, facing west across the street. The main body of the house is a two-and-a-half-story end house with a side-passage plan. Its three-bay width and two-pile depth likely encloses two major interior spaces per story with circulation space on the north side. Extending south from the southeast (right-rear) corner of the house is a side-gabled wing, two stories tall and one pile deep. Extending east (rearward) from the south (right) end of the ell is a one-story shed-roofed ell connecting to a large gable-front barn. The ell steps down from a level equal to the floor level of the main body to an at-grade side entrance with a door and flanking windows, indicating a woodshed or other work space. A single-story open porch with a hipped roof lines the south, right-side elevation of the house and wraps around to the main façade of the side-gabled wing. The house sits on a cut granite visible foundation, is covered in wood clapboards, and has an asphalt shingle roof. Although the shed-roofed ell has what appears to be a concrete foundation, its building fabric and step-down plan suggests it is an original or early feature. This configuration of connected wings, ells and sheds between the main house and barn has been identified by Hubka as the Connected New England Farm Building type. This type of building organization developed during the second half of the 19th century throughout southern New England including southwest Maine and New Hampshire and northeast Massachusetts, but spread in lesser concentrations throughout the region. According to Hubka Two influences were critical to the popularization of the New England connected farm: first, a manor house tradition of Georgian and Federal style estates that employed extended outbuilding wings in a classical villa style, and second, a folk or vernacular building tradition of English origin in which domestic and agrarian structures were attached or closely clustered.1 The Connell House retains several Italianate-style features. The double-leaf main entry doors are original, with glazing in the upper half. The doors are covered by paired screen doors that may also be original. Above the doors is a flat hood supported by elaborate jig-sawn brackets. The windows on the house are two-over-two wood sash that appear to be original; they are covered by exterior storm windows and framed by shutters on the main façade and south elevation. The windows are topped by a Classical style entablature. Deep returns at the eaves sit above wide corner boards with a recessed panel in the middle. The posts and balusters on the porch are turned, suggesting the porch is a later-19th century addition. The large gable-front barn to the southeast (right-rear) of the house likely dates to the same period of construction. Roughly two stories tall, the barn has a large door on the main gabled façade with a row of small, square lights above. A smaller entry door is located to either side of the main entry. Two one-over-one sash windows are located in the gable end. The location of the main door in the narrower gabled elevation of the barn identifies it as an example of the New England barn type, as opposed to the earlier English barn type, in which the main entrance and carriage drive is located in the broader eave elevation. The New England barn emerged during the early 19th century and was adopted to increase the efficiency of barn circulation and use of space.2 Sited close to the street, the Connell House historically had a large lot that extended east from the street. The lot was subdivided in the twenty-first century. A wood fence with stone posts at the driveway and main walkway runs along the front property line. 1 Thomas C. Hubka, Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn, The Connected Farm Buildings of New England (UPNE, 1984) p. 16. 2 Hubka, pp. 52-56; see also Thomas Durant Visser, Field Guide to New England Barns and Farm Buildings (UPNE, 1997) pp. 74-75 and John Michael Vlach, Barns (W.W. Norton, 2003) pp. 33-45. Continuation sheet 1 INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET DRACUT 737 MAMMOTH ROAD MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 DRA.76 DRA.77 HISTORICAL NARRATIVE Discuss the history of the building. Explain its associations with local (or state) history. Include uses of the building, and the role(s) the owners/occupants played within the community. The Thomas H. Connell House was constructed between 1875 and 1884. While the house does not appear on the 1875 map of Dracut, an 1884 deed mentions buildings on the property. Thomas H. Connell was likely the first owner of the property, although it is unclear when he purchased it. A deed to him, from Hiram Whitney of Westford and Henry L. Tibbetts of Lowell, notes that the previous deed is “to be recorded.”3 This 1884 deed transferred to Connell eighteen acres of property “with the buildings thereon” for $3800, suggesting the Connell House had already been built. Thomas H. Connell (1848 – Jul. 11, 1901) lived in Dracut with his wife Edwina J. and their three children: Laura E. (b. 1875), George H. (b. 1877), and Alice (b. Jul. 15, 1878).4 Connell’s obituary notes that he was a “well-known contractor” and “a successful contractor in county and city buildings.” However information was found on only two of his buildings: the Pawtucket Congregational Church in Lowell (LOW.790) and the Middlesex County Registry of Deeds Buildings in East Cambridge (CAM.379). Both projects suffered from serious setbacks and delays. At the Pawtucket Congregational Church, on February 11, 1899, Connell set a fire on the floor of what was to be the ladies’ parlor to help fresh plaster dry. However drafts and extreme cold caused the fire to burn through the bricks and spread to the floor beneath. The fire caused an estimated $10,000, as the building was nearly complete.5 More serious issues arose at the Middlesex County Registry of Deeds Building in East Cambridge, where there were “many vexatious delays” in the work.6 Connell was hired as the lead contractor for the project begun in spring 1897, and was responsible for the numerous subcontractors on the project. The delays were largely due to masonry work on the building as well as weather issues. It appears the work was still not done by May 9, 1899 when Connell’s many creditors met to agree to a settlement of his debts.7 Connell’s debts amounted to about $92,000, with his assets around the same. Connell’s settlement with his creditors was recorded at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds, and refers to the still- in-progress Registry of Deeds building in East Cambridge.8 Connell’s creditors took control of all his property, including the Connell House in Dracut. His trustee, Gen. Edgar A. Champlin, sold the Connell House and its eighteen acres back to Connell’s wife Edwina J. Connell on July 16, 1900, a few months after Connell’s settlement.9 In 1902, after her husband’s death, Edwina J. Connell sold the property to John B. Shaw of Lowell.10 Shaw is listed in a 1903 directory at the address as a dyer.11 In 1907, the Connell House and eighteen acres of property were purchased by Agnes J. Boland from John B. Shaw.12 The Boland family would live in the house for all of the twentieth century. Boland (b. 1881) and her husband Patrick Boland (1866 – 1955) were Irish immigrants.13 They had two children, Richard M.