Duston Garrison House, Hilldale Avenue, Haverhill

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS MASS,5-HAV,8-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Hilldale Avenue, Haverhill, Essex County, Massachusetts Materials: Field notes include a questionnaire (historical data gathered at the site), building and site measurements, and a brick rubbing, completed by field members Francis H. Brown, James V. Dooley, and David Buller on March 1, The field notes also include a one-page typescript history for the house produced by Haverhill Historical Society around the time of the documentation. "Duston" and "Dustin" are used interchangeably in the field notes and both spellings seem to have been both used historically. Questionnaire (transcribed from the handwritten field notes) Date: March 1, Name: Francis H. Brown, James V. Dooley, David Buller Address: 3 Underwood St. Belmont Name of the "The Duston Garrison House" Location of the Hilldale Ave.

Haverhill Date Built: Architect: Unknown Builder: "U[nknown?]" Subsequent owners: Present owner: "Valley" Address: DUSTON GARRISON HOUSE HABS No. MA-273 (Page 2) Transcription of one-page typescript history by the Haverhill Historical Society: Duston Garrison House Haverhill The Duston Garrison House was located on Hilldale Avenue about two miles from the center of the city of Haverhill. It was built in by Thomas Duston, a brickmaker who had clay pits nearby and made the bricks of which the house is built. In the early records of the town is the following: 'April the brick house of Thomas Duston, that had been partly finished the year previous, but not occupied, was ordered to be garrisoned, and Thomas Duston was ordered to the command'.

He was required to see that a good watch was kept both by night and by day. Six men were under his command in the garrison. When this house was built there were two very large fireplaces with ovens opening on the outside of the house. There were no stairs leading to the attic. It could be reached only by a ladder through a trap door through which one entered, then the ladder could be pulled up and the trap door closed for the [sic] protection in case of attack. There was but one small window in the attic, this was to the one side of the center near the eaves, this had a wooden shutter as a further protection from the Indians. It is said there were four or five separate compartments in the cellar.

After the home of Thomas Duston had been destroyed by fire by the Indians and his wife, Hannah, their infant child and the nurse had been carried away captive by [the] Indians, he came to this house with his seven children. It was to this house that Hannah Duston returned after her captivity. Here they lived together until after his death. In the more than two hundred years since the death of Thomas Duston the house has changed owners many times and has been altered in many ways, but the walls and the openings remain practically the same as when built. Haverhill Historical Society Original chimneys were removed, and the ["existing" written in here by hand] building was burned in November of