Jonathan Hill House (original house)
Jonathan Hill House (original house)
| Also Known As | Nathaniel Hill House |
| Address | 312 Concord Rd |
| MACRIS ID | BIL.176 |
| Built | 1680 |
| Demolished | 1780 |
| Other Lot Structures | Jonathan Hill House (Built 1780) |
This is the late 17th century house beside the pond and dams of Hill's Mills on Concord Road in South Billerica, as it stood before it was enlarged into the Jonathan Hill House. Charles E. Stearns of the Billerica Historical Commission found brick-lined partitions, low framing and other features marking it as a house of the late 17th century. Nathaniel Hill inherited the land from his father, Ralph Hill Sr., in 1663 and married in 1667, and the first clear references to the mill site date from about 1680, so he may have built both the house and the mills. After his first wife died in 1685 he moved to Chelmsford, and in 1706 he gave the place, "with all the buildings," to his son Ralph.
Ralph lived here until he died, unmarried, in 1742, and left it to his nephew Jonathan Hill, who, Stearns thought, probably enlarged the house. The younger Jonathan added the final embellishments, and the interior was largely brought to its present form in 1797. The Massachusetts Historical Commission's inventory gives 1780 as the date of the house as it now stands.