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NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) OMB No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service RECEIVED 2280 664 AUG 0 5 2011 National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NAT. REGISTER OFHISTORIC PLACES NAHONAL 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 Bullard House other names/site number Pollard Store; Woodward House 2. Location street & number 4 Woodward Avenue N/A not for publication city or town Berlin N/Avicinity state Massachusetts code MA _ county. Worcester code_027 _zip code. 01503 3. State/Federal Agency Certification As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1986, as amended, I hereby certify that this M nomination - request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60.
In my opinion, the propertv Y meets - does not meet the National Register Criteria. I recommend that this property be considered significant - nationally - statewide -locally. (D See continuation sheet for additional comments.) prora suron july 27,2011 Signature of certifying official/Title Brona Simon, SHPO, MHC Date State or Federal agency and bureau In my opinion, the property -meets [does not meet the National Register criteria. ( See continuation sheet for additional Comments.) Signature of certifying official/Title State or Federal agency and bureau 4. National Park Service Certification I, hereby certify that this property is: Fentered 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 Date of Action 9.15:11 Bullard House Name of Property 5. Classification Ownership of Property (Check as many boxes as apply) _ private X public-local _ public-State _ public-Federal Worcester, Massachusetts County and State Category of Property (Check only one box) building(s) _ district - site - structure - object Name of related multiple property listing (Enter "N/A" if property is not part of a multiple property listing.) N/A Number of Resources within Property (Do not include previously listed resources in the count.) Contributing Non-contributing 1 1 1 buildings sites structures objects Number of contributing resources previously listed in the National Register 6.
Function or Use Historic Functions (Enter categories from instructions) DOMESTIC: single dwelling; multiple dwelling COMMERCE: store, tavern Current Functions (Enter categories from instructions) RECREATION AND CULTURE: museum 7. Description Architectural Classification (Enter categories from instructions) EARLY REPUBLIC: Federal Materials (Enter categories from instructions) foundation _ STONE: fieldstone; granite block walls WOOD: weatherboard 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-a (Rev. 8/2002) OMB No.
1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service (Expires 5-31-2012) National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Bullard House Name of Property Worcester, MA County and State Name of multiple listing (if applicable) Section number 7 Page 1 7. DESCRIPTION Setting The much-expanded, late 18'*-century dwelling known as the Bullard House is located at 4 Woodward Avenue, in the heart of Berlin's historic town center, facing south at the foot of Woodward Avenue and the intersection of Linden and Central Streets (both part of MA Route 62). While this important building is individually eligible for the National Register, it is also part of a cluster of historic resources that together form a potential National Register historic district.
The view from the front windows of the house encompasses, from west to east, the Old Burying Ground, a line of 19th-century houses on sizable lots, and the 1826 First Parish Meetinghouse, which is set on the triangular Meetinghouse Common. Just east of the Bullard House is the 1870 Town Hall (NR pending) which, along with two 1850s houses to the east and west, stands on a parcel that was once part of the Bullard house lot. The Bullard House property today has essentially the same configuration it had by 1870-a long, rough trapezoid measuring about 7,000 square feet. Beginning behind the building, and continuing beyond the rear property line, the ground rises sharply up a rocky, wooded hillside where the town's 1814 brick powderhouse still stands.
East of the house, an asphalt driveway leads up the lower part of the slope to the only outbuilding on the property, a former two-car garage built in 1956. (Plans 1 and 2, Photo 6.) In 2000, the garage was expanded to the rear, its doors were removed and other fenestration changed, and its interior was finished to become a storage facility for the town historical collection. This building is a simply detailed, one-story, clapboarded gable-front structure, windowless on three sides, and with a concrete foundation and asphalt- shingle roof. On its front elevation, one six-pane window is located in the gable peak, and a flush-hinged door in the west part of the façade replaces the former garage doors. Fieldstone walls between and behind the buildings mark portions of both present and past property boundary lines.
(Plan 2.) A fieldstone retaining wall is set about eight feet behind the east end of the house, parallel to the rear elevation. Another retaining wall, which runs diagonally from the northeast part of the house to the approximate center of the garage, may mark the boundary between the sections of land associated with the two halves of the house and former barn, owned separately from 1813 through the early 20th century. Most of the stone walls have been rebuilt over time, and others have been constructed more recently, including a short section behind the west portion of the house, and a makeshift retaining wall partially encircling the garage.
Some walls may be partly composed of material from the foundations of former outbuildings including the barn, a chicken coop, and at least one mechanic's shop that was located as late as 1870 about where the garage General building description (Photos 1- 5, Historical Image 8) As the result of at least six building phases, today the Bullard House is a complex building of many parts that speaks eloquently of its long history, and the variety of uses that took place within it over several historical periods. Overall, the building is a long, side-gabled, 2 ½-story "double saltbox" house. A second rear leanto, added in the mid 19*h century, is eleven-feet deep, and extends west from the mid-point of the main north elevation to merge with a fourteen-foot-long, 20*-century ell that overlaps the northwest corner of the main house.
The leanto has a very shallow shed roof; the northwest ell has a shallow-pitched, side-gabled roof. (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (Rev. 8/2002) OMB No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service (Expires 5-31-2012) National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Bullard House Name of Property Worcester, MA County and State Name of multiple listing (if applicable) Section number 7 _ Page 2 At the east end of the house, a large shed dormer built in the early 1940s occupies the rear roof slope over that section's rear leanto. While the north elevation of the dormer rises from the rear wall plane of the leanto, its east wall is stepped back a few feet from the east side of the house, and its roof begins about two feet down from the main roof ridge. All parts of the house are clad in wood clapboard and have asphalt shingle roofs.
Alll of the double-hung windows date to the 20th century or later, although some occupy former window openings. The foundation is fieldstone under all but the main part of the rear ell, which has a partially parged granite-block foundation. A single brick chimney, rebuilt from base to top in 2004, is located on the rear main roof slope of the west end of the building. Evolution and floor plan. (See Plan 3) Although the main southern façade is five bays long with a slightly off-center entry, its strong asymmetry provides clues to the fact that the east and west ends of the house were constructed at different times. 1. East end, ca. 1780.
Various features of the post-and-beam frame indicate that the building began as a two- story, single-cell house approximately seventeen feet square - probably constructed toward the end of the Revolutionary War, shortly after the first meetinghouse was built nearby. The west gable-end wall of that original house, located just east of the present façade entry, is still largely intact on the interior and is visible in the attic. The frame bears evidence that the façade of the original house was three bays wide, with two windows at each story in the approximate position of the present ones, and a doorway close to the east façade corner. Toward the mid 19** century, the two first-story façade windows were replaced with two larger ones. The present, smaller 6/6 units were installed in the mid 20* century. The doorway at the east end of the façade was gone by ca. 1840. 2.
West end and east rear leanto, ca. 1790-1792. Within ten to fifteen years after the original east house was constructed, the building was extended both to the west and the rear. Deeds and local records indicate that it was enlarged, in part to accommodate a new tavern on the County Road (today's Linden and Central Streets) that ran through the growing center of Berlin. The 2 ½-story west addition was approximately 25 feet long by 28 feet deep and included what are now the three westernmost facade bays. A ca. 1895 photograph (Photo 8) shows that at that time, both the first- and second-story façade windows were 6/9 sash.
The new interior space, longer than the original house, consisted of an east entry hall, a southwest first-story room, a ballroom above them at the second story, and an integral rear leanto, which contained one northwest first-story room and a winding staircase located toward the rear of the hallway, for access to the ballroom and the leanto loft. A narrow first-story space north of the foot of the stairs may have been a small bedroom-possibly original to the 1790s construction, or possibly framed in at a later date. At around the same time as the west addition, a rear leanto kitchen was added to the original east house. The atters tor that leanto were laid on top of the existing rear ratters, supported on the original rear plate by large notched, square blocks.
The north walls of both 1790s additions lay in a continuous plane, resulting in ar enlarged house with a 42 by 28-foot rectangular footprint that was to remain until the 1850s. (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (Rev. 8/2002) OMB No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service (Expires 5-31-2012) National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Bullard House Name of Property Worcester, MA County and State Name of multiple listing (if applicable) Section number 7 - Page 3 3. 1850s rear leanto. In the middle of the 19t century, a low leanto, approximately eleven feet deep with a shallow-pitched roof, was built across the west half of the rear elevation (the back wall of the integral tavern leanto). Its main purpose was to house a rear kitchen, although it may have contained another small room at its east end, where a bathroom is presently located.
The heads of its rafters were nailed on top of the 1790s rear rafters partway down the roof slope, resulting in a broken saltbox profile at this end of the house. 4. Former privies, fire-engine garage, screened porch (demolished). Some minor additions to the house have been removed. By 1895 a privy or other small ell straddled the northeast corner of the building, and by about 1910 a privy stood against the west end of the ca. 1850 kitchen. In the early 1920s, a shed-roofed garage ell was built against the rear part of the east elevation to house the town's fire-fighting apparatus, apparently replacing the northeast ell (See Section 8). That addition was removed by the mid-20' century and replaced by a small screened porch, which was demolished a few decades later. 5. Northwest attached shed, ca. 1920s, enlarged 1956.
The present northwest one-story ell, which continues the rear plane ofthe 1850s kitchen wall by about fourteen feet, apparently replaced or incorporated the attached privy in about 1920. It began as a small, shed-roofed, one-story addition for a utilitarian space, such as a woodshed or well room. In the 1950s the shed was altered and extended forward about four feet under a front-roof slope, resulting in the shallow gable-roofed profile seen today. 6. East rear shed dormer, early 1940s. The shed dormer across the rear roof slope of the original east house was the last of the shed-roofed additions. Like all of the leantos, except the integral rear leanto of the 1790s tavern addition, the heads of its rafters are laid on top of the existing frame. Exterior description. (Photos 1-5) All four elevations of the house today display a mixture of fenestration from more than one building phase.
The main five-bay façade has 6/6 windows in plain, flat surrounds, aligned one above the other at the first and second stories. (Photos 1 -3.) All of the present sash there dates to the mid 20th century. In the west half of the house, the 6/6s replaced 2/2s that had been inserted sometime after about 1895. The two first-story window openings, east of the slightly off-center entry, were enlarged during the Greek Revival period to accommodate the larger windows popular during that period. They were reduced again in the 20th century and aligned below the two second-story windows. Louvered blinds shown at most of the windows in historic photographs are no longer in place, although a few are presently stored on the property. The main entry has a wide, molded surround.
The door is a Federal six-panel door of double thickness-vertical board on the inside face, and paneled on the outside, with glass inserted in the top two panels in the late 19"h or early 20"h century. The panels are recessed in the Federal manner, and the door is hung on strap hinges and has a large Suffolk latch. Three rough-stone steps that had been saved from the site of the 1792 East Schoolhouse were placed in front of the doorway in 1997. (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (Rev. 8/2002) OMB No.
1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service (Expires 5-31-2012) National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Bullard House Name of Property Worcester, MA County and State Name of muttiple listing (if applicable) Section number 7 - Page 4 On both the main façade and the two gable ends, the architectural trim is typical of a simple rural house of the early Federal period. The roof does not overhang the end walls, which are trimmed with a narrow rakeboard adorned with an architrave molding. Narrow cornerboards mark the house corners, and a wide watertable trims the base of the walls. The west watertable is set a few inches lower than the one east of the main entry, indicating the lower floor level in the ca. 1792 section of the house. The front cornice is adorned with a simple Federal molding.
The façade of the northwest ell has an 8/8 mid 20** -century window centered in the wall, next to an entry at the inner corner fitted with a raised-panel, four-panel door with a Suffolk latch. (Photo 4.) The door may have come from another house in Berlin. In 2008, the east elevation (Photos 1 and 2) underwent some alterations related to providing a handicapped- accessible entrance. Two, small, mid20th-century windows toward the rear of the leanto were removed, and a four-panel wood door and a new 6/6 wood window were installed. At the same time, the deteriorated clapboards of that wall were replaced. The fenestration of the rest of the east elevation remains as it was in the latter part of the period of significance. Toward the front is a recessed six-panel door with lights in the top two panels.
Instead of the integral Federal moldings seen at the front door, however, the four main panels have large, Greek Revival, applied moldings. A 6/6 window is positioned just north of the door. At the second story, one 6/6 window is centered below the gable peak; another is located to its north, in the leanto loft. A six-pane window at attic level is placed toward the front of the house rather than below the gable peak, reflecting the fact that the former chimney mass rose behind it against this wall. A large, flat door stone extending from the rear north corner of the leanto remains from an entry that was removed many years ago. The east elevation of the ca. 1850 rear kitchen leanto has one 5/1 window toward the front corner. The west elevation (Photo 4) of the main house has one 6/6 window at each story, aligned one above the other under the gable peak.
A wide 8/8 window appears in the wall of the leanto, with a six-pane window in the loft above it. An 8/8 window is centered in the west end of the northwest ell. The rear north elevation of the house displays changes that took place even after the many additions there were built (Photo 5). Reading east to west, two 6/6 windows are centered in the rear wall of the large shed dormer. elow it at the first story is a new 6/6 window, which replaces a mid 20*-century door, and a casemen /indow that was removed in 2007. In the rear wall of the ca. 1850 kitchen is a 3/3 window, a former five- panel door adapted with nine lights in the top section, and a multipane window about eight feet long that lit the area over a former 20*-century kitchen sink. The rear wall of the northwest ell is windowless. Against its west end is the pipe for an artesian well that was used until 1996.
Interior description. Just as its exterior expresses the many building phases of the structure, the Bullard House interior is a mélange of plainly finished spaces that were added to and altered over time. They still retain a wealth of characteristic features from several historic periods, however, as well as clues to what went before. (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (Rev. 8/2002) OMB No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service (Expires 5-31-2012) National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Bullard House Name of Property Worcester, MA County and State Name of multiple listing (if applicable) Section number 7 Page 5 East end The oldest rooms in the house are the southeast first-story room and the chamber above it, which comprised the original ca. 1780 house.
The wall framing is not visible, but it appears that this was built as a direct-entry, square-plan house, with a center post on each side elevation, and a large fireplace and chimney in the northeast corner. These two rooms are among the more altered spaces in the building. The girts, plates, posts, and longitudinal summer beams are cased with boards trimmed with the narrow bead typical of the Federal era; at both levels, part of the casing of the east end girt in front of the chimney is unbeaded. At the first story, the summer beam runs the full width of the room from east to west. The east end of the second-story summer beam, parallel to the first, ends at what is apparently the north-south chimney girt. The walls and ceilings are fully plastered; the floors are wide pine boards at the first story, and narrow hardwood flooring, probably dating to the 1920s, at the second.
Major changes were made to these two rooms at a fairly early date. Toward the mid 19t century (probably 1830s), the large northeast corner chimney and its fireplaces were removed and replaced by a narrow brick chimney fitted with flues for heating stoves. That later chimney remains only below the second-story ceiling, and both stoves and any woodwork associated with them are gone. By 1895, the exterior door at the east end of the façade had been removed, as well. The location of the original stairway is unknown, but paint evidence remains from a steep stairway that rose against the east end of the front wall after the façade entry was removed. The current winding, enclosed stairway in the southeast corner, which leads to both the cellar and the second floor, dates to the 1940s.
Also in the 1940s, a kitchen renovation took place in the 1790s rear leanto addition, obliterating any earlier finish in that space. Some World War Il-era wood cabinetry remains against that room's front wall, but in 2007-2008 the deteriorating rear exterior wall of that space had to be rebuilt, a 20th-century partition wall was removed, and the new east window and handicapped entrance described above were installed. This space is now the entrance room for the museum. Above it, in the 1940s shed dormer, is the "back bedroom," which remains fairly unchanged since the dormer was built. The room's main distinguishing features are a batten door with a Norfolk latch in the front wall, and a four-panel door of about 1900 in the west wall that opens into a small, narrow bathroom inserted probably in the 1960s.
West end The 1790s west addition that converted the house into a tavern contains the most stylish features of this modest building. This section is larger than the east end, but is also two rooms deep at the first story, and one roon deep with a rear leanto loft at the second. The first-floor plan includes an entry hall with rear stairs at the center bay of the expanded house, a southwest parlor, and a northwest room that may have been either the tavern kitchen or the taproom. Between the turning foot of the stairs and the rear exterior wall is a small enclosed space, about four by eight feet, that may have been a tiny bedroom, possibly created in the early 19"h century. (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (Rev. 8/2002) OMB No.
1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service (Expires 5-31-2012) National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Bullard House Name of Property Worcester, MA County and State Name of multiple listing (if applicable) Section number 7 - Page _6 The front section of the long entry hall was once a few feet wider (Photo 7). An enclosed stairway to the cellar is still partially in place just forward of the main stairway to the upper story, though the top of it is now floored over, having been converted to a closet, probably in the 1940s. A set of narrow shelves is still in place against the front wall of that stair enclosure above a horizontal-board dado, though the shelves are now hidden from view inside a long, shallow closet along the east wall of the passage.
The handsome partition wall of this closet consists of beaded, vertical-board paneling, characteristic of the Federal era and slightly later. One closet door is part of the paneling; a second, raised four-panel door appears to have been relocated from elsewhere in the house. The beaded boards may also have been relocated within the building-possibly from a former enclosed stairway in the east end of the house. Toward the south end of the west wall of the hallway is another four-panel door, similar to the one on the east closet, with a Norfolk latch. A decorative cut-out diamond in the center of the top rail of the door has been filled in with a piece of wood. (Examination of paint layers on this door in 1996 indicated a complete match to the beam casings in the southwest parlor.
Thus the door is original in this location.) The stairway at the rear end of the passage is of the closed-string type, with plain vertical boards enclosing another closet below the stairs. The southwest parlor-possibly the original dining room or parlor of the 1790s tavern-is a large, square room. Like its counterpart in the east end of the building, it has plastered walls and ceiling, a wide-board pine floor, and a beaded-cased summer beam running east to west. The original fireplace wall at the rear of the room has undergone many alterations. The new fireplace at the rear of the room is part of the 2004 rebuilding of the tavern chimney, and the mantelpiece installed in 2005 came from the Felton-Devine House, an early Federal building at 218 Linden Street, that was taken down that year. A door just east of the fireplace was also relocated from the Felton-Devine House.
The room behind the chimney in the leanto has been fitted out as a gallery for the museum. Much altered over the course of the 20*h century, and with new framing installed in the 1950s, this space once had a fireplace that was let into the back of the chimney. Tavern ballroom. The location of the tavern stairs at the rear end of the hallway allowed for a large, uninterrupted second-story space across the entire front of the 1790s west portion of the building. Although the room was partitioned for a small east chamber with a short hallway behind it, probably fairly early in the 19" century, the lines of the whole space are still evident. Its outstanding feature is its high, plastered, cove ceiling, which remains entirely intact in both parts of the room, complete with the Federal molding that marks the juncture between the cove and the lower wall.
This type of ceiling was installed frequently in the ballrooms or meeting rooms of Federal-era inns and taverns, and its survival here is remarkable, given the many alterations and changes in use that the rooms underwent after the tavern moved away in 1813. Like bricked-up, until the chimney was rebuilt. In contrast to the first-story fireplace, here the fireplace surround-a heavily molded, Federal type, survives. So, too, does the four-panel door with Suffolk latch that (based on gives access to a plastered walk-in closet west of the fireplace. A second closet east of the fireplace, built ca. 1956 of inferior construction, has recently been (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (Rev. 8/2002) OMB No.
1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service (Expires 5-31-2012) National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Bullard House Name of Property Worcester, MA County and State Name of multiple listing (if applicable) Section number 7 Page l Another early door also remains-this one is still in its original location between the leanto loft and the stairway. Although the loft's interior was never finished, it was undoubtedly well-used, and the low batten door on strap hinges is likely to date to the construction of this section of the building. Rear kitchen and northwest ell, 1850s to 1950s. The leanto kitchen, added across the back of the west part of the house in the middle of the 19th century, probably replaced whatever tavern kitchen was located in the main part of the house.
The seven-by-eleven-foot space at the east end, which was updated to a bathroom by the mid 20" century, may have functioned as a first-story bedroom, buttery, or a later pantry. Little original finish remains in either part of the 1850s addition. The lower section of the narrow brick chimney for the kitchen stove, however, remains in place between the two rooms. (The exterior portion of the chimney above the roof is gone). The recessed shelf space beside it and the wide-board dado below the shelves may also be 19th- century features. About 1920, a shed addition, with a single-pitched roof descending to the rear, was built against the west end of the ca. 1850 kitchen. It remained in a utilitarian use, probably as a woodshed, until the 1950s, when it was expanded by about four feet to the front; the roof was rebuilt with a side gable, and finished into a bedroom.
The room has its own exterior front door-an old four-panel door, which was brought from another location. The adjoining west wall of the kitchen was later removed and the two rooms made into one, with the west part converted to a small dinette or dining room. It is currently being renovated as a workroom and storage space for the museum. Cellar There is a full cellar only under the front range of rooms of both the east and west parts of the building. The foundation walls are fieldstone, incorporating a good deal of ledge, and a massive stone chimney base occupies the entire northeast part of the older east section. East of the chimney base and east foundation wall, two additional foundation walls, about four feet apart, extend east underground for about 13 feet. The purpose of that additional foundation is presently unknown.
Possible theories as to its origin include the foundation for a long east shed, or for the store that is reported on the property by the early 1790s, or even for a former east section of the house. It has been surmised that the walls may indicate that the ca. 1780 dwelling was built as a center-chimney house, and that its whole east end was later removed. A recent inspection of the frame of the present east-end wall, however, which was partially exposed during the 2008 renovations, indicates that it was always an exterior wall. The inspection also revealed a large mortise cut through the sheathing into each of the east corner-posts. These mortises appear to have received the tenons of plates set somewhat lower than the first-story ceiling of the house, supporting the theory that there was once a structure attached to the east end of the house.
A future archaeological investigation may provide clues to whether that was the case. The west fieldstone foundation wall of the original single-cell house remains almost entirely intact in the cellar. While the two halves of the main house were constructed fairly close in date during the early Federal period, an observation of the cellar framing of the ca. 1780 and ca. 1790s sections does reveal some slight differences in carpentry and methods of construction. Most of the joists under the earlier east end are hewn mortise-and-tenon timbers, about five by seven inches in dimension. Those in the west part, however, are half-log sleepers, their ends set into butt cogs in the sills. (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (Rev. 8/2002) OMB No.
1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service (Expires 5-31-2012) National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Bullard House Name of Property Worcester, MA County and State Name of muttiple listing (if applicable) Section number 1 Page 8 Attic Both the ca. 1780 and early 1790s roofs are framed with common, hewn rafters, tapered at the top and pinned into a four-sided hewn ridge beam. The roof boards in both sections run horizontally. Diagonal wind braces (sawn, rather than hewn) rising from the end rafters to the ridge are present at both ends of the east house (except in the northeast chimney bay), but only at the gable end of the west section. A very short span of time between the first and second building phases is suggested by several details seen in the attic spaces.
Most indicative is the absence of both nail holes and any significant weathering on the exterior sheathing that survives on the first house's west wall. Many of the original rear roof boards of the east part, which are still in place below the leanto rafters, also have no nail holes, as if they were never covered with shingles. A former window opening in the original west gable forms the access between the two attics. Nailed just above the opening is a narrow exterior trimboard, painted white. The rafters of the west roof frame are slightly larger in dimension than those in the east roof (about five by six inches as opposed to four by four or four by five inches). The rear rafters there run from the ridge to the rear plate of the leanto, supported midway on the upper rear plate by wood blocks of a different shape than those that support the east leanto rafters.
The most dramatic feature visible in the west attic is the framing of the cove ceiling for the ballroom below. The plaster lath boards of the cove are nailed to curved braces, rather than joists, and the ceiling is framed without any timbers tying plate to plate. Instead, the joists of the flat upper part of the ceiling are nailed to the sides of the rafters. Archaeological Description While no ancient Native American sites are known on the Bullard House property or in the general area (within one mile), sites may be present. Environmental characteristics of the property represent locational criteria (slope, soil drainage, proximity to wetlands) that are favorable for the presence of Native sites. The Bullard House is located on a well-drained, level to moderately sloping glacial outwash plain in close proximity to wetlands.
Beginning behind the building and continuing beyond the rear property line, the ground rises sharply up the rocky, wooded hillside of Powderhouse Hill. Throughout this area, stones are present on the surface, rock outcrops are common, and bedrock is present close to the surface. The Bullard House foundation incorporates a good deal of ledge in its construction. Three tributary streams of North Brook and two unnamed ponds are located within 1,000 feet to the east, south, and west of the property. North Brook is a tributary of the Assabet River, which drains the entire town of Berlin.
Given the information presented above, the size of the nominated property (approximately 0.37 acres), known patterns of Native American settlement in the central Massachusetts uplands, and levels of historic land use, a low to moderate potential exists for locating ancient Native American resources on the Bullard House property. (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (Rev. 8/2002) OMB No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service (Expires 5-31-2012) National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Bullard House Name of Property Worcester, MA County and State Name of multiple listing (if applicable) Section number 7 _ Page 9 A high potential exists for locating historic archaeological resources on the Bullard House property.
Additional historical research, combined with archaeological survey and testing, may locate structural evidence, features, and artifacts related to the complex building and land-use history that characterized the Bullard House from the 18" through 20* centuries. Structural evidence may survive from a shed-roofed garage ell, built in the 1920s against the rear part of the east elevation to house the town's firefighting apparatus, apparently replacing the northeast ell. That addition was removed by the mid 20* century and replaced by a small screened porch, which was demolished in turn a few decades later. In addition to changes to the house, historical and archaeological research may also identify the sites of barns, stables, outbuildings, and occupational related features (trash pits, privies, wells) that also may survive on the property.
A barn, chicken coop, and at least one mechanic's shop were located as late as 1870 approximately where the garage stands today. An earlier small barn, gone by 1850, also stood on the site of the mid 20* century garage. By 1895, a privy or other small ell straddled the northeast corner of the building, and by 1910, a privy stood against the west end of the ca. 1850 kitchen. Against the west end of the northwest ell is the pipe for an artesian well that was used until 1996. An earlier well(s) should also exist. East of the existing older east section of the cellar, east of the chimney base and east foundation wall, two additional foundation walls, about four feet apart, extend underground for about thirteen feet. The meaning of that additional foundation is presently unknown.
Additional historical research, combined with archaeological survey and testing, may locate the site and function of the mechanic's shop that continued to be indicated in tax valuations from 1860 to 1873 on the Bullard House property. The reference may be to the old blacksmith shop relocated (from a site now located off the property) to a position behind the house, or it may be for a newly built shop. By 1866 it is listed in tax evaluations as a shoe shop. (end) Bullard House Name of Property 8. Statement of Significance