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Wood - Benson - Lincoln House

754 Conant St

1732

Architectural Style

First Period, Georgian

Significance

Architecture, Social History

Use Type

Hospital, Single Family Dwelling House

Neighborhood

Massachusetts Historical Commission Report

Architectural Significance

Built c. 1732, this house is a well preserved, late First Period, two-story center hall plan house with an integral lean-to. It is architecturally significant as an unusual example of the studded wall type of house frame with a brick infill , rather than the usual Plymouth County planked wall construction. Particularly noteworthy is its center entrance with primitive, tapered "Doric" pilasters and a cornice waded entablature. Windows are fully enframed with raised moldings and 12/12 wood sash. This house's main facade is clad with clapboards. Wood shingles cover the side wall. This house's interior is said to feature a front stairway which turns tightly against the chimney structure with boxed treads and square, heavy spindles. The old kitebed is sheathed with feature edged boarding. One of the bedroom's fireplaces exhibits a bold bolection molding.

Historical Significance

This house is part of Bridgewater's exceptional collections of "salt box" houses dating to the first half of the 18th century. Traditionally dated 1732, this house was built for a member of the Wood family. Conant St. is an old road dating to at least c. 1700. This house is situated just to the south of the M.C.I. and smallpox cemeteries—this house is thought to have served as a hospital or "pesthouse" during one of the smallpox epidemics of the 1770's or 1780's. During the early 19th century a Rufus and Willard Wood lived here. By the 1850's Alonzo P. and Hannah W. Benson owned this property. By the mid 1870's Nathan P. Lincoln of Boston lived here. He is listed as a blacksmith in 1890's and 1900's directories.

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