BlockThe nomination, in full
Bibliography, boundary description, and the people who prepared and reviewed the nomination.
FORM B - BUILDING MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 294 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02108 --- Area Form no. 56-53 PHOTO (3x3" or 3x5", black & white) Staple to left side of form Photo number Roll 4 frame 3A-4A SKETCH MAP Draw map showing property's location in relation to nearest cross streets and other buildings or geographical features. Indicate north. N SYLVAN-ST SUTTON Town Address Uxbridge Sutton Street Historic NameSamuel Taft House Use: Original_ residence & inn Present_ residence Ownership: Private individual Private organization Public Original ownerSamuel Laft DESCRIPTION: Date 1774 Source historical placque Style timber-frame vohacular Architect_unknown Exterior wall fabric clapboard Outbuildings_none STREET Recordedby B.R.
Pfeiffer Organization Uxbridge Historical Date May 1981 Commission Major alterations (with dates) porch and oriel window on ell (mid-20th century) four-panet front door with transom (19th century?) Moved ne Date_ NA Approx. acreage 1.02 acres Settingsurrounded mostly by second growth woods, some sparse (modern) residential development UTM: 19 280350 4663100 (Staple additional sheets he ) Form #56-53 ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE (describe important architectural features and evaluate in terms of other buildings within community) The Samuel Taft House is an excellent local example of a popular house-type of the mid-eighteenth century. The building is a l½ storey timber-frame cottage with a main house containing a central chimney (east) and an ell added in the nineteenth century (east).
The main house rests on a rock-faced granite foundation, is enclosed by a gambrel roof and has a symmetrical center-entrance facade (south). The entry contains a door of four sunken panels and two lights. SEE CONTINUATION SHEET HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE (explain the role owners played in local or state history and how the building relates to the development of the community) Known locally as the Old Taft Tavern, the Samuel Taft House possesses historical associations with the family of Samuel Taft, who occupied it during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and with George Washinton who spent a night here while travelling from Boston to New York in 1789. Samuel Taft (1736-1816) was the son of Israel and Mercy Taf,t. of Upton and a member of the extensive Taft family which dominated the settlement of Uxbridge in the eighteenth century.
In July of 1774, Taft bought the land on which the house stands together with a farm surrounding it from Samuel Read, Jr. According to one source (Taft 1928); a smaller house stood southeast of the present structure at the time of this purchase. Samuel Taft, a farmer, is believed to have built the present house in 1774 or no later than 1778; this second date is based on a painted sign for Taft's tavern bearing the date 1778 which remained in the possession of his descendants at least as late as 1928. Standing on what was then a major route between Boston (Sutton Street), and used both as a farmhouse and inn, the Taft House was visited by George and Martha Washington.
The local memory of this visit was preserved in a letter from Washington which remained in the possession of Taft's heirs during the nineteenth century: SEE CONTINUATION SHEET BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES: Maps and Atlases: 1830,1855,1870,1890 Taft, Sarah F. "The Old Taft Tavern" Uxbridge: Deborah Wheelock Chapter,D.A.R., 1928 Proceedings at the Meeting of the Taft Family at Uxbridge, Mass., August 12,1874, Uxbridge: Spencer Bros.,1874. pp. 41-42 Hurd 1888 I: 175 Jewett 1879 II: 428 Sprague 1927: 28 & 94 20M-2/80 INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston Commmity: Form No: 56-53 Uxbridge Property Name: S. Taft House Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below.
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE consists mostly of 12/12; originally window openings were smaller until ca.1816-1830 when original openings were enlarged by Dandridge G. Taft. Currently, all elevations are covered with clapboards and the roof is covered with wood shingles. One source reports that the house originally had clapboards on the facade only and that side walls were shingled until ca.1856-1857, when Warner Taft installed clapboards throughout. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE Hartford, Nov.8, 1789 Sir: - Being informed that you have given my name to one of your sons, and called another after Mrs. Washington's family (Dandridge) and being moreover very much pleased with the modest and innocent looks of your two daughters, Patty, and Polly, I do for these reasons send each of these girls a piece of chintz; and to Patty, who bears the name of Mrs.
Washington, and who waited more upon us than Polly did,I send five guineas, with which she may buy herself any little ornaments she may want, or she may dispose of them in any other manner more agreeable to herself. As I do not give these things with a view to have it talked of, or even to its being known, the less there is said about the matter, the better you will please me; but that I may be sure the chintz and money have got safe to hand, let Patty, who I dare say is equal to it, write me a line informing me thereof, directed "to the President of the United States, at New York." I wish you and your family well, and am your humble servant. George Washington Requests for discretion disregarded, this letter was widely known in the community, at least during the nineteenth century. On April 3, 1909, the house received its second presidential visitor when President William H.
Taft visited Uxbridge and the Samuel Taft House.on his way to Millbury. After Samuel Taft's death, the house passed to one of Taft's twenty-two children, Warner Taft, who lived here until his death around 1856-1857 when the property passed to Warner's son, Dandridge G. Taft. Following the death of D.G. Taft in 1864, the house was owned and occupied by Taft's widow and after 1893 by his daughter (or grandaughter) Sarah F. Taft. The Samuel Taft House possesses integrity of location, design, setting and workmanship as well as historical associations with Samuel Taft, a farmer, who operated a tavern in the house and with George Washington, who stayedthere in 1789. The house also preserves its original vernacular design. The Taft House meets criteria A, B and C of the NRHP. OWNER: Matthew S. Herbert Sutton St.
Uxbridge, MA 01569 Staple to Inventory form at bottom NPS Form 10-900-a (3-82) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form Continuation sheet Item number OMB No. 1024-0018 Exp. 10-31-84 For NPS use only recerved 8/2o183 dale entered Page 5 cs Multiple Resource Area Thematic Group Name State Uxbridge Multiple Resource Area MA Nomination/Type of Review 41. Whipple, A., House Entered in the National Register 42. Williams, N., House Entered in thaa Nationsl Regieter 43. Taft, Aaron, House Intered In the National. Register 24'44. Taft, Bazaleel, Jr., House and Law Office Substantive Review 45. Taft, Hon. Bazaleel, House Entered in the National Begieter Intered In tlia 46. Taft Brothers Block Natlonel Begteter 47. Taft, George, House Entered in taa Nations1 Register 48.
Taft, Moses, House Intered in the Nat1one1 Register 49. Taft, Samuel, House Lu--cu in lae Natlonal Begister 11 50.
Taft, Zadock, House Entered in the Nat1onal Register fKeeper Attest fkeeper Attest fkeeper Attest fal Keeper Attest Fkeeper Attest /Keeper Attest tkeeper Attest fReeper Attest fKeeper Attest Heeper Attest Date/Signature deluresByur10/z/83 SelaaByers 10/218: AlseByun 10/2/83 accept latuikAndrus 10/1/83 AeloraBye 10/2/83 AleresByun 42183 DelreaByen 10/2/83 AeluresBge 10/2/83 duilnaByas 10/2/83 AeloreaByen 10/2/83 WASO Form - 177 ("R" June 1984) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES EVALUATION/RETURN SHEET Taft, Samuel, House (Uxbridge MRA) Worcester County MASSA CHUSETTS resubmission nomination by person or local government owner objection appeal Substantive Review: Isample Reviewer's comments: request Jrtarea Nationa1 appeal Working No.- Fed. Reg. Date: Date Due:_ Action: AUG 2 6 1983.
7122 2-5-85 10/18/83 LACCEPT 10/2/83 RETURN Regieter REJECT- Federal Agency: - NR decision Recom./Criteria. Reviewer Discipline Date see continuation sheet Nomination returned for: - _ technical corrections cited below .substantive reasons discussed below 1. Name 2. Location 3. Classification Category Ownership Public Acquisition 4. Owner of Property 5. Location of Legal Description 6. Representation in Existing Surveys Has this property been determined eligible? yes no 7. Description Condition excellent good fair deteriorated Jruins unexposed Check one unaltered altered Describe the present and original (if known) physical appearance summary paragraph completeness clarity alterations/integrity dates boundary selection Status Accessible Present Use Check one original site moved date 8.
Significance Period Areas of Significance-Check and justify below Specific dates Statement of Significance (in one paragraph) Builder/Architect summary paragraph completeness clarity applicable criteria justification of areas checked relating significance to the resource context relationship of integrity to significance justification of exception other 9. Major Bibliographical References 10. Geographical Data Acreage of nominated property Quadrangle name UTM References Verbal boundary description and justification 11. Form Prepared By 12. State Historic Preservation Officer Certification The evaluated significance of this property within the state is: _national state local State Historic Preservation Officer signature date title 13. Other Maps Photographs Other Questions concerning this nomination may be directed to - Signed - Date - Phone:.
Comments for any item maybe continued on an attached sheet ! 48B 10.0 Ac 737.62 336.70 305.20 31.5 4A 9,70° 53 1.02 AC 132.90 595° 118.33' 156 A" TURNPIKE SasToo 48 9.733 ToRoc. 2.44A 65. 5, 149.78 149.76 G00T: 13,000 65. 200° O.7ZA: 149.60. 70 17.7940 100° NORTH Uxbridge Multiple Resource Area Samuel Taft House Sutton Street Map #56 Lot #53 Uxbridge 1" = 200,Assessors 1983 1968+4 246 .8 z -15 48-A 01 AC. A. 185:29A 4,16 624-71 624,7l 480.00 480.00 69 Ac. CARIS 42 2.384 313.30 S HARTFO 221:284 1227 173 35,2585 PLAT RIVU Please refer to the map in the Multiple Property Cover Sheet for this property Multiple Property Cover Sheet Reference Number: 64000299