The Oliver Tufts House -- Tufts Family Ownership: 1778-1883

by Rich Sanford, resident of Unit #2 1999-2005

Peter and John Tufts

Peter Tufts of Winter Hill (as he was referred to) and his son fought together in the Revolution. In 1778 with the war over and the troops withdrawn, Peter purchased the house for his son John Tufts (then 24 years old and just married to Elizabeth Perry). John Tufts owned this farmhouse and the whole tract of land between School and Central streets, extending from the middle of the southerly slope of winter Hill across the valley and over the summit of the hill to the vicinity of Oxford street. He became a scientific farmer and gardener. John and Elizabeth had thirteen children, including Oliver Tufts (who was born in the late 1700s).

It is written that John Tufts "much improved" the house during his occupancy. As best I can guess this means it was John Tufts who converted the saltbox roof to the gambrel seen in early photos. It is possible that the ground-floor footprint of the house was increased at this time. It certainly was a substantial project to remove the saltbox roof, expand the second floor, and build the new gambrel roof. And as I have heard no record of a two-chimney saltbox I can guess that during this renovation an original central chimney was removed and replaced by the two chimneys seen today.

Oliver Tufts

Oliver Tufts inherited the house from his father John Tufts and occupied it until his death in 1883 (his exact age at death is not known but it is written that he was "long past the age of eighty.") Oliver Tufts was the longest-term occupant of the house in its history. Among other events during Oliver's lifetime and occupation of this house were the division of his land by the railroad in 1835, the incorporation of Somerville as a town in 1842, the Civil War, and the incorporation of Somerville as a city in 1872.

Oliver was a scientific and successful farmer, much like his father. Based on one description, Oliver had a potato field west of the house extending from Pembroke street to Medford street (including the modern-day Tennyson street), and from Sycamore street to Central street. On the other side of Sycamore street, Farmer Tufts had his kitchen and flower garden, his barn and barnyard, and the big cornfield extending down to School street and including all of the land where Richdale Ave, Lee and Essex streets are now located. Before the railroad was built, there was a sizable pond in the natural hollow between the hills, right where the bridge is now located. Near the pond Oliver Tufts kept a "duck house" with numerous ducks.

The Tufts farm was bisected by the construction of the Lowell railroad in 1834 and 1835. The duck pond was drained by the digging of the railroad gorge. The first bridge built over the Lowell railroad tracks was at Sycamore Street, to compensate the Tufts Farm for the damage and inconvenience caused by the railroad.

Oliver's niece Caroline, her brother, and her mother moved into the house with "Uncle Oliver" after her father Asa died in 1836. It is mentioned that they lived with him until 1849 when she then married Mr. Franklin Henderson. Caroline Henderson wrote about the rows of button wood or sycamore trees that lined both sides of the lane connecting the house with Medford street, which led this lane to be named Sycamore Street.

In 1838 Oliver married Dorothy Danforth of Chelsea and in 1839 Dorothy gave birth to their only child, Annie Louisa Tufts. Annie married Dr. William Kelley Fletcher in 1874 In the meantime, Somerville incorporated first as a town in 1842, then as a city in 1872. Somerville was separated from Charlestown in 1842 because it was still largely rural while Charlestown proper was rapidly urbanizing. It is hard to imagine that distinction today.

Writings from the 1870's and 1880's describe Farmer Tufts, white-haired and wearing a long blue smock, as a "genial and neighborly friend to the small boys of the vicinity." Farmer Tufts allowed the neighborhood children to jump in his haymow, climb his black and white mulberry trees, help themselves to the fruit that fell to the ground from two tall pear trees in one of his fields, and gather lilacs from the big rows of bushes opposite the barn.”

In 1883 Oliver Tufts passed on and left the farm to Dr. and Mrs. Fletcher. Dr. Fletcher subdivided the farmland in the 1890's, creating Richdale Ave., Lee and Essex Streets, and allowing these to be populated with the Colonial Revival two family houses and three-deckers that sprung up all over the city at the turn of the twentieth century.


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Last Updated: March 11, 2005