Photographs from the nomination case file, National Park Service records.
Groton Inn
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1976. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
From the record
“I have no recollections of Groton that would not probably be far better recollected by mfiny who are now living there, and have kept their memory fresh by passing places associated with interesting events, and by hearing over and over again a recital of the otherwise fading scraps of history." "Leaving the State at sixteen, I had only a boy's interest in passing events. Chaplin had grown old, and as the art of dentistry was not then perfected, old people often were very slow and measured in speech, and we boys were in the habit of doing some thinking between the Doctor's utterances, until we were forced to sleep by being compelled to sit still ; and hence when John Todd came, with his sparkling thoughts and earnest gestures, we children became his followers.”
Groton Historical Series. A Collection of Papers Relating to the History of the Town of Groton, Massachusetts (1887). Machine-read text.
one of 1100 National Register listings in Middlesex County · listed in 1976 · category: Building · one of 3 National Historic Landmarks in Middlesex County.
National Register reference number.76000241- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
A Register of Births, Deaths, and Marriages in Groton, 1664-1693, and of Marriages, 1713-1793, as Copied from the Middlesex County Records ; also a List of Marriages sent to the Town Clerk of Groton, under Chapter LXXXIV Section 4, of the Acts of 1857, and some from other Sources ; with an Appendix.
My dear Sir, - To one so familiar with the history of Groton, in all its departments and records, from the foundation of the town, I am aware that no slipshod reminiscences of my short visit to that place so long ago, can be of much interest or of any use ; and without the pen of Sir Walter or the mallet and chisel of Old Mortality to scrape off the moss and to restore the inscriptions in the churchyard of my memory, any attempt will be in vain.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 42 fires within 5 miles of Groton Inn between
2015 and 2020, burning about 29 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 was recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Debris and open burning
25
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
11
Recreation and ceremony
2
Railroad operations and maintenance
1
Arson/incendiarism
1
Equipment and vehicle use
1
Smoking
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 376 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Groton Inn between 1900 and
1975: 241 Animalia, 62 Protozoa, 39 Plantae, 29 Fungi, 4 Unrecorded, 1 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A. C. Gibson, A. F. Newton, A. F. Newton, M. K. Thayer and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
6 workings within 5 miles of Groton Inn: 6 past producers.
None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Groton, the town this property stands in, in 18 storm reports between 1995 and 2023: 13 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 2 flash flood.
No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
From the nomination file
6,018 words on record
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Description of the property
The Groton Inn is located in the town center of Groton. Set back about 60 feet from Main Street, the Inn sits atop a gentle slope shaded by large elm trees. It is flanked on the east by a landscaped parking lot and the grounds of Lawrence Academy and on the southwest by residences. The Groton Inn is the focal point of the town's local historic district which was established in 1965. Although the Inn is composed of three major parts dating from the mid-eighteenth century to 1840, it nevertheless presents the impression of a harmonious whole. The two-story, white clapboard building has a ridge roof with brick chimneys painted white with black tops. The facade (southwest) facing Main Street is ten bays wide and has a one-story porch (1840) extending the width of the facade.
There are two doors, each flanked by paired windows. The black shuttered windows have six-over-six lights, and the six dormers in the roof above have eight-over-twelve lights. The southeast side of the Inn reveals more clearly the additions which have contributed to the formation of the building. On the gable end of the Main Street section is a one-story enclosed porch (1930, known as the Dodge Porch) with a flat roof and windows with fifteen lights arranged in groups of four. Extending perpendicularly is a long ell to which is appended a four-bay ell with a one-story shed roof section. Another rear addition (20th century) runs parallel to the Main Street facade.
The first part of the Groton Inn was probably built in 1723 (but possibly as early as 1706 or as late as 1748) in the form of a half-house constructed by Samuel Parker.
/ARCHITECT STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE The Groton Inn is significant for its long history as an inn and as a prominent architec- tural element in the center of Groton. Architecturally, the building is of particular interest because it is composed of three of the town's historic structures. The original owner of the land on which the Inn stands was the Reverend Samuel Willard, proprietor and first minister of Groton. It was here that Samuel Parker first built his small house, which was later enlarged in 1761 for the use of Reverend Samuel Dana. A minister of loyalist sentiments, Dana was forced out of his ministry in 1775.
On the east side of the Dana House was added what was probably the town's third meeting house, erected in 1714, on the site of the First Parish Church and moved in 1754 when the church was built. In 1840 a third building was joined onto the north side of the Dana House. This building is said to have been the Richardson Tavern, which was originally constructed in 1678 on the site of the present Baptist Church as the residence of Reverend Gershom Hobart. The Hobart House was built by Indians and it served as a garrison house during King William's War (1689-1697). Use of the building as an inn began around 1780 under the ownership of Captain Jonathan Keep, when it was known as Cap'n Keep's Tavernstand.
In 1798 the inn was under the management of Isaiah and Joseph Hall, and from 1825 to 1840 the establishment was run by the Hoar family and known as Mr. Hoar's Hotel. It was then acquired by Daniel Hunt who ran Mr. Hunt's Hotel until 1852, with a brief hiatus when it was operated as a tem- perance house by Thomas Treadwell Farnsworth. J.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 76000241, 35 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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