Ensign Jonathan Danforth Jr. House

The Ensign Jonathan Danforth Jr. House was a great rambling house on the east side of Boston Road a few rods north of the Common, next to the Howe School. For about a century it was one of the town's inns, best remembered as Capt. Solomon Pollard's tavern in the Revolution. It burned in 1977, the ruins were taken down in 1980, and condominiums have stood on the lot since 1998.

Jonathan Danforth Jr., son of the surveyor Jonathan Danforth, married Rebecca Parker of Chelmsford in 1682 and, as Hazen put it, "lived east of Long street, opp. his father's place." His house stood on his father's land: on Jan. 5, 1708/9 Capt. Danforth gave him, "for the love and affection which I have and do bear unto my son," "all my Land that joynes to his Dwelling house," twenty acres "bounded Westward and Southward by ye Country Roads," with John Dutton to the east and John Baldwin to the north. The Historical Commission found bricks set in clay within the walls, confirming a 17th century date, and attic framing that showed "a smaller house, a single room deep, was enlarged more than once."

Ensign Danforth died early in 1711 without a will. The inventory begins with "the homestead or house lott containing 20 acres with the buildings upon it," and the division of December 1711 gave his widow Rebecca "The Westerly end of the house and one third part of the barn," with a way "from the Country Road to the east end of the house," and the rest to the eldest son, Thomas, who bought out his brothers and sisters. Rebecca later married Joseph Foster. Thomas Danforth died in 1737; in 1755 the probate court settled his mother's old third, by then "the west end of an old House," on his sons, and in 1759, finding the homestead "not convenient for to make two settlements," it settled "the whole lands and buildings" on the elder son, Thomas. On Oct. 16, 1760 he sold the twenty acres "with the Dwelling House and all the other Buildings thereon" to David Osgood, innholder.

The Historical Commission's 1973 account, followed by earlier versions of this article, has Ephraim Kidder buying the house in 1710 and keeping an inn here, followed by his son Thomas Kidder. The deeds show otherwise. The Kidders' "Mansion House" stood on a three acre lot next door to the north, bounded south "on Land of the heirs of Jonathan Danforth"; Thomas Kidder sold it in 1747 to David Osgood of Andover, who kept it as an inn. After buying the Danforth house in 1760, Osgood sold the Kidder house in 1762 to Isaac Redington of Lunenburg, describing its south line as "Land of my own which was formerly Thomas Danforth's Heirs," and moved his tavern into the old Danforth house. Osgood died in 1768, and his executors, his widow Sarah, herself an innholder, and Elijah Danforth, sold "the whole of the Homestead of the said David Osgood" near the Centre, "with all the Buildings Edifices and out Houses thereon," to Solomon Pollard, tanner, for 484 pounds, reserving a place for the Sabbath Day House of John Baldwin, John Patten and others.

Hazen wrote that Pollard's "house, next to the Howe school, was a tavern in the Revolution"; selectmen's meetings were held there, and it was a natural gathering place for veterans. Pollard's will, proved in 1803, left "all my real estate ... with all the buildings" to his son Francis Pollard. Francis died without a will early in 1813, leaving a young son, Andrew. The widow's dower, set off that year, is a small plan of the tavern: Judith Pollard was given "The Southeast front room in said Dwelling house called the Bar room, the chamber over the same; the Bed room in the North east corner of the house, and the North east Bedchamber; the Kitchen at the east end of the house," with half the cellar and the east end of the barn. Under a license from the Supreme Judicial Court, Judith, as the boy's guardian, sold at auction in July 1818 "the homestead situate a few rods north of the meeting house ... containing fifty six acres ... with all the buildings thereon," with her dower, to John Crosby for $3,800. The deed was signed on February 2, 1819, and the same day Crosby passed the farm to Ichabod Everett of Boston for $4,000. Everett made it a private house; earlier accounts date this to about 1812, but the deeds show the purchase in 1819.

Everett died in 1851 without a will, "leaving no widow nor children." In November 1852 his brother Issachar Everett sold his undivided quarter of the sixty-two acre "homestead farm belonging to the late Ichabod Everett" to Abel Spalding Jr., who had married Everett's adopted daughter, Julia Ann Currier, for $1,125, and the other heirs sold their three quarters of "the Everett homestead" to him for $3,750. By then the Howe School had been built on a lot taken out of the farm's frontage. Spalding sold several house lots along the road in the 1870s. He died leaving a second wife, Leonora, and young children, and on October 5, 1887 she, for herself and as guardian of the children, sold the sixteen acre house lot on Main Street to Sears J. Cook for $3,600, while Cook, the same day, sold the Spaldings his own place on the road to Andover: the two families exchanged houses. The Cook family kept the old house for sixty years; Cook's son Arthur S. Cook inherited it under his father's will.

The Cooks sold the place in 1949, and in 1955 the house was set off on a lot of about three and a half acres with 260 feet on Boston Road, the house standing only five feet from the street. It passed through several private owners. In the early 1970s there were attempts to have the town buy the property for its historical value, but the money was not appropriated. A medical corporation, Middlesex Gyn-Ob, Inc., bought it in 1974 for $55,000, and in April 1977 fire destroyed much of the building. The corporation sold the lot in 1979 for $5,000, and the rest of the house was demolished in 1980. The land then passed through Brienzi Realty Trust (1985), Patriot Realty Trust (1987) and Gara Realty Trust (1987, $153,000) to Presidential Development Corporation in 1993. It was divided into two lots in 1994 and sold in 1996 to Great Brook Associates, which with a partner built the present condominium buildings; the first units were sold in 1998.

References

1. MACRIS BIL.44
2. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): Danforth, Pollard and Spalding families and the Pollard tavern

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.