Nomination for Codding Farm, The

From the form

The catalogue entry the section above was filed under.

NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) OMB-No. 1024-001- RECEIVED 2280 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service 236 MAR 09 2009 National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NAT. REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES NATIONAL PARK SERVICE 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 The Codding Farm other names/site number Abiel Codding Farm; Titus Farm 2. Location street & number 217 High Street N/A not for publication city or town North Attleborough N/Avicinity state Massachusetts codeMA _ county Bristol code 005 _ zip code_ 02760 3. State/Federal Agency Certification As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1986, as amended, 1hereby certify that this nomination - nationally O statewide locally.

( See continuation sheet for additional comments.) Brona Simm Signature of certifying official/Title Brona Simon, SHPO Massachusetts Historical Commission State or Federal agency and bureau February 26,2009 In my opinion, the property meets does not meet the National Register criteria. (D See continuation sheet for additional Comments.) Signature of certifying official/Title Date State or Federal agency and bureau 4. National Park Service Certification I, hereby certify that this property is: M entered 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): Date of Action @son h. Beall 422.09 The Codding Farm Nameof Property 5.

Classification Ownership of Property (Check as many boxes as apply) - private x public-local _ public-State - public-Federal Bristol, Massachusetts County and State Category of Property (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 Non-contributing 3 1 2 1 buildings 0 sites _ 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) AGRICULTURE: agricultural fields DOMESTIC: single dwelling Current Functions (Enter categories from instructions) AGRICULTURE: agricultural fields RECREATION VACANT (buildings) WORK IN PROGRESS 7. Description Architectural Classification (Enter categories from instructions) CENTURY: Federal/Greek Revival Materials (Enter categories from instructions) foundation_STONE: fieldstone; granite block walls WOOD: weatherboard; shingle roof other ASPHALT N/A Narrative Description (Describe the historic and current condition of the property on one or more continuation sheets.) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 7 Page 1 OMB Approval No.

1024-0018 The Codding Farm North Attleborough (Bristol), MA 7. DESCRIPTION Setting and site layout The Codding Farm is located just a half mile west of the center of North Attleborough MA, on the north side of High Street, at #217. High Street begins at North Washington Street, the major north/south route through the center of the "North Village" before the establishment of US Route I to its east in the 20t* century. The first two eastern blocks of High Street are built up primarily with late 19'"-century residences in a variety of Victorian styles, and are listed on the National Register as part of the High, Church and Gould Streets Historic District (1999). From the western edge of the district High Street crosses west over the roadbed of the former Old Colony/Walpole & Wrentham Branch Railroad, after which it gradually becomes a winding, more rural road.

The Codding farmstead is located close to the road about 250 yards past the railroad right-of-way. To its west, between the farmstead and a recent small subdivision on Joseph Grimaldi Drive, is a large late 19"-century house. On the south side of the road, several modest mid- and late 19*h-century houses stand directly across from the farm. Opposite the west end of the farmstead is the access drive of Circle Court, a late 20*-century senior housing complex that is set back from the road. While the farm has over 900 feet of frontage along High Street, the bulk of the historic property (most of it not included in this nomination) stretches north from the road for 58.33 acres, ending at West Street, with a small corner extending just over the town line into Plainville.

The Codding Farm is the closest large undeveloped parcel of land to North Attleborough center, and is still covered with a combination of fields and former pastures, meadows, and deciduous woods. It is only the core of the farm, however, with the buildings of the farmstead and two large fields, that is included in this National Register nomination. That trapezoidal piece, "Parcel B" as shown on the Codding Farm Subdivision Plan of 2007, contains approximately 3.78 acres, and includes the resources determined by the Town to be most in need of protection - buildings, structures, and historic landscape elements. On the parcel's rear portion is a hay field about two acres in size, occupying a gently rising slope and ringed with trees. (Photo 1.) Another, smaller field is located at the southeast corner of the property near the road.

(Map#7.) Beyond the latter field, and outside the boundaries of the nominated parcel, the southeast corner of the farm consists of a broad, low wetland that is annually flooded in the winter and used for skating. The Codding farmstead is made up of three, south-facing, freestanding buildings placed quite close together - the 1 ½-story farmhouse with a succession of parallel ells extending to each side (Map #1), a two-bay equipment shed (Map #2) which nearly touches the east end of the house, and a side-gabled barn with a partial rear cowshed wing (Map #3) standing a few feet east of the equipment shed. In front of the house is a semicircular paved driveway. Abutting the east end of the barn is a jumble of rocks that may remain from the foundation of an attached shed or other structure. Beginning a few feet east of the rocks, a broad fieldstone wall (Map #6) stretches east.

Other fieldstone walls line the edge of High Street east and west of the ends of the circular drive. (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet The Codding Farm North Attleborough (Bristol), MA Section number Z Page _2 Landscape plantings on the property include some old lilacs along the west section of roadside wall, and some 20th '-century ornamental shrubs in front of the house - rhododendrons, azaleas, hollies, and yews. The Abiel Codding (Richards/Codding) Farmhouse (ca. 1833) The farmhouse (Map #1, Photos 2 to 6) is a center-chimney Cape Cod cottage facing directly south at a slight angle to the road. The main house, 34 x 26 feet, is flanked by two nearly equal-sized one-story side ells.

The west ell measures 18 x 14 feet, the east ell 15 x 14. The planes of both of their front walls are set about 12 feet back from the front façade of the main house, but their rear walls continue the plane of the main rear wall. Attached to the outer end of the west ell, with its front wall in the same plane, is a small, low-roofed 14 x 8-foot early 20"-century ell. Attached to the opposite, east end of the house is a large utility shed that matches the dimensions of the east ell - 15 x 14 feet - but is set several feet back from the plane of the ell's front wall. Each section of the house has an asphalt-shingled, side- gabled roof, with the ridge line of each outer roof set lower than the one to which it is attached. Such an arrangement creates a low, spreading "connected farmstead" arrangement, but one that is fairly unusual: a nearly symmetrical variant on that building type.

The entire building is clad in wood clapboard except for the rear and side walls of the east attached shed, which are wood-shingled. The foundation of the main house is granite block on the front and sides, and fieldstone and broken granite slabs at the rear. All of the outer sections rest on fieldstone foundations; the inner west ell is the only appendage with a cellar. There is one narrow, rebuilt brick chimney, positioned just east of center in front of the main roof ridge. The two ell chimneys have been removed above the roof. In many ways, the core house is typical of Cape Cod cottages built in the second quarter of the 19th century. The Cape Cod house was built in large numbers in southeastern Massachusetts over a long period, but is a somewhat rare building type in North Attleborough.

The façade is a symmetrical five- bay arrangement, with a central doorway that features four-pane sidelights set over single panels. The entry and the flanking façade windows have flat, unadorned casings, their tops set several inches below the eaves. The windows are 2/1s, their sashes probably replaced early in the 20# century. Two widely- spaced gable-roofed dormers on the front slope of the roof are additions of the late 20** century, as are the louvered plastic blinds at the first-story windows. The east end-wall of the main house has one 2/1 window at the first story in front of the ell, and a small double-hung window in the gable peak. The west end-wall has a late 20t-century projecting plant window at the first story, and a replacement 6/6 toward the front of the gable wall, above the ell. (Photos 3 and 5).

The façade of the inner west ell, the largest of the appendages, has (reading from east to west) two 2/1 windows and a single 20**-century six-panel door. (Photo 6). The small 6/6 window in the gable peak of that section, which has the knife- like muntins typical of the mid-19t century, may be the oldest window in the house. The façade of the outer, lower-height westernmost ell has two widely spaced 4/4 windows, and a windowless gable end. (Photo 6.) At the east end of the house, the façade of the inner ell has a four-panel door at the inner corner, and a large 2/1 window beside it. A tiny 1/1 window in the east gable peak lights the ell garret. The front wall of the outer east shed has a batten door in the center and is windowless, as is its east end wall. (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev.

10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number Z Page 3 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 The Codding Farm North Attleborough (Bristol), MA The rear elevation of the house displays several mid- and late-20" century alterations (Photo 6): a long shed dormer on the main roof slope with five 6/6 windows, a 6/6 bathroom window in the center of the main rear elevation, and to its east, a three-part "picture" window, its large center section now boarded over. The bulkhead to the cellar is located just west of center. There are two 2/1 windows in the rear wall of the west inner ell, another in its west end at the first story, and in the outer ell there is an early 20t- century batten door and a boarded-up window opening.

The east inner ell has a 4-panel door toward its inner corner, and a 2/1 window in the approximate center of that elevation. Beyond it to the east, the attached shed projects six feet to the rear of the main plane of the house wall. Its shingled rear elevation is marked by a batten door at the east end. The exterior trim of the various parts of the house is indicative of the estimated dates of construction and alteration, and of the hierarchy in the use of the different sections. Late 20**-century window openings, for instance, have a narrow brick-mold surround that is very different in character from the wide, flat casings of all the earlier windows. The sidelighted main entry, in spite of its late 20"'-century 6-panel door, retains what appear to be the original wide, flat untapered pilasters and simple frieze with architrave molding.

The treatment of the eaves and gables of the two inner ells matches that of the main house -a shallow crown molding and boxed eaves above a wide frieze board. There are cornice returns on the gable ends, and a very slight roof projection at the rakes trimmed with the simple echinus-like crown molding characteristic of the early Greek Revival period, set above a narrow rake board. The entire house may once have had wooden gutters. In the main block the ogee gutter profile survives only at the cornice returns, but a full gutter remains on the façade of the inner west ell. Throughout the building the cornerboards are flat and unadorned, ranging from 6 to 7 inches in width. The outer west ell dates to the early 20" century, possibly constructed as a replacement or enlargement of an attached privy or privy/shed combination.

The east wall of that section is set against the clapboards of the inner ell that can be seen now that the outer ell is pulling away from the rest of the building. There is no cornice detail in this section, although there are narrow cornerboards and a simple rake board at the gable end. The trim of the attached east shed, which appears to be somewhat earlier than the west outer ell, is also extremely simple, with only a flat six-inch board at the front and rear edges of the roof, and two-inch rake boards on the gable ends. Interior description and building evolution The house interior was altered and updated at various times, but still reveals much of its past in its floor plan, materials, and surviving details. Its evolution gives evidence of the changes in use in the different (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev.

10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet The Codding Farm North Attleborough (Bristol), MA Section number 7 Page 4 sections of the building, as well as in the lives of the occupants. In most of the building both the walls and ceilings are plastered. There is 20""-century narrow-board hardwood flooring in the first- and upper story spaces of the main house, and wider pine board floors in all the ells but the east shed, which has lost its flooring.. In the main house, all interior doors are 20"-century four-panel doors, many of them hung on earlier two- and five-"knuckle" hinges. Some vertical-board batten doors dating to various historical periods remain in the ells. Main house: The main floor plan is altered from what it may have been before 1900. (See Sketch Plans).

There is a traditional center lobby entrance, where a wall cabinet with a recessed-paneled door is set against the front of the chimney stack. The straight-run stairway to the left of the chimney appears to occupy the original stair position, but has been recently renovated with new treads, risers and handrail. Behind it is a stairway to the main cellar that appears to date to the early 20* century. (Discrepancies in the cellar framing indicate that the original location of the cellar stairs was in the northeast rear corner of the main house.) The first-story floor plan appears to have been the traditional Cape Cod arrangement of two front rooms flanking the center entry and chimney, with smaller rooms at the rear, although their arrangement is uncertain.

A rear northwest room remains with updated, late 20"-century decor, but any partition walls in the east half of the house have been removed to create a single living-room space from front to back. Centered directly behind the stairs is a 20t century bathroom with a narrow passage in front of it. The front southwest room is adorned with what appears to be a wide mid- or late 20*-century chair rail and a corner glass-front cabinet of the same vintage. There is no fireplace in that room, but there is a small fireplace with angled cheeks in the east living room, set quite far forward in the room. While the firebox surround and mantel are of 20t*-century construction, the large hearth bricks typical of the 1830- 1850 period remain, and there is a heavy wooden hearth support below it in the cellar, indicating that this is an original fireplace location.

The positioning of the fireplace so close to the front of the house, however, coupled with the absence of any other fireplace in the main block, suggests that there was at least one other fireplace in the original, larger central chimney. Since the existing early first floor framing in the chimney bay appears largely intact, it is likely that the present stairs to the cellar occupy the space where oneor two other fireplaces, and most of the larger chimney mass,were formerly located. Period architectural trim remaining at the first story is simply detailed, with only a hint of early Greek Revival vocabulary. The mitered, four-inch window and door casings have a two-inch bevel detail; the baseboards that ring the main spaces are six inches high, without moldings.

The upper half-story of the core part of the house was altered and enlarged in the late 20" century by the addition of the two small dormers at the front and by the shed dormer at the rear. At the same time, closets were built into the two bedrooms there, and a bathroom was installed directly above that at the rear first story. (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet The Codding Farm North Attleborough (Bristol), MA Section number 7 Page 5 Side ells. The presence of at least two kitchens in the ells (one of them renovated in the mid-20" century) is undoubtedly associated with the use of the building for two households.

The west inner ell houses the renovated kitchen, but at its west end, a pantry with shelves and some early 20" century bead-board abinets, as well as narrow enclosed stairs to both the west cellar and garret, are intact. (See Sketc lans.) The exterior ell door is located directly in front of the batten door to the upper stairs, with a sho arrow passage between them leading to the outer ell. The garret is a single plastered space with an 18 nch knee wall and an unpainted baseboard.The faint outline of former doorway to themain housei evident in the plaster of the east wall. While the chimney that served the kitchen stove in the room below has been removed above the garret floor, a pine-board closet that stood against the chimney's east side is still streaked with creosote. The other three sides of the closet are tongue-and-groove beadboard.

The small outer west ell is a narrow one-story space, with an exterior rear door in the northeast corner. The floor is unfinished pine, and both walls and ceiling are covered with narrow beadboard of the "match board" type that was popular from the 1910s to the 1930s. Filling the rear wall west of the door is an assemblage of beadboard cabinetry and a shallow cast-iron sink. Since there is no visible evidence of a chimney or stove, this room may have functioned as a sink room and cold-storage space. The most substantial and intact of the kitchen spaces is the inner east ell. (Photo 11.) Along its north wall there is another cast-iron sink set into a wood counter top, and banks of floor and wall cabinets of similar construction to those in the outer west ell.

While the arrangement along the north wall appears to be of early 20* century date, portions of that wall and the south wall are covered with a broad band of wide (up to 13 ½-inch) planed, unpainted boards - a typical 19**-century kitchen wall treatment - and the upper walls of the room retain most of their plaster and layers of period wallpaper. At the west end there are two four-panel exterior doors - one to the front and one to the rear - of the recessed-panel type, also typical of kitchens of the mid-19th century. The connecting interior doorway to the main house has been repositioned between two recent jambs in the approximate center of the west wall. Two former door casings remain in this wall; however, their openings now filled in.

One toward the rear corner was probably for the entry to the cellar; the other, toward the front, would have been the surround for the former doorway to the northeast room of the main house. The narrow brick chimney for the kitchen stove is positioned at the center of the east wall. To its north is a batten door to the outer east shed, and in a narrow wall space south of the chimney is a low bead-board cabinet. Although the cook stove is long gone, the cabinet door still opens to reveal a stack of dusty, neatly-placed wood for the stove's firebox. Just south of the cabinet, a narrow batten door, two boards wide, opens onto an extraordinarily narrow staircase to the garret above. The roughly built open stairs (without risers) are only 14 inches in width. Much of the architectural detailing of this room is typical of simple farmhouse kitchens of the 19th and early 20* centuries.

In addition to the horizontal boarding that partially protects the lower part of the walls, there are plain seven-inch baseboards, and four-inch inch wide, plain board casings at the windows (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet The Codding Farm North Attleborough (Bristol), MA Section number 7 Page _ 6 and doors. Similar to the upper space in the west inner ell, the low garret above the east kitchen has plastered end walls, knee-walls and ceiling, suggesting that it functioned as a bedroom - possibly for a servant or a boarder, or for children who could have descended directly to the kitchen down the narrow stairs. The kitchen chimney remains in the garret, ending at the roof.

The easternmost section of the building, the east shed, appears to have functioned as a combined well room and woodshed. Its interior is unfinished, revealing its nailed, lightly-built frame. There are no windows, but there are two exterior batten doors - one in the center of the front wall and one in the east end of the rear wall. The stone-lined well (map #4) is located in the middle of the space, presently covered with loose boards. Mounted above it and slightly to the west is a large wooden drum (Map #5) which may have been used for the well rope, but may have originated as part of a slaughtering hoist. Outbuildings While the Codding farmhouse comprises a "connected farmstead" in that utility spaces are attached to the dwelling, what at first appear to be a connected equipment shed and barn are actually two free-standing buildings set only a few feet away from other structures.

Equipment shed/garage. ca. 1940 (Map #2; Photo 7) Less than two feet from the east end of the outer east shed of the house is a two-bay equipment shed, approximately 22 feet square. The side-gabled roof is longer and lower at the rear than at the front, allowing for two large, high openings on the south side. The building is shingled, and flat six-inch boards form the cornerboards and the casings around the openings. The front eaves are boxed, with a bed molding and narrow frieze board below, and with flat returns on the gable ends, where a remnant of a wood gutter remains. A wood gutter is still in place along the rear wall. The building rests on a rubble foundation, reinforced with concrete. The shed is of nailed 2 x 4" stud construction, with rafters and a ridge board of the same dimensions.

There is evidence of some possible repair and replacement in the sheathing, which consists of horizontal pine boards in the gables, but wide horizontally laid tongue-and-groove beaded sheathing on the lower walls. Many roof boards have been replaced. There is no indication that the building ever had doors. Barn. 1918 (Map #3; Photos 8-10, 12, 13) The barn, its main section approximately 40 x 30 feet, stands beside the equipment shed, with a passage of about 10 feet between them. Viewed from the road, it has the appearance of an English barn, with the main wagon door located just west of center in the south, eaves side.

In contrast to the restrictive layout of the traditional English barn, however, this is a sophisticated, innovative, eaves-front outbuilding designed to meet the specialized needs of the Codding Farm in the early 20 century, when the Titus family operated the property as a prosperous dairy farm. While the frame is primarily composed of the dimensional lumber characteristic of the time, some timbers may be reused from the earlier barn that stood on the site. (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet The Codding Farm North Attleborough (Bristol), MA Section number 7 Page 7 Most of the building is clad in wood shingle, with a recent asphalt-shingle roof.

Repairs are currently being made to the louvered square cupola that is set in the center of the roof ridge. Built into the slope of the ground on the south and west sides, this is a "banked" barn, standing over a high cellar, with a broad opening in the east wall of the mortared fieldstone foundation, providing ground-level access to the cellar manure-handling area. The inner part of a cross-gabled, three-level wing extends to the rear. Originally considerably longer than it is today, in spite of some late 20'*-century shoring up on a concrete rear foundation, the north end of the wing has collapsed, and about 25 feet of it has recently been removed. The roof is gone from much of the remaining inner portion of the wing, as well, and its rear end is presently boarded-over and supported on temporary posts. (Photos 9 and 10).

Two metal ventilators which formerly occupied the roof ridge of the wing stand on the ground northwest of the barn. The exterior elevations of the barn reflect the functions of the interior. On the south front elevation (Photo 8), the large interior-sliding wagon door marks the entrance to the drive aisle, which is illuminated by the multi-light transom above the doorway. The door is faced with bead-boarding set on the diagonal in the style that was fashionable in the early 20" century, and is divided into six panels by applied stiles and rails. East of the wagon entry is a single boarded-up window opening at the front end of the cow tie- up, and to its right is a wide hinged door, also faced with diagonal bead board, which provides access to the floor behind the cow stanchions.

Although the east gable end of the main barn (Photo 9) has lost its siding and windows, the placement of a line of window openings there and in the continuing wall of the wing is typical of the outer wall of a cow tie-up. The fenestration of the west gable end, with the exception of a double-hung window in the peak, may be the result of renovations of the 1930s, when a small dairy room with concrete floor and lower walls was installed or renovated west of the drive floor. The broken exterior door there is an early 20t-century glass-and-panel type with divided panes over a two-paneled lower section, and the five windows in that elevation include three small single-pane windows and two six-light sash. A single-sash window is located in the rear north wall of the dairy room, and two 6/6 windows remain in the west wall of the rear wing.

Three more 6/6's were located north of them in the part of the wing that was demolished. The north end of the wing, which stood over the rear part of the cellar that is now open to the sky, had a large sliding door at the end of the drive aisle and a smaller door at the end of the cow tie-up aisle, mirroring those at the front. Characteristic of an early 20"*-century construction date, the exterior finish of the barn includes unboxed eaves with the rafter ends enclosed in fascia boards, and a narrow crown molding forming the transition from fascia to roof. There are flat friezeboards, cornerboards, and window and door casings, and a six- inch roof overhang at the gable ends. Barn interior.

With the exception of only a few pegged mortise-and-tenon joints in some of the main timbers, the barn is of nailed 4 x 3-inch stud construction, with 4 x 6-inch corner posts, and a roof system of common 2 x 6- (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 7 Page _ 8 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 The Codding Farm North Attleborough (Bristol), MA inch rafters rising to a ridge board of similar dimensions, reinforced only with slim 1 x 5-inch collar ties. Two large queen-post trusses over the east cow tie-up area have vertical tie rods bolted through the beams of the loft, allowing for a large area free of posts on the main drive- and stanchion level, and for a wider than usual cow aisle.

The dairy room and a former stair enclosure at the south front of the barn (where stairs to the loft have been removed) are enclosed in planed, unpainted horizontal sheathing, with typical early 20th-century interior 5-panel doors. (Photo 13.) The dairy is little changed from its pre-1955 appearance, with fading chrome paint on the upper walls and ceiling, and a large steel "Esco" brand electric dairy sterilizer unit in the southwest corner. While the dairy room (apparently updated in the 1930s) is a rare surviving installation of early 20**- century agricultural design and equipment, the water system for the cows, with pipes leading to steel basins along the west side of the stanchions, is equally significant. Both stanchions and basins continue into the surviving portion of the north wing, where nine sets of wooden stanchions are still in place.

(Photos 10 and 12.) Archaeological Description While no ancient Native American sites are known within the boundaries of the Codding Farm, sites may be present. One ancient site is known in the general area (within one mile). Environmental characteristics of the farm represent locational criteria (slope, soil drainage, proximity to wetlands) that are favorable for the presence of Native American sites. Much of the farm includes level to moderately sloping topography comprised of well-drained soils formed in glacial till. A small pond is located less than 1,000 feet southwest of the farm, and Scott's Brook, a tributary stream of the Ten Mile River, is located a similar distance to the west and southwest. Thefarmlies completely within the Ten Mile River drainage.

Downstream from the Codding Farm, the Ten Mile River drainage is a documented locus of Native American settlement along the Ten Mile, Bungay, and Seven Mile Rivers. At least 34 sites are known in the short distance between Attleborough Falls and Attleborough Center within four to five miles southeast of the Codding Farm. Given the above information, the size of the farm (3.78 acres), the availability of open land, and the effects of historic landuse, a moderate to high potential exists for locating ancient Native American resources. (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service OMB Approval No.

1024-0018 National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet The Codding Farm North Attleborough (Bristol), MA Section number 7 Page g There is also a high potential for locating historic archaeological resources within the boundaries of the Codding Farm. Structural evidence of barns and outbuildings may exist on the property. In 1918, a corn crib (not extant) was identified on the property. Abutting the east end of the extant barn is a jumble of rocks that may remain from the foundation of an attached shed or other structure. Construction features and isolated artifact finds may also exist. Archaeological evidence of occupational-related features (trash pits, privies, wells) may also survive on the property. (end) The Codding Farm Name of Property 8. Statement of Significance

Statement of significance

Applicable National Register Criteria (Mark "x" in one or more boxes for the criteria qualifying the property for National Register listing.) X A Property is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history. -B Property is associated with the lives of persons significant in our past. XC Property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction or represents the work of a master, or possesses high artistic values, or represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components lack individual distinction. -D Property has yielded, or is likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history. Criteria Considerations (Mark "x" in all the boxes that apply.) Property is: - Aowned by religious institution or used for religious purposes. - Bremoved from its original location.

_ Ca birthplace or grave. _ Da cemetery. - E a reconstructed building, object, or structure. - F a commemorative property. - Gless than 50 years of age or achieved significance within the past 50years. 3ristol, MF iounty and Stat Areas of Significance (Enter categories from instructions) COMMUNITY PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT AGRICULTURE ARCHITECTURE Period of Significance 1833 to 1959 Significant Dates 1850 (Purchase by Abiel Codding, Jr.) 1955 end of darying Significant Person (Complete if Criterion B is marked above) N/A Cultural Affiliation Architect/Builder Narrative Statement of Significance (Explain the significance of the property on one or more continuation sheets.) 9.

The rest of the file

Bibliography, boundary description, and the people who prepared and reviewed the nomination.

Major Bibliographical References Bibliography (Cite the books, articles, and other sources used in preparing this form on one or more continuation sheets.) Previous documentation on file (NPS): - preliminary determination of individual listing (36 CFR 67) has been requested - previously listed in the National Register - previously determined eligible by the National Register _ designated a National Historic Landmark _recorded by Historic American Buildings Survey _ recorded by Historic American Engineering Record # Primary location of additional data: X State Historic Preservation Office . Other State agenc) - Federal agenc X Local government _ University Other Name of repository: North Attleborough Historical Commission_ NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service OMB Approval No.

1024-0018 National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet The Codding Farm North Attleborough (Bristol), MA Section number 8 Page _1 8. SIGNIFICANCE The Codding Farm, owned for 150 years by one notable North Attleborough family, meets Criteria A and C of the National Register at the local level. The 3.78 acres of the farmstead and adjacent fields are an important example of a transitional Federal/Greek Revival Cape Cod cottage with a succession of side ells, two early 20t*-century outbuildings, and fields which have been in agricultural use since at least the early 19" century. The 58-acre farm as a whole is the closest open parcel of its size to the developed downtown area along the Route 1 and Washington Street corridors - a rare survival of a rural landscape adjacent to the heart of a town center.

The complex meets Criterion A for its role in the development of the community and its agricultural and industrial economy through the prominent Codding family and their descendants, who were owners and managers of several of the largest 19"h- and 20"*-century jewelry manufacturing firms in North Attleborough and Attleborough. It is also important as a prime surviving example of the evolution of a local agricultural complex that began with the general farming practiced first by Jonathan Richards and until 1881 by Abiel Codding, Sr., ending with nearly 50 years as a 20*- century regional dairy farm under the management of the Titus family. including at least two side-ell kitchens, is an excellent example of a five-bay, center-chimney Cape Cod types of outbuildings built in that era by affluent owners for the specialized needs of their tenants, in this case a family of dairy farmers.

The farm landscape, with its two large fields and fieldstone walls, retains an abundance of evidence of two centuries of continuous agricultural use. In spite of alterations to the house interior and some changes over time in the type of agriculture pursued, the buildings and the 3.78 acres of the farm included in this nomination retain integrity of setting, location, design, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association. Background and early history. North Attleborough is located 30 miles south of Boston and 14 miles northeast of Providence, at the northern edge of Bristol County. The Rhode Island border forms the town's west boundary, and the community is surrounded on the other three sides by Plainville on the north, Mansfield at the east end, and its parent town of Attleborough to the south.

North Attleborough was incorporated as a town in 1887 from the north part of Attleborough (founded in 1694) following a period of rapid growth that had been spurred by burgeoning industrial development around a large number of jewelry and button-making factories. Today, jewelry manufacturing is still a significant local industry. While the town is rich in architectural examples of the revival styles of the mid-1g'" through early 20" centuries, with the exception of a few outlying farms, much of the town today has been developed with post-World War II residential subdivisions. (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 8 Page 2 OMB Approval No.

1024-0018 The Codding Farm North Attleborough (Bristol), MA In the early 19" century, what later became the Codding Farm existed as a collection of rural parcels in the northwest part of Attleborough adjacent to the Wrentham line, some of them partially improved for agriculture. High Street was then a winding rural road leading west from the small population center that had evolved in association with the 18h-century post road that ran south from Dedham to Providence, RI. That important regional through-route had originated from the Bay Road, the primary transportation corridor from Boston to Narragansett Bay through most of the colonial period. A village aligned along the post road which became known as Attleborough's North Village included the earliest English settlement in Attleborough, begun ca. 1669 by John Woodcock, who opened a tavern there.

Even as the larger colonial town center grew up to the south at "Old Town" near what was later the border between the two towns, settlement at the North Village expanded with the establishment of some small colonial mills at Whiting's Pond just to the west and at others along the Ten Mile River to the east and south. Activity along and near the post road corridor quickened in the early 19t century, when the Norfolk and Bristol Turnpike (opened 1806) was built through Attleborough as a more direct north-south toll road, part of it along today's North and South Washington Streets. Soon a number of early cotton mills began operating at Whiting's Pond and at the falls on the Ten Mile River With the exception of the old town center, the North Village, and small clusters of development around the industrial sites, most of what became North Attleborough was rural through the late 19t century.

Several farms remain on the outskirts of the community, but today the Codding Farm is the largest open parcel near the center of town - a rare surviving example of a two-centuries-old agricultural property directly adjacent to a populous downtown area. Reduced in size over generations from at least 90 acres or more (today the entire town-owned property measures just over 58 acres), the Codding Farm once stretched east to within a quarter- mile of North Washington Street. In the late 19# century, that eastern section of the farm was gradually subdivided to become part of a stylish late Victorian neighborhood of side streets laid out between North Washington Street on the east and Broadway on the west.

Two of the side streets that were extended through the Codding land at that time, Church and Gould Streets, as well as the east end of High Street, are included in the 1999 High, Church and Gould Streets National Register District. Jonathan Richards's ownership 1833-1850 Architectural evidence, supported by deeds and historic maps, points to a construction date for the Codding farmhouse around 1833. That was the year that the heirs of Nathan Richards (who died in 1798), including his son David and daughter Elizabeth Richards, conveyed their shares in an approximate 30-acre parcel of land to David's second-eldest son Jonathan Richards (1810-1881). Jonathan was newly married to Fidelia Warren (their marriage intentions were published on November 3, 1832); thus the house at 217 High Street may have been built in association with their marriage. (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev.

10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet The Codding Farm North Attleborough (Bristol), MA Section number 8 Page 3 Through the middle of the 19t century, members of the Richards family owned large amounts of land on both sides of High Street in the vicinity of the Codding Farm, including a tract of over 75 acres extending south to Metcalf Road through the 1890s.At leasttwo or three other Richards houseswere built and tarms established along the road west of 217 High Street, and one family member, Edwin Richards, had a nursery nearby that is shown on the map of 1858.

Little is known about Jonathan or his farm or exactly how it was associated with the other Richards properties, although deeds reveal that his 30 acres had been art ot a much larger tract that had passed down from his grandfather. Jonathan's parents' house was ocated on the adiacent property to the west, which they shared with their older son David, Jr. and hi family. Both David, Sr. and his wife Eleanor died of typhoid fever, he in 1844 at the age of 77, and she in 1847 at 68. After their deaths their farm was occupied by Jonathan's sister, Sylvia, and her husband Ozias Hall. The barnyard of that abutting property jutted east into Jonathan Richards' farm, accounting for a jog in the west boundary line. (See Plan 3.) Abiel Codding, Sr.'s farm (1850-1881) In 1850, jewelry manufacturer Abiel Codding, Jr. bought Jonathan Richards' farm, with its buildings and the same acreage.

The purchase included all 3.78 acres of the nominated property, the rest of the 16- acre Parcel 29 on North Attleborough Assessor's Map 19, and the south part of Parcel 6 on Map 20. In later years Abiel, Jr. added adjoining parcels to the farm until it reached about 90 acres in size. According to Codding family descendants, Abiel, Jr. purchased the farm not for his own use, but for his father, Abiel Codding, Sr., whose previous farm is reported to have been located in the east part of Attleborough. (NOTE: The names of both father and son are alternately spelled "Abial.") The senior Abiel Codding (1792-1881) was born in Taunton. He first came to Attleborough about 1807 as a teenager and worked for monthly wages as a farmhand. Seneca Sanford, who owned one of the largest farms in the north part of town, was one of his early employers.

In 1813 Abiel married Chloe Daggett (1792-1855) in Rehoboth. Chloe was a member of the large Attleborough Daggett family, and it may be on or near her parents' farm in the east part of town that she and Abiel first set up housekeeping in Attleborough. During the War of 1812 Abiel was a private in the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia in Capt. Samuel Cushman's Company of Lt. Col. C. Howard's Regiment, which was called up for service in Plymouth in September and October of 1814. In 1817 and 1819 Abiel and Chloe were living in Rehoboth, where their first two children were born, but by 1820 they were back in Attleborough with a household of seven, including three small children and Abiel's aging parents, James and Joanna Codding. Abiel's mother and father remained with their son's family until they died, in 1836 and 1840, respectively. (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev.

10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet The Codding Farm North Attleborough (Bristol), MA Section number 8 Page _4 biel and Chloe eventually had between ten and thirteen children, eight of whom grew to adulthood Although in their younger years their family grew rapidly, by the time their eldest son purchased the High Street farm for them in 1850, census records show that their household was then much smaller than it had been, with only one or two of the youngest children left at home. Over the three decades of Abiel, Sr.'s management and occupancy of 217 High Street, he practiced a type of general farming that had prevailed in the Attleborough area since the colonial era.

On over 80 acres, about half of them improved for agriculture, he grew a variety of grains, hay, apples and a few vegetable crops, and kept a small herd of less than a half dozen cows. In 1850 the value of the farm was $2,000, rising to $6,000 by 1870 - not the highest in value or most productive of the farms in the area of town that became North Attleborough, but prosperous enough for his biographer to call him a "well-to-do farmer" shortly after his death. He was known as industrious and frugal, an "example of industry and sobriety... one of the most upright and honorable men in town."" At mid-century, butter and cheese were his main dairy products. However, like other farmers in the region, by 1870 Abiel was no longer making cheese, but rather producing milk for sale by the gallon - 1,825 gallons in that year.

Like the farm itself, the Codding household changed somewhat with the times and with the status of the family and the age of its members. Chloe Codding died in March of 1855, a few years after they moved to the farm. Less than eight months later, at the age of 63, Abiel married Lucy R. Whiting, aged 55. Abiel and Lucy's own household was small, and it appears that they undertook a good deal of the farm work themselves. The only other occupant listed on the 1860 census was Abiel's 15 year-old grandson Willard Thayer, who at that time worked in one of the local jewelry factories. Willard was the son of Joanna (Codding) Thayer, younger sister of Abiel, Jr. Joanna had died in 1848 and her husband Benjamin Thayer was killed in a train accident in 1849. Abiel Codding, Jr. was appointed guardian of Willard and his sister until they came of age. In 1870, when Abiel, Sr.

was nearly 80, Willard Thayer was no longer in residence, and the household consisted of Abiel, Lucy, and a 27 year-old farmhand from Canada. It is not clear whether the farmhouse was built as a double house, or whether it was expanded to accommodate two families sometime after it came under Codding ownership. The presence of an exterior trim board at the rear northwest corner of the main house (perhaps part ofa former cornerboard) seems to indicate that the west kitchen ell was an addition, while the east kitchen was probably original. In any case, by 1880, the building was clearly a two-family residence. At that time, a year before he died, Abiel lived alone with a single English-born servant in one part of the house, while a family of seven occupied the rest of the building. Lucy Codding had died in 1874.

It is likely that as an old man Abiel slept in a small first-story bedroom, and that each of the two households used one of the side-ell kitchens. The (continued) ' Daggett, John. In Hurd, D. Hamilton, ed. History of Bristol County. Philadelphia: J.W. Lewis & Co., 1883. NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet The Codding Farm North Attleborough (Bristol), MA Section number 8 Page _5 tenant family consisted of Vermont-born farm-laborer Julius H. Mead and his wife Abby (both 34 in 1880), their two small daughters, her 20 year-old brother Frank Darby, who worked in one of the local jewelry factories, and 16 year-old Lois Mead, possibly Julius's sister. There was also a young boarder in the Meads' part of the house, a 19-year-old farm laborer.

It is likely that the Meads worked the farm for a number of years, possibly both before and after Abiel Codding's death in 1881. It is less clear how the farm's longtime owner, Abiel Codding, Jr. (1817-1901), may have used the property. He was not a farmer, but in his teens entered employment in Attleborough's budding jewelry industry. He rose rapidly to positions of ownership and responsibility, entered into various partnerships, and by the time he bought the farm for his parents he was a principal partner in the largest manufacturing firm in Attleborough--an extraordinary rise to prominence as a jewelry manufacturer in a town which had 45 jewelry factories by 1880 As described in his biographies in the late 19t*-century town and county histories, Abiel, Jr. had an engineering/mechanical mind, and developed many innovations in jewelry-making tools and equipment.

He began at 16 with three years in the employment of H.M. Richards, one of the early pioneers in the local jewelry industry, after which he went into partnership for a short time with Stephen Richardson as Richardson & Codding. The Coddings, Richardsons, and a branch of the Richards families were among the most prominent of North Attleborough's jewelers through much of the 19 century. In 1841 Abiel married Ann Maria Richards, daughter of one of the earliest North Attleborough jewelry manufacturers, Calvin Richards, who ran a firm together with George Price from 1830 to 1856. The Price and Richards partnership became one of the largest local jewelry manufacturers under its later name, Ira Richards & Co., with over 225 employees.

In 1841 or 1842 Abiel became a partner in that company, and in 1844 he was instrumental in the firm becoming the first industrial concern in southeastern Massachusetts to use steam power. The company manufactured a variety of gold and silver jewelry as well as hooks and eyes. Between 1850 and 1860 a second company, Richards, Codding & Co., was formed primarily for the hooks and eyes production. At mid-century the Ira Richards firm greatly expanded, eventually taking on the new name of E.I. Richards & Co. Codding remained associated with this firm for 30 years until it was dissolved. Later in the 19t century Abiel Codding, Jr. held other prominent positions in both Attleborough and North Attleborough. He was President ofthe Attleborough Savings Bank, a director of the First National Bank of North Attleborough, and President of the North Attleborough Gaslight Company.

As early as the 1850s he was also heavily invested in local real estate - not just the many parcels associated with the farm and his jewelry factories, but additional property east of the farm that he divided and sold for house lots. Through multiple purchases he amassed a large acreage between the farm and Main Street (now North Washington Street), most of it lying north of the east end of High Street. From at least the 1870s through most of the 1890s he proceeded to lay out side streets and sell off house lots on Broad Street, Broadway, (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet The Codding Farm North Attleborough (Bristol), MA Section number 8 Page Grove Street, Division Street, Pleasant Street, and lower High Street.

One of his later conveyances was to the Old Colony Railroad, which in 1890 purchased a north-south corridor through the east edge of the tarm, where the company built the Walpole & Wrentham Branch Railroad (opened 1891). When the tracks were completed, a cattle pass (still extant) was constructed underneath them to allow the Codding Farm's cows to move from one pasture to another. The Codding Farm as a tenant farm (1881 -2000) The old "industrious and frugal" farmer remained on the farm until the end of his life. Abiel Codding, Sr. died in 1881 late in his 89t year, and with his passing the Codding farm entered nearly a century of occupancy by tenants who lived in the house, worked the land, and tended livestock there while Codding descendants owned and maintained the house and outbuildings.

For most of that time the farm was about 60 acres in size, stretching east at least to the railroad and north to West Street with a small corner extending into Plainville, which was incorporated in 1905 from part of Wrentham. A handful of house lots were ultimately divided out at the north and east edges of the farm, and in 1974 a narrow strip along the frontage of the farmstead was taken by the town for the widening of High Street. Abiel Codding, Jr. died in 1901. After his death, the ownership of the farm passed to his two surviving sons, James A. and Edwin A. Codding, together with the two children of a third son, Arthur E., who had died in 1900, Annie Codding Bliss and Arthur E. Codding, Jr. With the continuation of family ownership, a close connection between the farm and the North Attleborough jewelry industry continued, as well.

By 1880 Arthur, James, and Edwin had formed their own manufacturing firm called Codding Brothers, which in that year produced jewelry valued at $24,000. Intermarriages with other jewelry- manufacturing families continued in their generation as well. While their father and grandfather had married into the pioneering Whiting and Richards families, in the 1870s James and Edwin married into the Freeman family. Their wives were sisters or cousins Agnes Adele and Joanne (Jane) Freeman - at least one of whom was the daughter of Attleborough Falls manufacturer Benjamin S. Freeman. When James Codding died in 1910, his interest in the farm was inherited by his wife Agnes Adele Codding and their two married daughters Josephine Cummings and Agnes Mildred Garner. Both Josephine and Mildred were married to jewelry manufacturers - Josephine to Edwin H. Cummings, and Mildred to Stephen H. Garner.

Edwin Cummings owned and operated the General Chain Company, and Stephen Garner was a principal in the Leach & Garner Company of Attleborough, which had been founded in 1899, partly by his father. He remained with the company until his death in the 1950s, and during his time there Leach & Garner became the dominant nationwide supplier of raw materials to jewelry manufacturers that it remains today, under the name of Stern-Leach, a division of Cookson America. In 1918 James's widow received the half interest in the Codding Farm that had been held by her nephew and brother-in-law. As a result she gained a majority interest in the farm, while her two daughters and her niece Annie Bliss continued to hold the rest. Annie Bliss, (who by then owned a house on High Street just west of the farm), was also married to a jewelrymanufacturer, Chester Bliss of Bliss Brothers Company in Attleborough.

(continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet The Codding Farm North Attleborough (Bristol), MA Section number 8 Page _7 It was just after the 1918 transfer of interest that the present dairy barn was built or rebuilt. Valued at $2,000 when it was finished, it replaced an old smaller barn that had been valued at $600. There was also a corncrib on the farmstead (not extant), probably built around the same time. Under all the heirs and tenants, the property had continued to be a working farm, and it is likely that the new barn was constructed specifically for the use of the tenants of that time, the Tituses.

"The Titus Farm." (1910-1958) The tenants who occupied the Codding Farm the longest were the Titus family, some of whom had formerly lived at 61 High Street, in a house that was also acquired by the Coddings. Hiram J. ("Hi") Titus (1873-1959), who with his wife Mabel (Dennett) was in residence on the Codding Farm by 1910, ran the property as a dairy farm, distributing milk for over 40 years to customers throughout the North Attleborough area. Although the Tituses leased the property from the Coddings, under their management it was truly a family farm, known through most of the 20th century as the Titus Farm. In 1910, Hiram, Mabel, and their young daughter Phyllis occupied the house along with Hiram's father Stephen and uncle Frank.

Both Stephen and Frank Titus were butchers, and although no information is available about a slaughterhouse on the farm, the distinctive hoist that hangs in the east shed above the well may have begun as, or been based on, the traditional slaughtering wheel. (Map #5.) Mabel Titus was the niece of one of North Attleborough's major industrialists, William Coupe (b. 1835). Owner of the longtime William Coupe Co., Ltd. tannery (the oldest in the region, established 1865), he lived with the family for at least a few years toward the end of his life. Frank Titus died in 1911, and Stephen in 1922. From 1915 to 1949, Hi's younger unmarried brother John A. Titus lived with the family and shared in running the farm. Although the Titus household must have been somewhat crowded, in some years the family still shared the house with others.

The 1910 census reveals that in that year part of the building was occupied by a Canadian-born family. Henry Stevens, who worked in one of the jewelry factories, his wife Georgia and young son George were then living in one side of the house. There was also a 14 year-old Canadian boarder in the Titus household - Bert Lightfoot, a farm laborer. Later transfers of ownership Ownership of the farm had become fragmented among the Codding heirs over the three generations succeeding Abiel Codding, Jr.'s death. Before the middle of the 20th century, however, those fractional interests were consolidated in the hands of only two members of the fourth and fifth generation Agnes Mildred (Codding) Garner died in 1921, predeceasing her mother. Her widower Stephen Garner and their young daughter Suzanne (born 1913) inherited Mrs. Garner's share of the farm ownership.

In 1922 Agnes Adele Codding (James's widow) transferred a quarter interest to her granddaughter Suzanne Garner. Suzanne's father and her mother's cousin Annie Bliss later transferred their small interests to her as well. Agnes Adele Codding died in 1936, at which time her remaining interest was inherited by her surviving daughter Josephine Cummings (Suzanne's aunt). (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet The Codding Farm North Attleborough (Bristol), MA Section number 8 Page 8 Thus by the mid-1940s the ownership of the property wasin the hands of only two Codding descendants, Josephine Cummings and her niece Suzanne (Garner) LeStage. Suzanne had married Donald LeStage, Jr. in 1937.

He was with the LeStage Manufacturing Company, which had been founded by his father in 1916. He was also a principal in the O.M. Draper jewelry manufacturing firm, which had been purchasec y his father and made a division of the LeStage Company. Donald, Jr. died in 1979, and the compan continues today under his three sons: Donald III, Garner, and Richard LeStage. In 1947 Josephine Cummings in turn transferred her fractional interest to her son Edwin H. Cummings, Jr., who succeeded his father as owner of the General Chain Company. When he died in 1981, his two daughters inherited his interest in the property, which they sold to Suzanne LeStage in 1983, giving her full ownership of the Codding Farm. The Codding Farm in the late 20" century Hiram and John Titus continued to operate the dairy farm through the 1940s.

While milk from the Titus Dairy was originally peddled from a horse and wagon (or a sleigh in winter), the deliveries gradually became motorized, utilizing a variety of vehicles. Joe Casey is remembered as one who delivered milk for Hi, sometimes in the hearse or flower truck from Casey's funeral home. By 1950 John Titus had died or moved away, and Hiram carried on alone until 1954 or 1955, when he sold his milk routes to a farmer from West Wrentham, Carl Whipple. Hi Titus kept his cow herd even after the sale, however, selling milk in bulk to Mr. Whipple. He died in his mid-eighties in 1959. With Hiram Titus's death the property's use as a dairy farm ended, but Suzanne LeStage and Edwin Cummings, Jr. continued to lease the fields to farmers.

The main late 20*-century crops were corn and hay, grown both in the big field behind the house and in the smaller field near the road, southeast of the barn. The house had various tenants through the end of the century. Current Selectman Marge Kraskouskas, her husband, and several children were there from 1965 to 1967, and from the late 1960s to the 1990s, Suzanne LeStage's son Garner and his wife Marilyn occupied the house. It was during those years that the second story was enlarged and remodeled with the two front dormers and the large shed dormer across the rear.

All through that time, and up to the present day, the low wetland area in the southeast corner of the farm near the railroad called locally Titus Pond (outside the National Register boundaries) continued its traditional use as a winter skating pond for the community, flooded each year by the fire department, and maintained first by the North Attleborough Kiwanis Club and subsequently by the North Attleborough Rotary Club. The Codding Farm as a community resource (2000-present) Toward the end of the 20"h century the pace of residential construction in North Attleborough dramatically increased. In 2000, a developer presented plans to divide the farm into over 50 house lots. The property was then under the Chapter 61A agricultural exemption, giving the town first refusal rights to match the (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev.

10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet The Codding Farm North Attleborough (Bristol), MA Section number 8 Page 9 purchase price, but the deadline to do so passed without any action from a Special Town Meeting. In a dramatic effort to save her family's farm, Suzanne LeStage, then in her late eighties, persuaded the developer not to immediately proceed with the purchase. A public awareness campaign was mounted by concerned citizens (including a local teenager, Molly Sullivan, who lobbied for preserving the farm for future generations), and in October, 2000, a Special Town Meeting voted to purchase the property for $2.3 million. Suzanne LeStage was closely involved throughout the purchase, negotiation, and preservation process. The January 2001 deed from Mrs.

LeStage to the Inhabitants of North Attleborough includes the requirement that three acres at the southeast corner of the property be reserved for use as a public skating pond, to be overseen by the local Park Department. The house and barn were left unprotected, however, and a new effort was undertaken to make sure that most of the deteriorated barn would be saved. A non- profit friends group, the Friends of the Codding-LeStage Farm, was established as a charitable trust to assist with the conservation of the farm landscape and the preservation of the buildings. Early in 2007 they undertook the stabilization of the barn. Although the rear portion of the cow shed wing was too damaged to save, with volunteer labor and donated materials the Friends stabilized the main foundation and floor supports and re-shingled the barn roof.

Lumber salvaged in the demolition of an 1880s house at 73 Old Post Road, donated by Boch Enterprises, has been stockpiled on site for future use in the barn's restoration. The North Attleborough Dept. of Public Works joined with the North Attleborough Historical Commission in cleaning out the buildings and salvaging any historical contents, which included items from the O.M. Draper Jewelry Company. Shortly after the Town purchased the property, female inmates under the Bristol County Sheriff's Department painted the exterior of the house. Plans for the future use of the property and buildings, however, are still in flux. Proposals have included the sale of five house lots along the property's west edge, using the present buildings as storage space and town offices, and developing the fields as a community farm.

The south 12+ acres of the farm have been subdivided into two parcels, one of 3.78 acres with the farmstead which is now the subject of this National Register nomination, one of 7.7 acres with the skating pond, and a right-of-way between them from High Street to the rear portion of the land. (Plan 2) While the ultimate use of the various parts of the Codding Farm has yet to be determined, National Register listing for the 3.78 acres with the house, barn, and adjacent fields is a logical next step both in their preservation and in heightening public awareness of the farm's importance in both the history and the future of the town of North Attleborough. (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service OMB Approval No.

1024-0018 National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet The Codding Farm North Attleborough (Bristol), MA Section number 8 _ Page10 Archaeological Significance Since patterns of ancient Native American settlement in North Attleborough are poorly documented, any surviving sites could be significant. While numerous ancient sites have been recorded downstream of the farm along the Ten Mile River drainage, many sites lack interpretative information beyond locations. Many other sites have also been destroyed by industrial, urban, and suburban development. Potential sites in the district may enable the opportunity to systematically study site distributions in the Ten Mile River drainage, and their cultural and functional variability through time.

Ancient Native sites in the district may contain information that defines the role of sites in this area with more densely settled locales between Attleborough Falls and Attleborough Center or other core areas to the south towards Narragansett Bay. Historic archaeological resources described above may contribute important information on the development of the North Attleborough, community and the role the farm played in its agricultural and industrial economy through its occupation by the Codding family and their tenants for over 150 years. Structural evidence from barns and outbuildings may contribute important information related to the architectural and spatial characteristics of a "connected farmstead" and the type of agricultural activities conducted at the farm.

Similar evidence may also contribute information that refutes or supports the initial construction of the house as a double house or its later conversion to a double house. Structural evidence, artifacts, and the contents of occupational-related features may contribute important archaeological data that supports architectural, deed, and map information that dates construction of the house to 1833. Detailed analysis of the contents of occupational-related features may also contribute important information related to the domestic and agricultural activities conducted at the farm, and the social, cultural, and economic characteristics of the farm's inhabitants.

Historical research combined with archaeological survey, testing, and detailed analysis of the contents of occupational-related features may contribute important information related to the activities of the farm's occupants over time. Little information is known about Jonathan Richards' use of the farm after he built the Codding Farmhouse around 1833. Historical and archaeological resources may identify exactly when the farmhouse was built of the farm s longest occupanrs, Abral Codding, Ir, used the prepety since he, unlike his fathe was one ., used the property since he, unlike his father was not a farmer, but a jewelry manufacturer, and did not live on the farm. Historical and archaeological resources may identify patterns of land use during his ownership. Any information that clarities the relationship between agriculture and jewelry manufacturing could be especially important.

(end) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 9 Page - 1 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 The Codding Farm North Attleborough (Bristol), MA 9. MAJOR BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES Books, articles, manuscripts, interviews, etc. Daggett, John. A Sketch of the History of Attleborough. (Ameila Daggett Sheffield, ed.) Boston: Press of Samuel Usher, 171 Devonshire St., 1894. - In Hurd, D.H., ed. History of Bristol County, Mass, Philadelphia: J.W. Lewis & Co., 1883. Forbes, A. Interviews with North Attleborough residents. 2007. Schmidt, Harvey. Chain of title and associated genealogy for Codding Farm. September, 2007. Stone, Orra L. History of Massachusetts Industries, Vol. II. Boston: S.J. Clarke, 1930. Massachusetts government documents Bristol County Registry of Deeds and Probate.

Chapdelaine, Ann J. Abiel Codding Farm: B-Form for 217 High Street; Survey and Inventory of Historic, Architectural, and Cultural Resources of North Attleborough. Boston: Mass. Historical Commission, 2002. Massachusetts Historical Commission. Historic and Archaeological Resources of Southeast Massachusetts. Boston: MHC, 1985. . National Register Documentation Forms for Attleborough Falls (2004), North Attleborough Town Center (1985), and High Church and Gould Streets (1999) Historic Districts. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Commission. Reconnaissance Survey Report: North Attleborough. Boston: Mass. Historical Commission, 1981. Town of North Attleborough documents and files Assessor's Records. Varying dates from 1915 through 2007. North Attleborough Historical Commission files. Richards Memorial Public Library: Historical files.

Vital Records of Attleborough, North Attleborough, Rehoboth and Taunton. (continued) The Codding Farm Name of Property 10. Geographical Data Acreage of Property 3.78 acres (Pace adofional ( references on a continuation sheet) 1.19 Zone 305940 Easting 4650600 Northing 2. Zone Easting Northing Bristol, MA County and State 3. Zone Easting 4. . Zone Easting - See continuation sheet Northing Northing Verbal Boundary Description (Describe the boundaries of the property on a continuation sheet.) Boundary Justification (Explain why the boundaries were selected on a continuation sheet.) 11.

Form Prepared By name/title organization street & number city or town Anne Forbes, consultant, with Betsy Friedberg, National Register Director, MHC Massachusetts Historical Commission date_February 2009 220 Morrissey Blvd telephone_617-727-8470 Boston state Massachusetts _ zip code 02125 Additional Documentation Submit the following items with the completed form: Continuation Sheets A sscs map fo historic distics and propeatieg taipro parge a locage or numerous resources. Photographs Representative black and white photographs of the property.

Additional items (Check with the SHPO or FPO for any additional items) Property Owner (Complete this item at the request of the SHPO or FPO.) name Town of North Attleborough street & number 43 South Washington Street telephone_ 508-699-0117 city or town North Attleborough state MA _ zip code 02760 Paperwork Reduction Act Statement: This information is being collected for applications to the National Register of Historic Places to nominate properties for listing or determine eligibility for listing, to list properties, and to amend existing listings. Response to this request is required to obtain a benefit in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended (16 U.S.C. 470 et seq.).

Estimated Burden Statement: Public reporting burden for this form is estimated to average 18.1 hours per response including the time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining data, and completing and reviewing the form. Direct comments regarding this burden estimate or any aspect of this form tothe Chief, Administrative Services Division, NationalPark Service, P.0. Box37127, Washington, DC 20013-7127; and the Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reductions Project (1024-0018), Washington, DC 20503. NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 9,10 Page 2/1 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 The Codding Farm North Attleborough (Bristol), MA 9. MAJOR BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES, continued Maps and plans Beers, Frederick W. Atlas of Bristol County, Mass. NY: F.W.

Beers, 1871. Bird's Eye View of North Attleborough. Boston: Bailey & Hazen, 1878. Capron, Joseph W. Map of Attleborough, Mass. 1832. Evarts & Richards, pub. New Topographical Atlas of Surveys, Bristol County, Mass. Philadelphia: Everts & Richards, 1895. Walker, George. Atlas of Bristol County, Mass. Boston: George H. Walker & Co., 1880. Walling, H.F. Map of Bristol County, Mass. New York: 1858. Whalen, W.T. Engineering Co. Plan of Land in North Attleborough, MA. 1/25/2007 (end) 10. GEOGRAPHICAL DATA, continued Verbal Boundary Description The boundaries of the nominated property, as shown on Plans land 2, consist of those of "Parcel B" shown on a Plan of Land by Whalen Engineering Co., January 25, 2007.

Boundary Justification The National Register boundaries encompass 3.78 acres at 217 High Street, a subdivided parcel that is part of the larger 58.3-acre Codding Farm now owned by the Town of North Attleborough. The nominated parcel includes the farmstead, which dates to ca. 1833, and two agricultural fields - the best- preserved part of the historic Codding Farm. While most of the acreage is beginning to lose its agricultural associations through the growth of young woodlands, the farmstead parcel, with all the farm buildings and their immediate setting of fields, deciduous trees, and stone walls, retains its historic character. (end) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number photos Page 1 OMB Approval No.

1024-0018 The Codding Farm North Attleborough (Bristol), MA PHOTOGRAPHS All photographs by Anne Forbes, 2007 5 x 7" photographs 1. Codding Farm, 217 High Street: View north over rear field 2. Codding Farmstead, 217 High Street: view north from High Street 3. Codding Farmstead, 217 High Street: view northeast with house and barn 4. Codding Farmstead, 217 High Street: main house facade 5. Codding Farmstead, 217 High Street: east inner ell facade 6. Codding Farmstead, 217 High Street: rear elevations, with west end of barn 7. Codding Farmstead, 217 High Street: equipment shed 8. Codding Farmstead, 217 High Street: barn - west and south elevations 9. Codding Farmstead, 217 High Street: barn and house, looking southwest 10. Codding Farmstead, 217 High Street: rear wing of barn - view east into cow tie-up Supplementary (non-archival) 4 x 6 photographs 11.

Richards/Codding farmhouse: east inner ell: view east to chimney and enclosed stairway 12. Barn: view north along drive floor and cow tie-up 13. Barn: view southwest from drive floor into dairy Plans 1. Codding Farm National Register boundaries 2. Codding Farm subdivision plan, 2007 3. Plot of 1850 deed: Richards to Codding 4. Codding Farmhouse Sketch Plan: First story 5. Codding Farmhouse Sketch Plan: Second story NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number Page 1 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 The Codding Farm North Attleborough (Bristol), MA RESOURCE COUNT MAP# NAME OR DESCRIPTION 2. 3. 4. Richards/Codding House Equipment shed Barn Well Hoist System of fieldstone walls Codding Farm landscape DATE ca. 1833 ca. 1940 1918 unknown unknown. 19' C. 19"-20' C.

C=contributing; NC = non-contributing B= building; O = object; Si = site; St = structure STATUS C. C C C C C TYPE B B B St St Si TOTAL RESOURCE COUNT: BUILDINGS STRUCTURES: OBJECTS: SITES: TOTAL: Contributing 3 2 1 1 7 (end) Non-contributing 0 0 0 0 TOTAL: 0 54027 ic 19%2. 4997 A 218 E 124 Taezfe eeso 1228; EI2S ; 8777 18Gzso. sgot cors. forso. iEISC :126 135 538 137 Br Street Is5gseir. isce ok 6260. 128 15,626 Eg6250. 196°9 old 152. 7/51. TAKLÓR .173 RgORO 5Go9: 162 8999 e ror. 101! Ben son E161 1714- E 160 52% 100 TTETE St 102 a 9315. 8 3125/ la6e8o: 5525. 6789 gt co 1129 18,692 150 tre 100fp et 9647. 132 c06.257 110 26,912 108 109 1289 Road 5037 STT 876 97 3000h 96 er 75 74 sooc E500065005 72 Street 69 5324 soe+ 5824. 70RS 98 3707- 5000 654219:11000l 5004 200928 Link St 5324 59 GC 5300. ESI- 5017 65022. 123 Kre Peterson 57 58 530° 26.74 str 88 04,46. Ba0i3.

F.973.51000 104. 11- 10.160, 18166 53 s2 54 65000 S0do 2000 49 8,000 20.00 2018/12 12,000 120.00 hes lnea -.05 168,050. 30÷06 104.50 PIA BO 38,50l. B0s.55 Broadway 12,42/ 5,17 13,219 142 SEE NORTL ATTLEBORO HOUSING AUTHORITY (CIRCLE COURT) 219 93,212 46167- 013 212 15,050 451.3,20.41 730.3E 222 16,287 120.00 229,86 26 18,959 25 17,444 124.79 312.50 TixCo 102. 74726 24629 220 66,944 24 189 OFEER ST 22219 23 25,600 57.80 95.66 110.90 16,186 5889 110604 :193.18.2092 19 20,046 *,27 430% 2005 20 12,571 TOS. 197.d5 21 22,000 22 27,920. 121.60 105.15 105.% street. -15952 Sumner 15239 195- 215 110432 go 2a +o01319 Hiph 11,456 214 22 *43282 804014 5134. 2/91 11.670 17 192 g 143.70 610 16,400. 229 182.67 88.65 10009 793.51 71.89 9396 N198. 8775 16/09 7 26.778 211 25683 515 Fro 2080 32926. 188 711, 11095 PLAT No.2 TT PLAT 19 709 20 72732.

127.0 T0n a +5LG 23,817 133 28,174 65:0 31$ 9798 38 Fmma 62. Rroadway 13 15,600 474 755 39 21,653 0291 00T57 RaaA75 PIDUu go 37.82 0/101 23,393 27487 INDICATES STREET ADDRESS -006 TIo CODDIDO FARM 217 HGHST- N ORTH ATTEEBRLAT NO. 20 2-1 LOCUS ".sso N$570Y SRIMALDI DRIVE LAN REFERENCES: ATTLEBOROUOM MARS ue 17% Umvert ur KELUKU: INHABITANTS NORTH ATT DEED: PLAN: HSE+ A.P. _OT# THOROUGH TOWN OF Bk.9164/Pg.85 Bk. ***-/Pg.**** 19 9612 29 & 1,6 BOS PARK REALTY CORP. SURVEY LIMIT 2F MAPY WARSIA COCUS REMAINING LAID OF THE INHABITANTS TOWN OF NORTH ATTLEBUROUGH AREA=46.82+ ACRES 1 7-5615 C 30320 3.78* ACRES PARCEL"B" LIMIT OF SURVEY PARCEL"A" /I:RES -AS SHOWN ON M IN TTLED- PLAN OF I WO MORTH ATTLEBI - . EBOROUG 3007 3508 1330725030 1-582025 *-.

CIRCLE COURT ASSESSORS PLAT LANO ON ASSESSORS PLANO-LOT ANO REMAING LAND A HEHEO-OT AEC HIGH 0212N 858.30 (Voriabl : Width - Public) $=2,00 SIREET 5 010217C100.32 GRAPHIC S CALE (-) INDICATES BOUND TO BE SET o, SUMNER (35V ILG PLAN APYSI? **174847V 1342 (1317 - Puoe) STREE Plan 2. Codding Farm Subdivision Plan, January, 2007 -BOS PARK HEM TY CORD- (N298.76 RN6788.00 A03:3635 COCE OMAT Lt14.07 Dote. Chormon The Regirtules ondeeegu oabens, - Dat2en 15,3007 Plan of Land NORTH ATTLEBOROUGH, MAA propared for the Town of North Attleborough prepaned by W.T.WHALEN Y ENCINEERING CO NORTH ATTLEBOROUGH MA (508) 699-4604 January 25. 2007 Icale: 1"= 500 50+51.95 1070625 3 28600 ARNOLD ROAD Land described in 1850 deed from Jonathan Richards to Abiel Codding, Jr. in B. 198, p.

130 NOTE: distances and bearings of north, east, and south bounds were estimated 225.00 feet marem 1:2700 Ellis Blackinton Lewis Blackinton N 80° g'0°E 990.00 feet 356.40 feet Ellis Blackinton AREA=31.0113 ACRES 551.10 fo8l N 5° 0'0'W S01441E 1837.03 feet Leonara Blackinton Road / 990.00 feet Samuel Guild Plan 3. Plot of 1850 deed: Richards to Codding Plotted by Harvey Schmidt, September 2007 well PLAN 4. CODDING FARMHOUSE SKETCH PLAN: FIRST STORY Drawing by Ann Chapdelaine PLAN 5.

CODDING FARMHOUSE SKETCH PLAN: SECOND STORY Drawing by Ann Chapdelaine UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES EVALUATION/RETURN SHEET REQUESTED ACTION: NOMINATION PROPERTY NAME: Codding Farm, The MULTIPLE NAME: STATE & COUNTY: MASSACHUSETTS, Bristol DATE RECEIVED: DATE OF 16TH DAY: DATE OF WEEKLY LIST: 3/09/09 4/11/09 DATE OF PENDING LIST: DATE OF 45TH DAY: REFERENCE NUMBER: 09000236 3/27/09 4/22/09 REASONS FOR REVIEW: APPEAL: REQUEST: N DATA PROBLEM: N LANDSCAPE: N PERIOD: SAMPLE: N SLR DRAFT: N LESS THAN 50 YEARS: PROGRAM UNAPPROVED: NATIONAL: N N COMMENT WAIVER: N VACEPT RETURN REJECT 4.22.09 DATE ABSTRACT/SUMMARY COMMENTS : Entered in The Natonal Register Histortc Places RECOM./CRITERIA REVIEWER DISCIPLINE TELEPHONE DATE DOCUMENTATION see attached comments Y/N see attached SLR Y/N If a nomination is returned to the nominating authority, the nomination is no longer under consideration by the NPS.

/ CODDING FARM NORTA ATTLSBORO CODDING FARM NORTA ATTLOBORER 3 CODDING FARM NORTA ATTLEB CODDIN FARM NORTH ATTLOBORO CODDING FARM NORT ATTLBORON CODDINa FARM NORH ATTLEEBOR CODDINE FATAM NORTA ATTLGBOROO NO TRESPASSING DUMFING POL TAKE NITICI 8 CODDINGFARI NORTA ATTUSBOr 9 CODDING FARM NORTI ATTLL BOROTEM, /0 GAPDINE FARM NORTA ATTLOBOROUEH CODDiNG FARN NORTA ATTLES 09/2 NNNNNNNN 015 12 CODDING FA NORTH ATT 09/24/2007 NNNNNNNN 015 13 CODDING FARM NORTH ATTLESOROVEN, 015 00 Page 1 of 1 Friedberg, Betsy @ SEC From: Stephen Chapdelaine [citation5pilot@comcast.net] Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2008 2:27 PM To: Friedberg, Betsy (SEC) Subject: NATIONAL REGISTER NOMINATION-CODDING FARM December 4, 2008 Ms.

Betsy Friedberg National Register Director Massachusetts Historical Commission State Archives Building 220 Morrissey Blvd Boston MA 02125 Dear Ms Friedberg: I recently read a news release that the MHC is going to be voting upon the question of whether or not to support the nomination of the Codding Farm which is located in North Attleborough, MA to the National Register of Historic Places. As a long time resident of North Attleborough who is also a close neighbor to the Codding Farm, I urge you to vote in favor of this nomination. This normination is an important step in the process; a process which eventually could lead us to actively working a plan for the preservation of this unique piece of Massachusetts History. Also, on a side note, your funding of Ms.

Anne Forbes who prepared a wonderful and comprehensive document concerning this unique piece of history is well noted and appreciated. I personally had the opportunity to meet Ms. Forbes on one of the days in which she was conducting her survey of the house, barn,, and farm. Her professionalism, perspective, investigative techniques and writings are excellent. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Stephen C Chapdelaine 111 High St North Attleborough, MA 02760 12/8/2008 Page 1 of 1 Friedberg, Betsy @ SEC From: Bob Lanpher [nahistorical@yahoo.com] Sent: To: Friday, December 05, 2008 2:24 PM Friedberg,Betsy (SEC) Subject: Codding Farm Nomination 105 Richards Ave. North Attleborough, Ma. 02760-1611 Ms. Betsy Friedberg National Register Director Massachusetts Historical Commission State Archives Building 220 Morrissey Blvd. Boston MA 02125 Dear Ms.

Friedberg, I understand that the North Attleborough Historical Commission has nominated the Codding farmhouse, barn and property for the National Register. I would like to extend my recommendation for this nomination. As a lifelong resident of North Attleborough and one interested in local history, I have often visited the farm and surrounding fields both as a child and in adulthood. The property has always attracted those interested in a little bit of exercise walking the sloping fields and enjoying such an attractive setting. A small pond that was once also part of the farm was always a favorite for ice-skating in the winter.

Knowing Ann Chapdelaine, I am sure that she has ensured that the property is well documented, so I wonOt go into any of the history of the property that I am aware of through my talks with the Suzanne LeStage, the previous property owner whose family owned the farm for 100+ years. When the LeStage family sold the property to the town, it was always with the intention that the property be spared development. I am sure that they will be very happy with this step in seeing it preserved for many years to come. Thank you for your consideration of placing the Codding farm on the National Register of Historic Places. Robert W. Lanpher Trustee, North Attleborough Historical Society, Inc.

12/8/2008 Page 1 of 1 Friedberg, Betsy @ SEC From: Shelly Ross [ndnial@verizon.net] Sent: Friday, December 05, 2008 1:00 AM To: Friedberg,Betsy (SEC) Subject: Codding Farm/North Attleborough Dear Betsy, I hope you will find the Codding Farm located in North Attleborough as worthy as we here in town do. I believe the Codding Farm deserves to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places because of the age, history (agricultural), and architectural significance of the property. I believe the placement of this property on the National Register will greatly aid our Historical Commission in the preservation of this open space and limit potential destruction of the house, barn, and surrounding farmland. As I'm sure you're aware, open space is at a premium in many towns and I for one would like to preserve as much open space as I can.

I would greatly appreciate your voting in favor of the North Attleborough Historical Commission's nomination. Sincerely, Shelly Ross 250 Elm St. N. Attleborough, MA 02760 12/8/2008 HOATH AITLE® RECEIVED BT DEC 08 2008 MASS. HIST. COMM TOWN OF NORTH ATTLEBOROUGH TOWN ADMINISTRATOR 43 South Washington Street North Attleborough MA 02760 508-699-0100- 508-643-1268 fax Mark C. Fisher, Town Administrator December 5, 2008 Brona Simon State Historic Preservation Officer Massachusetts Historical Commission 220 Morrissey Blvd Boston, MA 02125 Dear Brona Simon, I am writing to you on behalf of the Town of North Attleborough Board of Selectmen, relative to the Codding Farm being considered by the Massachusetts Historical Commission for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. The Board is very enthused in this application and asks for favorable adoption.

This piece of property has a significant place in the history of our town. Its location, as a farm, is unique in that is has proximity to the center business district. It forms the boarder of what was, at one time, one of our "country" sections to a thickly populated area. The Town looks forward to the opportunities that may present themselves, as a result of this gem being included in the National Register of Historic Places. Sincerely, For the Board of Selectmen, Mark Fusher Mark Fisher Town Administrator cc: North Attleborough Historic Commission Board of Selectmen Friedberg, Betsy @ SEC From: Sent: To: Subject: Myles Day [mylessterlingday@gmail.com] Saturday, December 06, 2008 11:50 PM Friedberg, Betsy (SEC) Support for the National Registration of Codding Farm Hello Betsy, My name is Myles Day & I have been resident of North Attleboro for almost 23 years.

I hold a lot of pride in my town, especially in its ability to preserve its historical significance. The Codding farmhouse, barn, and landscape are rare surviving examples with early and agricultural significance from several historic periods. They are significant historical landmarks for North Attleboro & its residents. Therefore, I am pleading with you to support the National Registration of Codding Farm. This will provide the first crucial step in the town's efforts to preserve the property, permitting several more generations to cherish this wonder. Thank you for listening to me, Myles Day Proud Resident of North Attleboro Page 1 of 1 Friedberg, Betsy @ SEC From: ehd18jcd@comcast.net Sent: Sunday, December 07, 2008 6:00 PM To: Friedberg, Betsy (SEC) Subject: Codding Farm/LeStage property in North Attleborough Dear Ms.

Friedberg, The Codding Farm that was formerly operated by the LeStage family, and is now the property of the Town of North Attleborough, is sadly deteriorating due to the town's benign neglect. Because I am relatively new to the area, I only know of its history from others more familiar with the situation. There was talk by the Selectmen to sell the property to a developer, because they saw its purchase by the town as an investment. Apparently most people who voted for its purchase thought it would be kept as open space. The property has been surveyed, and a group was formed to create a community farm on the site. That group has ceased being active at this point. The town's Historical Commission is seeking to get this beautiful property on the National Register of Historic Places. When compared to the many other places with that designation, it certainly seems worthy of being included.

The threat of its demise, and sale to a speculative developer, makes time of the essence. Please do whatever you can to make this a reality. Thank you very much. Sincerely, Betsy Dakin 12/8/2008 Page 1 of 1 Friedberg, Betsy @ SEC From: Keith Lapointe [keithlapointe@yahoo.com] Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2008 11:14 AM To: Friedberg, Betsy (SEC) Subject: Codding Farm/LeStage Property Ms. Friedberg, I am writing to you to express my deep support for the nomination of the Codding Farm in North Attleboro to be included in the National Register of Historic Places. This farm is a wonderful example of a simpler time in our history and I would love to see continued restoration and maintenance. Ihave the privlege of driving by the property every day on my way to work, and truly appreciate the view.

As North Attleboro continue to faceunrelenting development, Ibeleive it is important to protect this important link to the town's history. I ask that you please give serious consideration and grant the Codding Farm the recognition such a wonderful property deserves. Thank you for your consideration! Respectfully yours, Keith Lapointe 28 John J. Grimaldi Drive North Attleboro, MA 02760 Cell: 617-283-2905 12/9/2008 RECEIVED 2280 GEST BETT CHLACNA MAR 0 9 2009 The Commonwealth of Massachusetts NAT. REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES NATIONAL PARK SERVICE William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Massachusetts Historical Commission February 26, 2009 Mr. J. Paul Loether, Chief National Register of Historic Places Department of the Interior National Park Service 1201 Eye Street, NW 8th floor Washington, DC 20005 Dear Mr.

Loether: Enclosed please find the following nomination form: Codding Farm, North Attleborough (Bristol), MA The nomination has been voted eligible by the State Review Board and has been signed by the State Historic Preservation Officer. The owners of the property were notified of pending State Review Board consideration 30 to 45 days before the meeting and were afforded the opportunity to comment. Seven letters of support have been received Sincerely, /Detsy Betsy Friedberg Fredkeg National Register Director Massachusetts Historical Commission Enclosure Cc: John Rhyno, North Attleborough Board of Selectmen Ann Chapdelaine, North Attleborough Historical Commission Anne Forbes John F. Marchitto, North Attleborough Planning Board 220 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, Massachusetts 02125 (617) 727-8470 - Fax: (617) 727-5128 www.state.ma.us/sec/mhc