Benjamin Osborn House

Benjamin Osborn House
Location Mount Washington, Massachusetts
Coordinates 42°7′2″N 73°28′12″W / 42.11722°N 73.47000°W / 42.11722; -73.47000Coordinates: 42°7′2″N 73°28′12″W / 42.11722°N 73.47000°W / 42.11722; -73.47000
Built 1759 (1759)
Architect Unknown
Architectural style Colonial, Other
NRHP reference #

87001758

[1]
Added to NRHP October 1, 1987

The Benjamin Osborn House is a historic house off West Street in Mount Washington, Massachusetts. Built about 1759, it is a modest vernacular Georgian Cape style house. It is notable as a site where Shaker founder Mother Ann Lee stayed in 1781. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.[1] It is now owned by the state, and is located in Mount Washington State Forest.

Description and history

The Osborn House is located down a long, wooded, and now abandoned, drive on the east side of West Road in central Mount Washington. It is located just to the east of a more modern house, now also abandoned. It is a 1-1/2 story wood frame structure, three bays wide, with a side gable roof, clapboard siding, and a central chimney. Its exterior is devoid of significant stylistic elements. The interior has mainly 20th-century finishes, although the building's post and beam structure is visible. Its original two fireplaces have been replaced by a single one. The property includes an unmaintained orchard with trees estimated to be over 150 years old, and the Osborn family cemetery, located near West Street.[2]

The house was probably built not long after Benjamin Osborn bought a large tract of land here in 1759.[2] Shaker founder Mother Ann Lee stayed at the farmhouse during her May 1781 missionary journey to Tucconack Mountain (renamed Mount Washington, following the American victory in American Revolutionary War). She is reported to have stayed in the area for about ten days, attracting large numbers of both sympathizers and detractors.[3]

The house was acquired by the state in 1958, and is now part of Mount Washington State Forest.[2]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2008-04-15). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. 1 2 3 "MACRIS inventory record for Benjamin Osborn House". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved 2015-10-22.
  3. ↑ Ann the Word: The Story of Ann Lee, Female Messiah, Mother of the Shakers, by Richard Francis (2001) p. 159
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