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INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property
Bolton 50 Bare Hill Road
Massachusetts Historical Commission
Massachusetts Archives Building
220 Morrissey Boulevard
Boston, Massachusetts 02125 Area(s)
Form No.
154
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BY ANNE FORBES, CONSULTANT TO BOLTON HISTORICAL COMMISSION, MARCH 1998:
ASSESSOR'S PARCEL: 7C-2 ACREAGE: 30 acres FILM ROLL/NEGATIVE: V1-31, 32
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION, cont.
This house stands on one of the last of Bolton's many medium-sized farms to be subdivided for houselots. New houses are being built nearby, the house is presently in the process of being dismantled, and a new gable-end barn has been built just south of it.
This is a typical colonial five- by two-bay, 2 1/2-story dwelling. Its large center chimney has recently been removed. Many of the 9-over-6-sash windows (possibly part of the 1940 restoration) have been removed from their flat surrounds; the main door is also no longer in place. The main entry surround is unique in Bolton, suggesting that it may have been brought in from another location when that earlier restoration work was done. It is a high-style, mid-eighteenth-century Georgian type, with fluted pilasters with high bolection-molded capitals that integrate with a pulvinated frieze. The pilasters are set upon high, paneled plinths. Most of the other architectural trim of the house remains in place, including a molded, boxed cornice without overhang at the gable ends, and the top portions of narrow cornerboards.
The house has a granite-block foundation, a wood-shingle roof, and is clad in wood clapboards, large portions of which have been removed, exposing the underlying post-and-beam structure and horizontal sheathing.
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE, cont.
All of Bare Hill Road in Bolton is within the area that would have been set off as part of the town of Harvard if the first petition of the colonists here had been granted. Instead, in 1738, twelve years after Harvard was established with revised boundaries, this area became part of Bolton. By that time, apparently in 1726, Capt. Benjamin Atherton (1701-1786) had built this house on land that he had bought from his brother, James Atherton, Jr. The land, which extended all the way from Green Road north to the present Harvard line, had formerly belonged to their father, James Atherton. Benjamin married Eunice Priest in 1727, and by the time Bolton was incorporated, their first four children had been born here.
Benjamin Atherton was on many committees in the early years of the new town, including the committee to build the first schoolhouse, the one to Provide a Burying Place, and the first Committee to Seat the Meetinghouse. In the span of his long life he signed the first covenant that preceded the building of the first meetinghouse in 1739, the list of grievances drawn up by those who called for the Rev. Thomas Goss's dismissal in 1771, and the renewed covenant that reconciled the dissenting group with the Goss congregation in 1783. In 1725 he had been a soldier in Capt. Samuel Willard's company, and like many of his fellow townsmen he fought during the French and Indian Wars at mid-century, apparently receiving his title of Captain at that time. He saw action under Capt. Asa Whitcomb at Lake George in 1755, and served again under Capt.
Aaron Willard in 1759.
In 1770, Capt. Atherton divided out thirty-three acres of his farm, which he had increased to over 100 acres, to his son, Jonathan (see 310 Green Road, Form #158), and deeded the rest, with all the buildings, including this house, to his son-in-law Nathaniel Holman, Jr. (1733-1805), who had married his daughter, Abigail, in 1760. Nathaniel fought for Bolton in the Revolution, attaining the rank of Lieutenant. The two generations probably lived here together until Capt. Benjamin and Eunice died.
Upon Nathaniel Holman's death in 1805, Nathaniel and Abigail's son, Nathaniel Holman, III (also a soldier in the Revolution), who had married Abigail Houghton in 1792, conveyed the property to her brother, Henry Houghton, possibly in a mortgage-like arrangement. It appears that both Nathaniel III and Abigail, Henry Houghton and his wife, Rhoda, and their families may have lived in the house together with Nathaniel's mother (who retained her rights of "widow's thirds" until she died in 1819). According to Esther Whitcomb, Nathaniel III bought back the entire property from his brother-in-law shortly thereafter. He died in 1821, however, and his son, Charles Houghton, who by then was living in New Hampshire, bought out the other heirs, and sold the farm to Abijah Lawrence (1777-1856) in 1829. Mr. Lawrence also owned the farm at
374 Harvard Road at that time (see Form #160). He was later to buy back the adjoining parcel of land extending to Green Road..
In 1837, 50 Bare Hill Road was purchased by Otis Pollard, and re-sold a few months later to Paul Whitcomb, (1802-1886), who had formerly lived at 96 Green Road (see Form #156). Paul Whitcomb, who owned the farm for nearly fifty years, was the son of Asa and Sarah Whitcomb of 591 Sugar Road. He had two wives, Sophia Nurse (Nourse) of Nourse Road, who died in 1830 at the age of 24, apparently from complications of childbirth, and Mary Mead of Harvard, whom he married the following year. In all, Paul Whitcomb had thirteen children. He was Town Treasurer of Bolton for many years.
After Paul Whitcomb's death, the farm was purchased by Charles E. Small, who owned it for less than five years. In 1890 he sold it to Walter Cole, Bolton's Chief of Police. Under his ownership, the farm still encompassed 65 acres. He moved to Berlin in 1905, where he was Police Chief for about fifty years. Frank Birchall, remembered as a devoted birdwatcher and founder of the Nature Club, bought the farm from Mr. Cole and his wife. Other owners in the early twentieth century included Norman Marshall (purchased 1916), who rented out the farmhouse to tenants, and, after his death in 1933, William E. Clark. Mr. Clark moved to Maine in 1938, however, selling the property to Richard Sparks. Mr. Sparks held several town offices, including serving on the Board of Library Trustees for many years. Mrs. Sparks was a devoted gardener, and did a
considerable amount of landscaping to the property. Mr. and Mrs. Walter Graustein bought the property in 1954, owning it for over thirty years. Mr. Graustein died in 1986.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Maps and atlases: 1831 (A. Lawrence); 1857 (P. Whitcomb); 1870 (P. Whitcomb); 1898 (W. Cole).
Whitcomb, E. About Bolton, 1988.
Bolton street directories (in The Hudson Directory).
Bolton vital records and cemetery records.
[ ] 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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