Bartlett-Russell-Hedge House

The Bartlett-Russell-Hedge House was built c. 1803 on what was then the north corner of Court Square, now the corner of Court Street and North Russell. Court Street is one of Plymouth's major commercial areas, and the Bartlett-Russel1-Hedge House is surrounded by low commercial buildings from the later nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Ply- mouth County buildings, including the Court House and the Registry of Deeds are located south of the house, on North Russel1 Street. The main block of the three-story hip roofed Federal house looks today essentially as it did when it was built; however, the kitchen ell to the southwest was altered and a low one-story structure added to the northwest when the house was bought by the Plymouth Federal Savings and Ioan Association in 1951.

At the same time, the front portico, which had been altered in the 1840's to a tetrastyle Doric porch with granite steps leading straight to the street, was reconstructed to its original appearance. The evidence for the reconstruction came from William T. Davis' account, "Memories of an Octogenarian", written in 1906, and from the discovery of a portion of the original cloverleaf column found in the back yard. Davis, in his account, noted that "The beautiful old porch of the house in question, rounded in shape and supported by clover leaf columns, harmonizing with the windows beneath and above it was replaced by the present one about 1840." The painted brick house is five bays wide and three deep.

The shuttered windows on the first and second floors have 6/6 sash and splayed lintels; the windows on the third floor also have splayed lintels, but in keeping with Federal period proportions, have 6/3 sash.

/ARCHITECT c. 1803 STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE The occupants of the Bartlett-Russe11-Hedge House have played a significant role in the development of Plymouth, both economically and socially, and the building, a classic example of the Federal style, has great architectural merit. It is also significant as an excellent example of thoughtful and practical reuse of an originally residential structure to commercial use. Captain Joseph Bartlett, a Plymouth shipowner and merchant, bought a lot on the north cor- ner of Court Square in 1803, and built the present structure shortly thereafter. He lived in the house until 1820, when, because of financial reversals caused by the War of 1812 and the embargoes, he moved back to his former home on the south corner of Court Square.

His son William, who had been living in the "old" house since his marriage in 1814, changed places with his father and moved into the brick house. William turned the house into an Inn, called the Old Colony Hotel, and managed it for a couple of years. His son John was born in 1820, and spent the first few years of his life in the Bartlett- Russe11-Hedge House. .John, Later moved to Cambridge where he worked and then owned the University Book Store. He became very well known for his ability to identify and locate books and quotations, and eventually published Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. William Spooner and then Ezra Cushing succeeded William Bartlett in running the house as an inn, but in 1827 the house was bought by Nathaniel Russell, who again used the house as a residence.

Russel1 was extensively engaged in the iron manufacturing business in collaboration with William T. Davis and Barnabas Hedge, and after 1837, headed his own business.