FORM B BUILDING Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 8 – 0 – 10 Lowell, DRA.64 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION MA DRA.65 MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town/City: Dracut BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place: (neighborhood or village): East Dracut Photograph Address: 1374 Broadway Road Historic Name: Ellingwood-Richardson House and Barn Uses: Present: Single-family Residential Original: Agricultural Date of Construction: c. 1850 Source: Deeds, visual Style/Form: Italianate / End House Architect/Builder: Unknown Exterior Material: Foundation: Cut granite Wall/Trim: Wood clapboard/ wood Locus Map (North is Up) Roof: Asphalt shingle Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Late 19th century barn, late 20th century shed Major Alterations (with dates): Barn demolished, date unknown (see below) Condition: Excellent Moved: no yes Date: Acreage: 261,360 sq. ft. / 6 acres Setting: Surrounded by farmland in rural East Dracut, with a late 20th century industrial complex less than half a mile to the east. Recorded by: Jennifer B. Doherty Organization: Dracut Historical Commission Date (month / year): February, 2017 12/12 Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET DRACUT 1374 BROADWAY ROAD MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 DRA.64, DRA.65 Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked, you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION: The Ellingwood-Richardson House is a c. 1850 end house with some Italianate features. The house is a small one-and- a-half story end house, two bays wide and two rooms deep. Additional massing includes a cross-gable projecting wing, one-and- a-half stories tall and one pile deep. The wing is flush with the main facade of the house. Behind the cross-gable wing, filling the space between the rear elevation of the wing and the rear elevation of the house, is a single-story shed-roofed ell. This ell extends beyond the right elevation of the cross-gable wing. The house sits on a cut granite foundation, is covered in wood clapboards, and has an asphalt shingle roof. The building is very simple, with deep cornice returns, wide fascia, and six-over-six wood sash typical of its c. 1850 construction date. The main entry door, located in the right bay of the main façade, is covered by a flat roofed hood supported by thick carved brackets. Typical of the Italianate style, this hood was likely added during the third quarter of the nineteenth century, perhaps one of the only exterior changes to the building since its construction. A secondary entrance is located on the main façade of the shed roofed ell where it extends beyond the right elevation of the cross-gable wing. Sited to the right of the house is a late nineteenth century New England type barn. The gable-front barn has a large main door in the gable end with a row of square lights above it. Two six-over-six wood sash are located immediately above the door, lighting the hayloft, with a third six-over-six wood sash above these suggesting a two-level hayloft. 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 nineteenth century and was adopted to increase the efficiency of barn circulation and use of space.1 The barn sits on a fieldstone foundation, is covered in wood clapboards, and has a corrugated metal roof. Windows are visible in the foundation, and an aerial image of the property shows a door at the rear, in the foundation, indicating the lower level of the barn is useable space. Behind the house and barn is a small prefabricated late 20th century shed. The metal building has a shallow corrugated metal gable roof with a set of double doors on the main façade. An undated historic image (see below) shows another end gable building between the house and barn, making the farmstead a true connected farm. 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 Located at the intersection of Broadway and Salem roads, the Ellingwood-Richardson House and Barn faces southeast onto the intersection. The house and barn are sited close to the street on a small rise, as the land slopes away from the street to the north. A paved driveway area is located between the house and the barn. The property is actively farmed, with the land behind the house and barn cleared for cultivation. Large mature trees are located at the sides and rear of the property. 1 Thomas C. Hubka, Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn, The Connected Farm Buildings of New England (UPNE, 1984), 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. 2 Hubka, p. 16. Continuation sheet 1 INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET DRACUT 1374 BROADWAY ROAD MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 DRA.64, DRA.65 HISTORICAL NARRATIVE The Ellingwood-Richardson House was constructed c. 1850 by a member of the Ellingwood family. Robert Ellingwood (d. Feb. 4, 1833) married Phebe Clough on April 5, 1795.3 The couple had twelve children in Dracut, including daughters Lydia (Dec. 29, 1795 – Feb. 18, 1866) and Phebe (Feb. 21, 1811 – Mar. 8, 1883). It is unclear where in Dracut the Ellingwood family lived. In 1847, mother Phebe Clough Ellingwood, by then a widow, sold six acres of land to her daughter Lydia, at the time a single woman.4 The deed does not mention buildings, and uses the same metes and bounds as the most recent deed for the property. In 1850 mother Phebe and daughter Lydia, by then married to a man with the last name Denver, were recorded in the census; although no addresses were given, neighbors on the same census page correspond to names shown on the 1856 Middlesex County map. The house is also marked on that map, listed as “P. Ellingwood.” Mother and daughter are recorded together in the 1860 census. In 1863, Lydia sold the property to her sister Phebe Ellingwood Sherman, listed in the deed as living in Great Falls, New Hampshire with her husband Charles Sherman.5 The Shermans were not located in Dracut records. In 1867, Phebe Ellingwood Sherman sold the property to Charles E. Richardson, and “C. E. Richardson” is marked at the house on the 1875 Middlesex County atlas.6 Charles E. Richardson was listed in the 1880 census; Richardson (b. c. 1845), a farmer, was living with his wife Mary J. (b. c. 1847), and three male boarders.7 The three boarders were hired hands that worked the farm, as recorded in the agricultural census from the same year. Charles E. Richardson had 110 acres split between tillage, pasture, and a woodlot. Like other Dracut farmers, he operated a dairy farm, with 17 milk cows producing 9,125 gallons of milk the previous year. He also had 50 chickens producing 3,000 eggs, and an orchard of 200 apple trees. That same year, Richardson sold the property back to Phebe Sherman, then living in Lowell.8 Following Sherman’s death in 1883, her executor, Edward Ellingwood, sold the property at public auction to I. Summer Richardson.9 That same year, Richardson sold the property to widow Mary F. Lamphere of Lowell.10 In 1887, Lamphere sold the property to Almon Richardson.11 Almon Richardson (Jun. 18, 1854 – Sep. 26, 1939) married Cora B. Moore (b. Maine – d. Jan. 3, 1898) on February 18, 1886 in Lawrence.12 The couple had eight children between 1887 and Cora’s early death in 1898.13 Census records from the early twentieth century show the family living in the Ellingwood-Richardson House. Richardson was consistently listed as a farmer. The 1900 census recorded him living with all his children, following the death of his wife two years earlier. By 1910 three of the children had moved out of the family house. Brothers Fred A. and Delmer E., still living with their father, were listed as odd job laborers. By 1920, Richardson had remarried to a woman named Ida S. All his children had moved out except for Delmer E., who was working as a wool sorter in a woolen mill. By 1930, only Almon and Ida S. Richardson were left in the family house. Following Almon Richardson’s death in 1939, his children conveyed the property to their sister, Cora G. Richardson.14 She owned the property for almost ten years before selling it to new owners15. After a few intervening owners, the Ellingwood- Richardson House and Barn was purchased by John Brox.16 Brox (1910 – 1995) was a lifelong resident of Dracut and worked on 3 The family name is variously spelled Ellingwood, Ellinwood and Ellenwood; Ellingwood is used in deeds, and is used throughout here for consistency.