Captain John Stearns House (original house)

This is the house on Dudley Road that, by family tradition, Capt. John Stearns built in 1689, the year his sixth child was born, as it stood before it was enlarged. It faces south toward Mill Brook, near the saw-mill he started. The 2010 National Register nomination for the Two Brothers Rocks-Dudley Road Historic District says the house was likely substantially renovated after the death of his second wife, Johannah, in 1737, possibly expanding it from a half-house to its present five-bay, center-entry form.

In 1752 his son, Lt. John Stearns, gave the farm to Isaac Stearns "together with all the building thereon," but with possession of only "one half part of the premises" until his own death. The nomination reads this as two families sharing the house, which it believes had been expanded to a full house by the middle of the 18th century. The later history of the house is told under Captain John Stearns House.

References

1. MACRIS BIL.185