Bennett Hall

Bennett Hall was a country estate on the west side of Boston Road (the old "Long Street," called Main Street in the deeds) just north of the later Howe High School lot, running from the road down a sloping meadow to the Concord River. For more than a century it was the homestead of the Boston distiller Joshua Bennett and his descendants, the Holdens; it was then a private school, an inn, and from 1934 to 1954 Camp Naomi, before the land was cut up as Woodside Manor Estates in 1956. The house at 2 Good St stands on lot 1 of that subdivision.

Before 1806 the riverside land belonged to the Baldwin family. William Baldwin Sr. died intestate about 1763 (his widow Mary administered the estate), and in 1773 his son John Baldwin of Andover sold his share of "the two thirds of the real estate that was my Fathers" to his brothers William and Thomas. When the younger William Baldwin, gentleman, died in 1802, his inventory listed "Forty five Acres on the west side the way" with no buildings, separate from "Five Acres of Land with the Buildings on the same." In May 1806 his administrator, Thomas Baldwin, sold the riverside tract, "forty acres and twenty two rods," bounded by the Concord River on the west and "the great highway" on the east, to Dr. Jacob Kittredge, physician. On December 15, 1806 Francis Pollard, administrator of Oliver and Mary Baldwin of Tewksbury, sold Kittredge three more acres of road frontage. That small deed is the "earliest record" of the estate named in the 1912 account, but most of the land came from the William Baldwin estate.

Neither 1806 deed mentions buildings. By July 20, 1811, when Kittredge sold the farm of "about forty eight acres" to Joseph Blake of Boston, Esquire, for $4,900, it came "with all the buildings thereon standing," so the house was most likely built by Dr. Kittredge between 1806 and 1811. Blake made it his homestead and died there in 1818. His will was proved that August; the commissioners set off to his widow Huldah Blake about three-quarters of an acre "with all the buildings thereon" as her dower, and the court licensed the executor, George Blake, to sell the rest for debts.

At a public auction in Billerica on July 24, 1821, Joshua Bennett of Boston, distiller, bid $1,171.45 for 43 acres of the Blake homestead running from the county road to the river (deed dated August 15, 1821). On September 1, 1821 he paid the widow $1,950 for her three-quarter acre "with a dwelling house and all the other buildings," on the highway "leading from Billerica Meeting house to Amherst." The house therefore predates the Bennett purchase; 1821 is the year it became Bennett's. Bennett lived there for 44 years. From this house his daughter Rebecca married William Wilkins Warren, a merchant of St. Thomas, in 1836. Bennett died in August 1865 without a will, leaving his widow Eleanor and two daughters, Ellen B. Holden (wife of George Holden) and Rebecca B. Warren. On December 12, 1865 the daughters and their husbands gave "all that certain farm, mansion house and buildings ... formerly the homestead of the said Joshua Bennett" to his grandson Joshua Bennett Holden, reserving to the widow Eleanor "the sole use, occupation ... and profits" for her life. (The 1912 account dates this gift 1866.)

J. B. Holden remodeled and enlarged the old house about 1890 into the mansion known as Bennett Hall. According to the 1912 account, Curtis Guild and John L. Bates dined and "discussed probabilities" there before they became governors. On March 5, 1892 Holden gave the estate to his son, Joshua Bennett Holden Jr., great-grandson of Joshua Bennett. The son lived mostly in Boston, and about 1912 he leased the house to Mrs. M. H. Hubbard of Wayside Farm, who ran it for "permanent and transient guests" (it was also called the Johnny Cake Inn and the Bennett Hall Hotel). Nearby were the railroad's Bennett Hall Station, and from 1915 the new Howe High School, built on 6.8 acres "immediately south of Bennett Hall." In 1921 Holden put the estate into a "Bennett Hall Trust" with Robert Jordan as co-trustee. In April 1924 the trustees sold it, through Merrill Griswold, to Jordan, and dissolved the trust, ending 103 years of Bennett and Holden ownership.

In April 1925 Jordan sold the estate, surveyed by Brooks, Jordan and Graves at 35.90 acres ("Plan of Land ... belonging to Saul Drucker," Plan Book 46, Plan 43), to The Drucker School, Inc., which mortgaged it for $12,000. The mortgage was assigned to Benjamin Schwartz of Baltimore, who foreclosed at auction on the premises on November 17, 1931. After his death his heirs sold the land "with the buildings thereon," together with "all the camp equipment, furniture, beds ... boats," to The Associated Jewish Centers Camp, Inc. on March 23, 1934. As Camp Naomi, an overnight camp for girls, it used the estate for twenty years. In 1939 the camp sold the Town an acre and a half behind the high school for filter beds, along with drain easements. In August 1954 the camp corporation sold the property to Howard W. Fitzpatrick of Malden.

Fitzpatrick sold the 35 acres to Francis A. Corcoran of Burlington in June 1956, and Corcoran recorded "Woodside Manor Estates" (Plan Book 88, Plan 15, August 1956), 34 house lots on Woodside Avenue (now Good Street), LaSallette, Corcoran, Crowley and Lourdes Roads. The old house was torn down for the subdivision: Camp Naomi appears among the town's permits of 1956 for buildings to be torn down. Lot 1, at Woodside Avenue and Boston Road, was released from Corcoran's mortgage in April 1957 and sold to its first private owner; the split-level house there today (assessed as built "about 1954," though the plan dates from 1956) has changed hands among private owners since. In 1961 the Town bought lots 2 through 6 from Margaret T. Corcoran for an addition to the Howe Junior High School.

References

1. Wikipedia

Title References Expand all

Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted; Probate # is a Middlesex probate case, Ctf a Land Court certificate of title.