Sabbath Day House

- Moved Original Site The Sabbath Day House property comprises about an acre of land at the top of Billerica Hill near the center of town. The house is a small, oné and one half story, pitched roof building in the style commonly called "Cape Cod". Additions to the original structure include east and west wings as well as a long, two story ell projecting from the rear or north wall of the original house. All exterior walls are sheathed in clapboards. The original structure, i.e. the present central section, rests on a rough quarried granite foundation and is five bays wide with a central entrance, dormers, and a prominent center chimney. It was built circa 1765 and survived without noticeable alterations until the late nineteenth century.

At that time a door was added to the east side of the house, thus balanc- ing the original main doorway on the west side. Both of these were superceded by the present center entrance, added in the early twentieth century. Other alterations in the early 1900's included the addition of two dormer windows to the south slope of the center section roof, the removal of the small-paned eighteenth century windows and their replace- ment with the present single pane sashes, and the taking down of the original center chimney (it has. since been reconstructed). In 1924 another extensive remodelling created the west wing, which terminates in a large, exterior, field-stone chimney; the east wing, containing the garage; and a large two story ell, providing fouradditional rooms.

The interior is low-studded and was originally very simple; with two rooms on each floor. The simplicity of the original layout is still evident despite the many alterations that have taken place in two hundred years of continuous use.

The Sabbath Day House is an unusual and rare survival from pre-Revolution- ary days and is an important document of the customs and life-style of New England townspeople at that time. "a 910 C': In the colonial New England town, the church exercised great influence over the people. In one way or another it touched almost all aspects of daily living, and many town governments had strong theocratic inclinations. In most communities, unless one attended church regularly, he was denied many civil rights including the right to vote in town meetings. It was therefore very important that all townspeople attend Sunday worship. The Sabbath Day services could last all day with meetings being held in the morning and the afternoon.

Since many houses and farms were far from the town center where the meetinghouse was located, travel to and from services twice in a day was often times impossible; yet attendence was mandatory for a parishoner in good standing. It was with a view of eliminating this difficulty that Billerica church members, John Patten, John Baldwin, Reuben Kende11, Jesse Manning, Lt. William Manning, and Thomas Danforth leased for fifty years the lot of land on Andover St. belonging to David Osgood, and there built the Sabbath Day House "for the purpose of convening their families on Sunday noon." to 1818 it served as a place for parishoners to come and warm themselves and enjoy food and company after sitting in the unheated meeting house for a typical three to five hour sermon.

Townspeople also enjoyed this once-a week opportunity to meet with one another and exchange news. Following the afternoon meeting, those who lived nearby would return home, and if it was a late sermon or an especially cold night, distant visitors might stay until morning.