INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property
Bolton 131 Forbush Mill Road
Massachusetts Historical Commission
Massachusetts Archives Building
220 Morrissey Boulevard
Boston, Massachusetts 02125 Area(s)
165; Form No.
272
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BY ANNE FORBES, CONSULTANT TO BOLTON HISTORICAL COMMISSION, JUNE 1998:
ASSESSOR'S PARCEL: 5A-12 ACREAGE: 2.65 acres FILM ROLL/NEGATIVE: VII-27-29
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION, cont.
Although the property for this house has been reduced from over sixty acres in 1992 to the present 2.65 acres, its setting still consists of woods and open space, preserving the rural atmosphere it has had since the building was built. In the wooded area directly across the road is the little round pond called the Creampot, with a natural waterfall and assortment of manmade retaining- and foundation walls associated with the mill that once stood there. (See Form #s 938, 939).
An on-site inspection would be necessary to determine which sections of this building may date to the mid-nineteenth century, as its general form and detail are that of a Colonial/Classical Revival house of the late 1890's or early twentieth century. The main part of the house is a large 2 1/2-story building with a high side-gabled, gambrel roof. A slightly lower two-story side wing overlapping the rear northeast corner has a side-gabled roof. Abutting the west end of the house is a flat-roofed screened sunporch on Tuscan columns. Both main roofs are animated by gabled dormers, two on the front slope of the wing roof, three on the main roof; the latter are linked by a decorative X-design balustrade. The main house has a tall brick chimney at either end of the ridge; the wing has a centrally-placed chimney behind the ridge. The main facade
is five bays wide, with 6-over 9-sash, shuttered windows in flat surrounds. A paired 6-over-6 is positioned at a slightly lower second-story level on the front of the east side wall. Most of the windows in the wing, which has a four-bay facade, are 9-over-6-sash, also with wood louvered shutters. The main entry has long 7-pane sidelights, and a transom above it that includes a single pane over each sidelight. This entry has a plain board surround, with a molded, projecting lintel. The front entry of the side wing is recessed under a wide segmental-arched opening with a dentilated cornice. The door there has a single large glass light, and is flanked by full-length, five-pane sidelights. Other trim details on the house include a molded, boxed cornice with returns, a sillboard, and frieze board. On the west gable-end the frieze continues as a wide board across the face of the wall.
One of the most handsome and well-preserved of Bolton's capacious late-nineteenth-century New England barns (#272) stands just east of the house, its main central wagon door in the west gable end, facing the house. Like most in Bolton, this is a "banked" barn, with a full basement story underneath. The long western ramp is supported by a massive fieldstone retaining wall. The building is clad in wood clapboard, has an asphalt roof, and stands on a fieldstone foundation. The main wagon door is of the interior sliding type, with a long transom above the opening. Two smaller vertical-board sliding doors are located in the front of the basement story, facing the street. The windows in the building are primarily 6-over-6-sash.
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE, cont.
While the presence of Benjamin Morse, Jr.'s gristmill on the brook across from this house is recorded as early as 1792, and the old Morse House is shown on maps at this location from 1831 through 1870, no dwelling is shown here on the map of 1898. The little Morse House, which apparently stood just southeast of the present one, was demolished about 1890-98. Photos in the collection of the Bolton Historical Society taken shortly before it was torn down show that it was a very small one-story, four-bay house. It is most likely that farmer Benjamin M. Billings owned the old Morse House when he built the present barn in about 1888. Although he is listed in directories as late as 1898, his name is gone by 1903, indicating that another owner may have constructed the present house.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Whitcomb, E. About Bolton, 1988.
Bolton street directories (in The Hudson Directory).
Bolton Vital Records; cemetery records.
Bolton Historical Society: Photograph files.
Deed of 1822: Worcester County Registry of Deeds.
Research by Grace Butler, Bolton Historical Society.
[ ] Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
If checked, you must attach completed National Register Criteria Statement form is attached.
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