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120 NPS Form10-900 (Rev. 10-90) OMB No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service JAN 28 National Register of Historic Places Registration Form This form is for use in nominating or requesting determinations for individual properties and districts. See instructions in How to Complete the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (National Register Bulletin 16A). Complete each item by marking "X" in the appropriate box or by entering the information requested. If any item does not apply to the property being documented, enter "N/A" for "not applicable." For functions, architectural classification, materials, and areas of significance, enter only categories and subcategories from the instructions. Place additional entries and narrative items on continuation sheets (NPS Form 10-900a).
Use a typewriter, word processor, or computer, to complete all items. 1. Name of Property historic name Old Tavern Farm other names/site number 2. Location street & number 817 Colrain Road N/A not for publication city or town Greenfield N/A vicinity state Massachusetts code_MA county_Franklin code Il zip code_01301 3. State/Federal Agency Certification As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1986, as amended, I hereby certify that this homination - request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60. In my opinion, the property I meets - does not meet the National Register Criteria. 1 recommend that this property be considered significant - nationally - statewide - locally.
(- See continuation sheet for additional comments.) VSignature of gertifying official/Title Cará/H. Metz, Executive Director national Register Derictor 1/18/05 Massachusetts Historical Commission, State Historic Preservation Officer State or Federal agency and bureau In my opinion, the property - meets - does not meet the National Register criteria. ( See continuation sheet for additional Comments.) Signature of certifying official/Title Date State or Federal agency and bureau 4. Natjonal Park Service Certification 1, hereby certify that this property is: Ventered in the National Register - See continuation sheet. - determined eligible for the National Register - See continuation sheet.
- determined not eligible for the National Register - removed from the National Register - other (explain): Sighature of he Keppe atiice Anaullo Date of Action 3/0/2005 Old Tavern Farm Name of Property Franklin, MA County and State 5. Classification Ownership of Property (Check as many boxes as apply) x private -public-local _ public-State - public-Federal (Check only one box) x building(s) - district _ site _ structure _object Number of Resources within Property (Do not include previously listed resources in the count.) Contributing 1 Noncontributing building sites 1 structures objects Total Number of contributing resources previously listed in the National Register Name of related multiple property listing (Enter "N/A" if property is not part of a multiple property listing.) N/A 6.
Function or Use Historic Functions (Enter categories from instructions) DOMESTIC/single dwelling DOMESTIC/inn AGRICULTURE/outbuilding Current Functions (Enter categories from instructions) DOMESTIC/single dwelling DOMESTIC/inn 7. Description Architectural Classification (Enter categories from instructions) Federal Materials (Enter categories from instructions) foundation GRANITE, BRICK walls CLAPBOARD roof other SLATE over cedar shakes Narrative Description (Describe the historic and current condition of the property on one or more continuation sheets.) see sttached KºS Fomm (5-8Q) United States Department of the Interior Nationai Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Old Tavern Farm Greenfield (Franklin), MA Section number - Page - 7.
Description Situated alongside Hinsdale Brook in the Greenfield Meadows, Old Tavern Farm (MHC.268) stands 4.3 miles northwest of downtown Greenfield, on a roughly triangular lot at the intersection of Colrain and Green River roads. The Federal-style building is a connected farmstead typical of those built in rural New England, and in Franklin County. Its various sections were constructed in stages, representing changes made to the current dwelling between the 1790s and the 1840s. The dwelling's main block, probably erected in 1827, is a two-story, five-by-two bay, side gable structure; a smaller two-story, four-bay wing, dating to the last quarter of the 18" century, extends to the west, with a single-story ell of four bays attached to the rear.
Extending westward from this section is a series of carriage bays (the easternmost today enclosed and converted into a sun room), followed by a two-story, early- to mid-19""-century end-gable barn. (See attached floor plan.) The original "small dwelling house" listed in Samuel Hinsdale's 1787 probate inventory was constructed around 1740 and would have extended into the wing before being torn down to accommodate construction of the 1790s dwelling. The south stone foundation of that ca. 1740 dwelling remains intact underneath the flagstone walk leading to the dining room entrance. The north foundation is intact in the dirt-floor crawl space beneath the dining room floor. Grounds The house faces southward on a roughly triangular lot that takes in at its peak a small common at the intersection of Colrain and Green River roads.
(photo #1) In addition to the roadways, it is bounded on the north by Hinsdale Brook. Several pine and maple trees shade the house, while mock orange ornaments the lawn. Two Japanese Maples, planted in the mid 20" century near the small common, are especially distinctive among the plantings on the south-facing lawn. A small open shed constructed in the 1960s shelters a 20"*-century grill that has been fitted to resemble a blacksmith's forge, and is non-contributing. Exterior description The main block of the house, which probably dates to the 1820s, is a two-story, five-by-three bay structure, with a chimney centered over the main entrance, typical of large farmhouses in western Massachusetts before the Civil War. Façade fenestration is symmetrical, with second-story windows placed close under the eaves. All main block façade windows are 1/1.
The door surround - the house's most pronounced embellishment - includes a semi-circular fanlight sheltered under a triangular pediment with broken base that rests on pilasters. The house is clad in clapboards and trimmed with cornerboards. In keeping with vernacular Federal-style houses, the cornice and window trim are restrained in the neat and plain style. The main block1s encircled on the south and west by a wide stone terrace, a remnant of a porch that was apparently added to OMB Approvel No. N00 (continued) KOS form 10-900-4 85-8Q United States Department of the Interior Nationai Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number _ 7 Page 2. Old Tavern Farm Greenfield (Franklin), MA the house around 1840 and destroyed bya fallen tree after 1950. Eight-over-twelve windows are present in the gable field.
The main block stands on a granite foundation with brick courses between stone and sill. (photo #2) To the west is attached a separate section, a 42' wing, four bays in width, set back from the plane of the main façade. This section probably represents the building's earliest period of construction, dating to the late 18"" century (see below). Ground-floor windows have 1/1 replacement sash, while 6/6 sash light a second-floor ballroom. These second-floor windows sit some distance below the eaves - one of the building's only references to the stylistic preferences of the Greek Revival period. (photo #3) An inset ground-floor porch conceals a bulkhead that provides access to the basement. Here, too, the foundation is granite and brick. A series of carriage bays extend westward from this section. The easternmost bay has been converted into a contemporary living space.
The remaining bays serve as a seasonal outdoor sitting area and carports. Large letters painted across this section reading "Old Tavern Farm" have existed since the late 19" century. The large red barn that serves as the building's western terminus is oriented perpendicularly to the house. (photo #4) Its foundation is stone topped with brick. A typical "New England barn" of the middle decades of the 19# century, it is two bays wide, with the runway extending from one side of the gable end to the back of the barn. (photo #10) Two rows of fixed-glass lights form a transom above the double-leaf barn doors. A lean-to addition creates an asymmetrical barn with an off-center roof ridge, capped by a square cupola, with louvered vents on all four sides. The barn's southwest corner houses the farm's stable, which contains four open bays and two box stalls for horses.
(photo #11) The addition along the east wall of the barn, lit by three six-pane windows, was constructed to house cattle, then became a chicken coop, and today serves as a storage space. Interior description In the cellar, the base of the eight-foot-square chimney, arched on the east side, is divided into two compartments - one a wine and preserve closet, the other a smoke room with cantilevered shelves to support racks of hanging meat. Hanging from hand-forged chains on the south wall, facing the wine-cellar door, are the wooden skids formerly used to roll wooden kegs of liquor down the stone cellar stairs. Massive stone steps on the west wall lead to a bulkhead concealed beneath the inset porch at the front entrance of the ca. 1790s wing The westernmost section of the house's dwelling space is today a small sunroom occupying what was formerly a carriage shed.
Though much of the original building fabric in this room has been lost, the structure's corner posts remain visible. In addition, the paneling present on the west wall of the room is original material moved to this location from elsewhere in the house; this section of paneling was formerly part of an interior wall that separated the tavern taproom from a small private dining area. Relegated to attic storage during early 20**-century renovations, the paneling was moved to this location when a previous owner created the sunroom in 1984. (continued) OMG No.
102 KºS Fomt 10-900-e p3-8G) United States Department of the Interior Nationai Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number _ Page - Old Tavern Farm Greenfield (Franklin), MA Adjacent to the sunroom is another service-space that has been altered to expand the house's living quarters; the house's former mudroom today serves as a bedroom. Though some alterations have been made to accommodate modern conveniences (e.g. the former pantry, which once stood along the north wall, has been converted into a bathroom), the room retains its wide pine floors and exposed corner posts, as well as wainscoting. The wainscoting along the outside, south wall appears to be original, while a small section on an interior wall was potentially recycled during some point in the house's history.
The original exterior door with its original hardware remains intact, leading from the sunroom to the bedroom. The kitchen and dining room, together with the ell that extends from these rooms to the rear, contain some of the building's most interesting features. This section of the house appears to be the building's oldest, probably dating from the last quarter of the 18" century. Though these rooms have seen a good deal of alteration over the years, several features remain that hint at the building's earlier appearance and subsequent history. An 82" by 30" threshold cut into the kitchen floor sits beneath a contemporary window and matches the dimensions of a large granite step outside. On the exterior wall in this location, a clapboard patch clearly defines the old entrance.
This was the home's main entranceway prior to the ca.1827 addition, and, because the home's current front doorway is typical of the late 18"'-century, not 1827, it quite possibly was moved from the ca. 1790s structure. It is surmised that the steep wooden staircase, which presently provides access from the second floor of the main block to the attic, may originally have been situated in this section of the house. Finally, the ridgepole construction of the roof in this section of the building, as well as the wooden pegs and hewn timbers retaining their bark, indicates that this is the structure's earliest roof, jacked up prior to 1841 to accommodate the installation of the second-story ballroom. Physical evidence beneath that roof also suggests the location of the original hearth, though today only a narrow chimney serves the kitchen's set kettle as well as a wood stove.
(photo #8) Set kettles appeared in America during the late 18" century and grew somewhat in popularity in the early 19th, but never became widespread. The new technology's appeal to the Greenfield tavern keeper, however, is clear: consisting of a deep brass kettle set into an airtight masonry container with a firebox below, the technology made it possible to have a constant source of interior hot water available, particularly useful for cooking and cleaning, bathing, and other farm, domestic and tavern chores. A gravity-fed cistern below the kitchen floor (installed ca. 1827 and today visible from the kitchen through a glass panel), one of only a handful known in the Connecticut Valley, provided water for tavern chores. The piping leading from the cistern to the house's exterior is also intact, disconnected and stuffed with paper below a gutter system that is still in use.
An ell to the rear of the ca. 1790s section of the house, presently entered through the kitchen, houses a pantry, workroom, coal bin, woodshed, and four-holer privy. Architectural evidence indicates that this structure was built after the ca. 1841 ballroom, because one of the four windows on the ballroom's north wall was removed and patched with boards to hide the roof's (continued) OME Appravel Ma E KrS form 10-900-4 (8-8G) United States Department of the Interior Nationai Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 7 Page _ 4 Old Tavern Farm Greenfield (Franklin), MA peak, which extended into that opening. The ell, which sits on a low stone foundation, has no ridgepole. Beaded board paneling is present in the pantry and workroom.
An interior door moved to this location from elsewhere in the house has the same faux, golden oak graining as the from the former bar, now stored in the building's attic, suggesting that it once accompanied the headboard in the house's taproom, and was recycled to this location at a later date. Two doorways (flanking the set kettle in the kitchen and a wood stove in the dining room, lead east into the present-day dining room. Two examples of 18"-century wainscoting survive in the dining room. Along the south and west walls, plain boards, perhaps salvaged from the original structure, probably date from the mid-18" century. Along the north and east walls, raised panel wainscoting favored in the last quarter of the 18"* century reflect an effort to bring the house into concert with prevailing Federal fashion. A corner cupboard in the northwest corner of the room probably dates to ca.
1917 and reflects the later influence of the Colonial Revival. To the rear of the dining room, on the north wall, stands a small butler's pantry that, judging by the style of the cabinetry, may also have been renovated at about this time. However, in keeping with the recycling of materials that characterizes developments throughout much of the house, the butternut cabinet on the pantry's rear wall seems to date from the same era - ca. 1830-40 - as the faux graining that appears throughout the house. The cabinet's dimensions match the back wall of a small closet in the former taproom that once formed the southern end of the back bar. The cabinet contains a small, locking, center cash drawer, suggesting that it was part of the ca. 1840 bar during the Thayer tenure, as indicated in previous owner Helen Gerrett's written 1948 history of the house. The bar was probably moved ca.
1917, when other renovations were undertaken in the dining-room area. When the grasscloth wallpaper was removed from the north wall of the dining room in 1999, an illegible, circled note dated August 1917 was discovered on the plaster, suggesting a renovation year, and the electric crystal chandelier installed on the ceiling is of that period. To move from the dining room to the southwest parlor is to move from the ca. 1790s portion of the house to the ca. 1827 section, the present-day main block. Though the room was once encircled with wainscoting, the addition of larger south-facing windows and the conversion of a west-facing doorway to a window, probably during the Thayer porch addition around 1840, prompted the removal of all but a small section of wainscoting in the northeast corner of the room; as a result, the baseboards in this room are clearly replacement.
Other original detail includes the restrained fireplace surround. To the left of the fireplace, a narrow closet retains its interior beaded paneling and door. The entry hall that separates this parlor from the finer southeast parlor is lit by a semi-circular fanlight above the main entrance and contains access to the narrow triple-run or fan stairs leading to the second floor, and a small hall closet. An unusual feature of the house's entrance is the double-hinged door that allows it to be folded back into the entry hall. The total width of the door (continued) Os4B Approvel No. 4t NºS Form 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior Nationai Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number - Page - OMB Approval No.
1024-0018 Old Tavern Farm Greenfield (Franklin), MA is 40", with one set of 3 (4 1/8") hinges between the door and the wall and a second set of three (2 3/4 ") hinges present 7½"from the first. Historic Deerfield's architectural historian/conservator William Flynt has examined the door, and suggests that the evidence concerning whether the door is original to the structure is inconclusive, though the width of the door does match the width of the original fanlight. The brass hardware is not original to the door, as evidenced by the patch covering the hole for the previous hardware. Trim here is otherwise modest, limited to plain beaded baseboards that match those found elsewhere in the 1827 section of the house. The formal, southeast parlor, unlike its counterpart, was never wainscoted.
The room has a slightly more elegant fireplace in the opposite parlor than its counterpart, with pilasters supporting a broad, simple mantle, as well as wide baseboards that match the trim surrounding the doors and windows. A small cupboard alongside the hearth mirrors its counterpart in the southwest parlor. The south-facing windows here, like those in the southwest parlor, have been replaced with larger, elongated windows that were extended when the porch was built prior to 1841. A late 19t*-century photograph shows 6/6 windows occupying the same opening. The tavern's former taproom, which runs along the rear of the ca. 1827 block, may be entered from either parlor. Woodwork here is comparatively modest, with beaded baseboards matching those in the entryway, and an unassuming fireplace surround. (photo #5) A small cupboard is present above the mantel.
A private dining room, which once stood at the far east end of the room, has been converted into a modern laundry and bathroom. The wall that once separated this from the taproom is now present as paneling in the house's sunroom; in its place stands a wall with floor-to-ceiling built-in bookcases inserted in the 1980s, after the original wall was removed and the room opened up, probably ca. 1917. On the west end of the room, scars on both the floor and ceiling indicate the original site of the taproom bar and headboard; the latter is still presently stored on the property. Today, the end of the bar, which once housed cabinetry, has been enclosed, and serves as a large closet. Beaded paneling is visible inside. A small modern kitchen installed in the1980s is located in a shallow ell off the north wall. This structure was built ca.
1917 to house the home's first bathroom with plumbing, and served as the house's only bathroom into the 1980s. A steep and narrow stair between the taproom and dining room leads to the second floor of the 1827 block. Here, a long hall separates the two finely-finished front bedrooms, which probably housed family members, from three small bedrooms at the rear of the house, which were likely rented out to tavern guests. All of the doorways along this hall bear the same distinctive graining, presenting faux walnut to the hall; those providing access to the family rooms are grained to simulate tiger, birds-eye and burl maple on the reverse. Closet doors in the family rooms were also grain-painted to match the interior doors.
According to Flynt, a plausible candidate for this work as well as and the feather-painted floors in the upstairs hall and east bedroom, is eccentric 19th-century Greenfield folk artist George Washington Mark, who came to town in 1817 and (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number - Page - Old Tavern Farm Greenfield (Franklin), MA stayed until his death in 1879, painting signs, furniture and houses. In addition to the finely- finished doors, architectural embellishment in the two front rooms includes beaded baseboards and fireplace surrounds that exceed those of the ground floor in their detail. In the west chamber, fine fluting ornaments the two columns supporting a fairly restrained mantel.
The east chamber's surround is the most stylish finest in the house; fine fluting appears on the center panel of the mantelpiece as well as the pilasters flanking the firebox, themselves capped with reeded capitals. The rooms are almost entirely devoid of architectural embellishment. (photo #7) At the western end of the hall, what was once a second-floor storage space providing access to the attic has been converted into a modern bathroom, though the room retains its original 12/12 windows. A door at the second-floor landing provides access to a spring-floor ballroom, which spans the length of the wing. In addition to rows of 6/6 windows on the south and north walls, the room is lit by eighteenth century pewter candle chandeliers (possibly of French origin) suspended from the vaulted ceiling.
(photo #6) Benches line the room's perimeter and evidence of the opening for a fiddler's gallery survives on the west wall. The chimney stack that supports the kitchen set kettle and dining room wood stove protrudes through the center of the room. The ballroom was probably created between 1836-40 by raising the roof of the ca. 1790s structure; the structure's framing remains exposed along the ballroom's walls. Note: At present there is no physical or documentary evidence that there was ever a well on the current lot.
Three factors may help explain the absence of a well:1) the clean, flowing, gravel-bed stream in the back would have been a source of water; 2) there is a spring across the brook that supplied drinking water for the house and several others in the vicinity for decades in the 19th century (source is deed easements); and 3) there is a major cistern under the kitchen floor that collected rainwater as it ran off the roof. In 1948, Helen Gerrett, a previous owner of the house, who wrote its history, claimed that spring water was piped into a kitchen trough along the west wall. OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 (end) Old Tavern Farm Name of Property 8. Statement of Significance