Jones Tavern

Located in the southern portion of Acton, a small industrial town 25 miles west of Boston, the Jones Tavern today is a sprawling structure with a rectangular core whose various wings and ells demonstrate five distinct phases of construction between 1732 and 1878. The building stands on the northwest edge of at Quimby Square (formerly Mill Corner)--the junction of Main Street and Railroad Street. Its sloping lot is located at the foot of Great Hill (highest point 356 feet) just north of Fort Pond Brook, a small waterway that eventually makes its way to the Assabet River. The building is set back approximately 50 feet from the west side of Main Street and an average of 15 feet from the north side of Railroad Street, and is surrounded by a private right-of-way on all other sides.

Thetracks ofthe Boston and Maine Railroad runabout 200 feet from the nominated property, traveling under Main Street and crossing Fort Pond Brook just to the east of Quimby Square. The property is located in an area of mixed residential and commercial properties, including the 1860 Exchange Hall (nominated to the National Register) and a mix of 19th and 20th century buildings that have seen some alteration. To the west are 20th century commercial buildings located on the foundations of the 18th and 19th century outbuildings that once belonged to the tavern, but that are no longer part of its lot. The original portion of the building is oriented to the south, but the house now has two principal facades, to the east as well as the south, the result of additions made in 1818.

(in one paragraph) Builder/Architect Unknown . religion science sculpture social/ humanitarian theater _ transportation x other (specity) (Community Developmen::) Jones Tavern, Acton, retains integrity of location, design, materials, workmanship, and association. Erected in 1732, and substantially enlarged during the 18th and early 19th centuries, the tavern today is the best preserved and perhaps the most fully developed vernacular example of the Federal style in Acton. Historically, the building holds associations with the development of South Acton from agricultural village during first settlement to commercial node by the mid 19th century, and with the Jones family, whose activities over five generations were in large measure directly responsible for that development.

The building thus fulfils Criteria A, B, and C of the National Register of Historic Places on the local level. Settlement of, South Acton was begun in 1701 when the Jones and Knight families purchased 600 acres of the private land grant (first settled ca. 1656) called the Iron Work Farm, with the ironworks located in the eastern portion of the grant by 1697. Over the next 26 years, members of the two families established and operated fulling, grist, and saw mills at the falls of Fort Pond Brook, to the southeast of the nominated property.

Two 17th century roads met near the mill sites--one running east/west along Nashoba Brook toward Concord (now Central and School Streets), and the other joining it from the south and the Assabet River (now Liberty Street); by the 18th century, the latter roadway continued northward toward an evolving settlement and meetinghouse location at Acton Center. (This road continued to be the major accessway to Acton Center into the 20th century, and the junction of these roads to the mills at South Acton became known as Mill Corner.