Allen's Tavern
Samuel Allen (b. 1700) had been a merchant in Newbury and Manchester, and is described as "of Gloucester" when he bought a mansionhouse, barn, outbuildings and 147 acres from David Baldwin in 1763. The house is the oldest part: David Baldwin was married in 1737, so 1740 is a reasonable estimate.
Samuel deed half-interest to his son Jeremiah in 1775. Jeremiah married in 1776 and started the tavern trade about this time. The house was an available waystation on the road from Salem to Amherst, NH. By tradition, it did a thriving business during the hey-day of the Middlesex Canal, which ran through the back yard. Jeremiah's daughter Nancy married John Richardson, proprietor of the sawmill a short distance north.
Jeremiah sold half-interest to "Charles H." who was presumably his son Henry in 1830. Jeremiah died in 1837, and Henry maintained the tavern for some time. Henry died in 1876. Hazen refers to the place as the home of "Deacon King" (Samuel H. King) presumably because one of his sons married one of Henry Allen's daughters. In the last hundred years, it has been a private residence, and now a multifamily.
It is said that Jeremiah Allen weighed 400 pounds and a pair of slippers in the Billerica Historical Society attributed to him are consistent with the tradition. There is a Stuart portrait of "Jeremiah Allen" in the Mass Historical Society, which may be this former owner.