The oldest house in town (most likely)

I wanted an older house. That was the thought that was floating around in the back of my mind since we settled into our 1920 bungalow. Technically, we already lived in an old house. But growing up in New England, I was surrounded by some of the oldest homes in the country. You can’t throw a stone without hitting an old house.

I work as a Museum Curator, so it’s not hard to imagine me wanting to live in an “antique,” as our realtor called them. When we first saw the listing for our house, I saw the sign “Spalding House 1664” and thought to myself, “yea, right.” Not because I doubted the house had history, but because many N.E. (New England) houses with 17th century dates have what I like to think of as “squishy originality.” Many claim their origins in the settlement period, but were replaced with later structures on the same site, or built onto so significantly, that they were unrecognizable.

The first real estate photo of our house that I saw.

Before we even saw the house in person, I contacted our local historical society to ask about the property. Their historian promptly responded that it was, indeed 17th century (one of only 9 left in our town). As a historian myself, the house looks like a central hall and parlor style home. That is a fancy way of saying a two story, four room house with a central chimney, that would have a fireplace opening in each room, to heat the whole house. To me, that form is synonymous with later 18th century forms. Many of the 17th century houses that I have seen or read about, started out as much simpler one room structures, with a chimney on the end.

To a certain extent, this is still a mystery in our 1664 house. Did it start out as one room, two, or four? In the process of house buying, I started putting my skills to use, pulling the paperwork the town, state, and historical groups had on the house, the area, and the families that occupied the home. I hope that in sharing our occupation, renovation, and research of our circa 1664 house, we can inspire and intrigue anyone else who might take on one of these venerable old New England gems.

Drawing up my ideas about the earliest part of the house.