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In October 2001, the Concord Historical Commission exhibited at the Concord Free Public Library a collection of artifacts from the old farm-- old shoes, a skate blade, old bottles of uneaten preserves. Its purpose was to let interested citizens know more about the old house at the very moment it was being dismantled. To me it was a sad display. If the town had been paying more attention and had taken more care, the farmstead could have been preserved.
Brochure by the Concord Historical Commission
Distributed at its Concord Free Public Library exhibit:
Artifacts from the Ball-Tarbell-Benson Farmstead
October 2001The Ball-Tarbell-Benson House, ca. 1740-2001
The Town of Concord bought the Ball-Benson property following a Special Town Meeting in 2001. The house and barn were dismantled and placed into storage by September, 2001. Part of the land will be used for a new Town well; part will be kept in conservation. The part where the house and barn stood was sold to a private party, to help pay for the town's purchase.
When the property came on the market in 2000 townspeople knew very little about the inside of this house. For over 25 years, two single men had lived there, Sanfred (Sammy) Benson, the only son of the Benson family who'd bought it in 1887 [and then known as Bensen], and his nephew Coburn, born in 1935. The Historical Commission wants to familiarize townspeople with what is now known about the house.
Who built the little house at the end of Ball's Hill Road? When? Who lived in it?
Exterior evidence and local legend said that the house might have been built as early as 1685, and it was so listed in the first town Survey of Architectural and Historic Resources, published in 1994. Current research, both of the architectural construction and of deeds to the property, indicates that a date of around 1726-1740 is more likely. From the outside, the house is a gambrel-roofed saltbox farmhouse, facing the sunny south, backed against a hill to the north: wonderful planning for a house to be heated only by wood fires! There was a connecting shed to the east, once probably used as a barn for animals and for farm work. A 30' by 40' English 3-bay barn stood down by the meadow to the southwest. Off to one side was a spacious stone root cellar, and a well stood in front of the house.
Essentially, only two families owned and inhabited this house over the past 275 years or more. The Balls and their in-law descendants lived there from about 1726 until 1873, and, (after a decade of sales and/or rentals), the Bensons from 1887 until 2001. From a historical point of view, the house is a treasure as very few "improvements" had been made during all those years, so by peeling back the most recent layers, the researchers could see the original house structure. (There was, for instance, no indoor bathroom.)
As a result, when it became necessary to dismantle the house, it was possible to remove layers of plaster or floorboards, and come finally to the original featheredged wall paneling, 15 inches wide. These boards showed the original blood-red paint or whitewash--and then the first wallpaper, glued right to the original boards! (This first paper underlies 7 later layers.) When the first plaster was added to the walls, the lath for early plaster was made by whacking a 1211 wide pine board to split it along the grain, and then using this accordion-split panel sideways on the wall. Some of this lath turned out to be the original feather-edged paneling earlier used in other walls. Plaster was then applied to this lath layer.
So what did the house originally look like? Outside, pretty much as it did in Gleason's 1904 photo. But inside many changes occurred. At first there were only two rooms downstairs, a half cellar and an open "dormitory" room upstairs. The first of these downstairs rooms, on the sunny southeast, had a huge fireplace for cooking and heating. The walls were whitewashed to give more light. The family lived in this "Hall" during the day--eating, sewing, repairing farm tools, talking and telling tales, just as people had done since medieval times. Probably they slept here, too, in cold weather. The southwest room, or parlor, was for more formal timeswhen guests or the minister came to call. Those who climbed the stairs to the bedroom probably vied to get the space nearest the fireplace area, where it would be warmest--and certainly slept three or more in a bed. Both the Balls in the early years and the Bensons in the 1900s had large families, with 6 to 8 growing children.
In 1904 the house still had its original single chimney and looked much as it had in the 1700s. (See Gleason photo.) After several chimney fires in the early 1900s the Bensons tore out the original single fireplace and replaced it with. two smaller ones, changing the staircase at the same time and making a hall upstairs, with two bedrooms and adding the dormer to give more light. These appear in Gleason's 1918 photo. [end]