Ephraim Kidder Jr. House
Ephraim Kidder Jr. built a "house and store" on this choice small piece near the "great bridge". He had previously (1797) built a square Federal house and store in the center of the village and it is perhaps surprising that his new venture used less stylish "colonial" lines, with a central chimney in the house. Perhaps, however, his earlier venture (sold in 1799) had been too expensive. If so, he was not out of the woods, for a series of court judgments carefully apportioned the house and store (as his only asset) among several creditors and within the year (1805) he sold out to a Charlestown man with Billerica connections. Kidder died in 1807.
Jacob Farrar, a cabinet maker, bought the place after Kidder's death and was there until 1815. Samuel H. Mann owned it from 1833 to 1839, and Josiah Stevens, who managed Richardson's Tavern, owned it in the last year of his life, from 1839 to 1840.
Harvey Crosby bought the place in 1840, but never lived there. It is still credited to him in 1853 when it was called a "hotel". Presumably, after Richardson's Tavern ceased operations around that time, Crosby had one or more tenants operate a less pretentious establishment here.
Edward Preston, originally from Vermont, owned the building from at least 1875 to his death in 1901, operating a boat livery at the location. His widowed daughter Fannie Bignall continued to live here until at least 1916, and she died in Lowell in 1924.
In the 1970s, it was "Tony's Gun Shop".