FORM A - AREA Assessor’s Sheets USGS Quad Area Letter Form Numbers in Area
44 – 0 – 99 Lowell, E DRA.2 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 44 – 0 – 100 MA DRA.110- 112 MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING Formerly Area B 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Photograph Town/City: Dracut
Place (neighborhood or village): Collinsville
Name of Area: Osgood-Cutter Farm Present Use: Riding Stable
Construction Dates or Period: c. 1850-1980s
Overall Condition: Good
Major Intrusions and Alterations: Stable added c. 1985, indoor riding arena added 2000s
Acreage: 31.34 acres Recorded by: Jennifer B. Doherty
Organization: Dracut Historical Commission
Date (month/year): April, 2017 Locus Map (North is Up)
see continuation sheet
4 / 1 1 Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form. INVENTORY FORM A CONTINUATION SHEET DRACUT OSGOOD-CUTTER FARM
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area Letter Form Nos. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 B DRA.2, DRA.110-112
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, structural and landscape features and evaluate in terms of other areas within the community.
The Osgood-Cutter Farm includes a historic c. 1850 house as well as more recent buildings related to its use as a riding stable. The c. 1850 Atis Osgood House, 746 Mammoth Road, is a two-story T-plan building composed of two gabled sections set perpendicular to each other, forming a T. The T is slightly offset, with the stem placed further to the right where it intersects with the top. Entries are located on either side of the stem of the T, near where it joins the top section of the house. Both are sheltered by shed roofed open porches supported by a single square column. This means that the main street-facing elevation formed by the base of the T does not have any entry, but rather a single-story flat roof polygonal bay. This places the house within a category identified by Hubka as the “Parlor By-Pass Plan,” whereby “[i]n a unique entry sequence, the front room or parlor nearest the street was ‘by-passed’ by an entrance porch leading to the second room, usually a type of entry-dining room.” In some cases, in more elaborate examples, the entry opened into a transverse circulation hall in the center of the building, as appears to be the case here.1 The building sits on a cut granite foundation, is covered in wood clapboards, and has an asphalt shingle roof.
While the ells and barn behind it are very simple, with no trim or ornamentation (more below), the main house has elaborate trim representative of the transition between the Greek Revival and Italianate styles. The three gable ends have full cornice returns that form enclosed pediments in the manner of a Greek temple, with wide, monumental paneled pilasters on the corners of the building that support a heavy cornice composed of a wide entablature and large dentils that line the building’s eaves and tympanums. The dentils are repeated on the two entry porches. The two-over-two wood sash windows are capped by a deep cornice and are framed by operable shutters. The first-story windows are a remarkable height, reaching almost to the floor. Narrow arched attic lights decorate each tympanum, a characteristic of the Italianate style. The entry doors are surrounded by full sidelights and transoms.
The house is extended at the rear by a series of ells that connect it to a large barn. 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 nineteenth 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.2
At the Atis Osgood House, a one-and-a-half story cross-gable ell extends from the right rear corner of the house. Aerial images show a gabled wall dormer centered on the left roof elevation, with a polygonal bay underneath. Beyond this is a smaller one-story gabled garage, which connects to the large gabled late-nineteenth-century barn. The barn, with its gable oriented perpendicular to the ells, has its main drive door located in the gable end. The location of the main door
1 Thomas C. Hubka, Houses Without Names, Architectural Nomenclature and the Classification of America’s Common Houses (University of Tennessee Press, 2013) p. 55. 2 Thomas C. Hubka, Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn, The Connected Farm Buildings of New England (UPNE, 1984) p. 16.
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MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area Letter Form Nos. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 B DRA.2, DRA.110-112
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 nineteenth century and was adopted to increase the efficiency of barn circulation and use of space.3 The barn is covered in wood shingles and has a large multi-pane transom over the main drive doors at either end. Other multi-pane wood sash are visible, such as six-over-six sash in the gable ends above the drive doors.
By 1985, the owners of the Osgood-Cutter Farm had added a stable with 14 stalls to the property south of the main house (this building is in the center of the property south of the main house and connected barn, see locus map, also with an address of 746 Mammoth Road). This two-story gabled building has two large gabled wall dormers centered on each side elevation where they break the eave, marking a pass-through breezeway that breaks the building into two sections. Six-over-one windows with shutters give the building an almost residential appearance. The gabled wall dormers are capped by a cupola. The building is shielded from the street by a line of mature trees. Further south is a pre-fabricated indoor riding arena with its own address at 710 Mammoth Road, constructed recently. The rectangular building has a gable roof with its end oriented towards the street. Three cupolas sit at the ridgeline of the roof. The farm’s website notes that it is new and 84’ by 210’.
The Osgood-Cutter Farm sits on the west side of Mammoth Road at its intersection with Nashua Road. The house is sited close to the street, fully visible from both roads. The house, ells, and barn form a barnyard that is open to the south. A stone wall lines the property along Mammoth Road, with square granite markers on either side of the entrance to a driveway that leads to the barnyard. Behind the house are several horse paddocks with wood fencing, and a fenced outdoor riding ring is located between the 1980s barn and the new indoor arena. There are mature trees scattered around the property, and dirt and paved paths connect the different sections of the farm to each other (see aerial image, below).
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE Explain historical development of the area. Discuss how this relates to the historical development of the community.
The land in the area of the Osgood-Cutter Farm was historically associated with the Osgood family, who lived in the c. 1700 Coburn – Solomon Osgood – Cutter House at 710 Mammoth Road (DRA.1, demolished 1980s). In 1853, William F. Osgood sold his son Atis Osgood (1829-1895) a 38-acre parcel of land on the west side of the intersection of Mammoth and Nashua roads.4 William F. and Atis Osgood were recorded in the 1850 census as farmers; Atis Osgood is listed in the 1855 state census as a civil engineer. This remarkable house is discussed at length by Paquet, who relates its colorful early history:
One of the Osgoods [presumably Atis or a brother], using a New York architect’s design, built a house for his mother…the house had some surprising features. So much glass was installed that people called it the Crystal Palace. When money ran out, it then became known as Osgood’s Folly. It contains the first bay window in Dracut. The wallpaper [was] the hand-painted product of the Zuber Brothers.5
If true, some of this reveals local attitudes of the period in response to the social aspirations displayed by the house’s patrons.
3 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. 4 MCNRD Dracut Book 15, Page 76, August 2, 1853. Ancestry.com: Dracut vital records; Massachusetts State Census of Population for 1855; US Federal Census of Population for 1850. 5 Paquet, Donat H. The Photographic History of Dracut, Massachusetts. (Dracut: Dracut Historical Society, Inc., 1982) p. 125.
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MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area Letter Form Nos. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 B DRA.2, DRA.110-112
After Osgood’s ownership, the house passed through a series of owners before being purchased by Van Rensselaer Warren of Somerville, who is marked on the 1875 map in the location.6 He sold the property to his son Van Rensselaer Warren, Jr., who in 1882 sold it to Annie G. Cutter.7 The property then stood at 25 acres. Annie G. Macomber (1859-1951) married Charles H. Cutter (1847-1921) on January 17, 1880.8 The couple had four children: Victor Macomber (1881-1952), Edna (1885-1968), Esther (b. 1891), and Lois (1898-1983). The 1900 census recorded the family together on Mammoth Road, with Charles H. Cutter working as a market gardener. They were joined by five employees working as garden laborers (no birth dates given): Julius Vrevel of France, Arthur Knox of Vermont, Thomas Lenke and Mathew Sher of Scotland. The family was living alone in 1910, with Charles H. Cutter working as a farmer, Victor Cutter working as the superintendent of a fruit company, and Edna Cutter teaching at a botany school.
Edna Cutter was a 1908 graduate of Smith College, receiving a Master’s degree in horticulture from Cornell in 1912. She later taught at Smith and the Lowthrope School of Landscape Gardening in Groton. During World War I, she worked at the Crane Estate in Ipswich teaching “farmerettes.” She returned to the family farm after the war where she raised purebred Guernsey cows and Cocker and Springer spaniels. She was active in the Dracut and Pelham historical societies and many local garden clubs, and gave lectures on horticultural subjects.
In 1920, Edna, then working as a consulting gardener, was living with her parents and sister Lois. By 1930, only Annie G. Cutter and her daughter Edna were in the house, with Edna working as the farm’s proprietor. In 1940, the residents of the house had increased with the addition of Lois Cutter Carrington and her family. Lois Cutter was married to Mayo Carrington (born c. 1892), an administrator for the WPA, and the couple had two children, Nancy (born c. 1929) and Mayo Jr. (born c. 1931). Later newspaper articles indicate that Lois Cutter Carrington and family lived in the subject house, while her sister Edna Cutter eventually removed to the older Coburn – Solomon Osgood – Cutter House at 710 Mammoth Road.
In 1949, Annie G. Cutter conveyed an eight-acre parcel around the Atis Osgood House to herself and her daughter Lois Cutter Carrington.9 Following her mother’s death, Lois Cutter Carrington conveyed the property to herself and her husband Mayo Carrington.10 In the 1960s, much of the property to the south, at 710 Mammoth Road, was purchased by George Demoulas and later sold to his son, Evan. George Demoulas was the brother of Telemachus “Mike” Demoulas, who founded the supermarket chain that takes the family’s name; Evan worked in marketing for the family company. The Atis Osgood House and the eight-acre parcel around it was acquired by Evan G. and Arthur S. Demoulas in 1983.11 The Demoulas’ cousin Marina Kokinos and her husband George opened a riding stable on the property, maintaining the historic Cutter Farm name. The property is operated today as a riding stable owned by Cutter Farms Investment LLC.12
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
1856 Henry F. Walling, Map of Middlesex County, Massachusetts 1875 F. W. Beers, County Atlas of Middlesex, Massachusetts. 1889 Geo. H. Walker & Co., Atlas of Middlesex County, Massachusetts.
6 MCNRD Book 88, Page 505, September 7, 1872 7 MCNRD Book 136, Page 415, December 1, 1879; MCNRD Book 151, Page 589, April 20, 1882 8 Ancestry.com: Dracut, Lowell vital records; Find-A-Grave; US Federal Census of Population for 1900, 1920, 1930, 1940. The Lowell Sun: “Edna Cuter Dies at 82,” 15 January 1968; “Lois Carrington, church, civic leader,” 9 July 1983; “To the hunt! Fox-hunting comes to Dracut’s Cutter farm,” 22 May 1985. 9 MCNRD Book 1114, Page 327, May 9, 1949 10 MCNRD Book 1893, Page 651, July 25, 1969 11 MCNRD Book 2582, Page 408, January 10, 1983 12 MCNRD Book 23799, Page 29, March 9, 2010; MCNRD Book 24352, Page 232, October 7, 2010
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MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area Letter Form Nos. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 B DRA.2, DRA.110-112
Ancestry.com: see footnotes Carrington, Lois Cutter. “DRA.2 – Otis Osgood Jr. House,” Massachusetts Historical Commission Building Inventory Form. Undated. Coburn, Silas R. History of Dracut, Massachusetts. Lowell, MA: The Courier-Citizen Co., 1922. “The Cutter Farm,” https://www.cutterfarm.com/index.htm. Cutter, William Richard, A. M. Historic Homes and Places and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Volume IV. New York, NY: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1908. Middlesex County North Registry of Deeds (MCNRD): see footnotes Paquet, Donat H. “DRA.2 – Otis Osgood Jr. House,” Massachusetts Historical Commission Building Inventory Form. For the Dracut Historical Commission. 11 August 1989.
AREA DATA SHEET
MHC # Assessor’s # Street Street Name Historic Name Form Style Date # DRA.2 44 – 0 – 99 746 Mammoth Road Atis Osgood Greek Revival/ c. 1840 House Italianate 44 – 0 – 99 746 Mammoth Road Demoulas Stable Colonial c. 1985 Stable Revival 44 – 0 – 100 710 Mammoth Road Indoor Riding Indoor Riding No style c. 2000 Arena Arena
4 / 1 1 Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form. INVENTORY FORM A CONTINUATION SHEET DRACUT OSGOOD-CUTTER FARM
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area Letter Form Nos. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 B DRA.2, DRA.110-112
Aerial image of the Osgood-Cutter Farm. From Bing.com/maps.
4 / 1 1 Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form. INVENTORY FORM A CONTINUATION SHEET DRACUT OSGOOD-CUTTER FARM
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area Letter Form Nos. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 B DRA.2, DRA.110-112
The north and east elevation of the Atis Osgood House.
The modern indoor riding arena at the Osgood-Cutter Farm.
4 / 1 1 Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form. INVENTORY FORM A CONTINUATION SHEET DRACUT OSGOOD-CUTTER FARM
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area Letter Form Nos. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 B DRA.2, DRA.110-112
National Register of Historic Places Criteria Statement Form
Check all that apply:
Individually eligible Eligible only in a historic district
Contributing to a potential historic district Potential historic district
Criteria: A B C D
Criteria Considerations: A B C D E F G
Statement of Significance by______Jennifer B. Doherty______The criteria that are checked in the above sections must be justified here.
The Osgood-Cutter Farm is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing property to a larger Mammoth Road historic district. The Osgood-Cutter Farm is part of a cluster of historic farmsteads on Mammoth Road, most of which retain their historic acreage and which are still used for agricultural purposes. Although some of the historic acreage associated with the property has been subdivided, land around the Osgood-Cutter Farm is still cultivated and used for equestrian purposes, and the property generally retains integrity of workmanship, design, materials, association, location, setting, and feeling. The Osgood-Cutter Farm has been in agricultural use continuously since the house’s construction c. 1850, and is significant as an example of rural residential and barn construction in Dracut from the late nineteenth century. The Atis Osgood House on the property is also notable as an early architect-designed building that combines elements of the Greek Revival and Italianate styles.
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