INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property
Bolton 225 Old Bay Road
Massachusetts Historical Commission
Massachusetts Archives Building
220 Morrissey Boulevard
Boston, Massachusetts 02125 Area(s)
Form No.
167; 301
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BY ANNE FORBES, CONSULTANT TO BOLTON HISTORICAL COMMISSION, MAY 1998:
ASSESSOR'S PARCEL: 4B-17 ACREAGE: 13.1 acres FILM ROLL/NEGATIVE: VIII: 10-12
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION, cont. From the exterior, this handsome house has the general appearance of a Federal period house of the first quarter of the nineteenth century which underwent some updating in the second quarter. It is a large 2 1/2-story, five-by two-bay side-gabled house with a two-story central rear wing. A glassed-in porch is aligned along the rear east side of the wing, a shed-roofed addition extends to its rear, and a one-bay-deep shed-roofed extension is set into the northwest angle between the wing and the main house. Two massive chimneys rise from the main roof, the easternmost positioned a short distance behind the ridge. The windows are 6-over-6-sash, set into molded surrounds, with louvered wood shutters. The house trim includes a molded, boxed cornice with returns and a slight roof overhang on the gable ends. The
main center entry, only minimally visible through vegetation along the street, has two-pane, 2/3-length sidelights and a six-panel door with applied moldings. A secondary entry on the east end of the house has narrow divided sidelights, and is sheltered by a heavy hipped-roof canopy on square posts. The canopy, which dates to the twentieth century, was built after a wraparound porch (shown in historic photographs of the building) was removed.
Observers have noted that the framing of the rear wing appears to be older than that of the main house. The building may incorporate what would have been one of the houses standing on the old road to Marlborough prior to the incorporation of Bolton in 1738. Innkeeper Thomas Ball, for instance, had a tavern and dwellings in the vicinity at that time.
A large gable-front "New England" style barn (#301) is located just northeast of the house. Clad in clapboards on the facade, it has board-and-batten siding on the other elevations. Its large vertical-board wagon door, centered on the facade, is of the interior-mounted rolling type, and has the ubiquitous Bolton 6-light window in the center. The six-light barn window is repeated in stanchion windows along the sides of the barn. This is one of two or three barns in Bolton with a large wheel window in the main gable peak; the example here is identical to the one in the barn at 202 Wataquadoc Road (see Area Form L). Close against the east side of the barn is a recently-built or enlarged combination kennel/three-car garage. The property now displays the sign "Autumn Memory Kennels."
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE, cont.
It is not clear whether Asa Holman actually lived in this house, as he and his family had lived at 202 Wataquadoc Road, in the old Josiah Wheeler House (see Form #173), since 1804. It is also not certain who may have built the house, which appears to predate 1830-31, and which may even incorporate a section that dates to the early eighteenth century. It is possible that Mr. Holman acquired the existing farm here for one of his children around the time of his or her marriage. A true entrepreneur, Asa Holman was a farmer, manufactured combs in a small shop still standing at 202 Wataquadoc Road, entered into some joint business ventures with Jacob Houghton and William Woodbury, and was one of many members of the Holman family who bought and sold property in the Bolton area. He acquired hundreds of acres in the vicinity of the intersection
of Wataquadoc and Old Bay Roads (then part of the Marlborough Road), and with the purchase of this property in about 1831 owned at least three houses. Over the years he mortgaged his holdings more and more heavily, however, and it is to be assumed that some unprofitable business transactions led to his bankruptcy in 1842.
Supporting his large family of thirteen children, especially providing dowries for eight daughters, the last of whom was married in 1840, may also have contributed to his financial downfall. He died at the home of his daughter Elvira (Alvira) Whitcomb in Northborough in 1846, at the age of 68.
Asa Holman's property, which had included the old Wheeler farm on Wataquadoc and houses on both sides of Old Bay Road, was divided into smaller parcels at the time it was sold at auction. Seventy-one acres on the east side of Old Bay and bounded by Wataquadoc Road were sold along with this farmhouse and barn.
Who the purchaser of this property was is not known, but the name Houghton is shown as the owner on the map of 1857. This might be a relative of Asa Holman's wife, Rebecca (Houghton), who had died in 1835--possibly one of the children of her brother, Col. Martin Houghton, whose farm had abutted this one to the northeast. By 1870 the owner of 225 Old Bay Road was Dr. H. Gove, and in 1898 the owner was Edward N. Sawyer, who at that time owned a hundred acres here.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Maps and atlases: 1831 (A. Holman); 1857 (Houghton); 1870 (Dr. H. Gove); 1898 (EN Sawyer).
Whitcomb, E. About Bolton, 1988.
Bolton Historical Society: photograph collection.
Bolton street directories (in The Hudson Directory).
Bolton vital records.
[X] 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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