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Needham History: The Oldest House in Needham
318 years, and still standing!
The Robert Fuller House (3 Burrill Lane, built 1707), painted by Timothy Newell Smith in 1861. The painting shows the house with its original chimney block and 6-over-6 windows, as well as its outbuildings and barn.
The Oldest House in Needham
One of my favorite Museum objects is a small picture of the Robert Fuller House on the corner of Forest Street and Burrill Lane, painted in 1861 by Timothy Newell Smith. I love this painting! Even though it is rather small (just 11 x 17 inches) it has a huge sky and sightlines that go one for a considerable distance. I try to imagine the Forest Street and North Hill areas as rolling pasture, and have tried several times to make a good identification of that white house in the middle background (no luck yet).
But what about the Robert Fuller house, the star of this little show? One of the reasons that Smith painted the house was because of its great age. The Fuller house was built in 1707, and is the oldest standing house in Needham. Even when Smith made this painting it was one of only a handful of surviving First Period houses in town.
“First Period” refers to the earliest colonial architecture of New England, approximately 1630 to 1720. Needless to say, such houses are rare and precious treasures. In our immediate area, there are three First Period houses that you can visit. Two are in Medfield—the Dwight-Derby House (Frairy Street; 1651 with later reconstruction) and the Elizabethan-style Peak House (Main Street; 1651/1680). The best of them all is the Fairbanks House, on East Street in Dedham. Fairbanks was built in 1637-41, and is the oldest surviving wood frame house in North America. In the course of its first 300 years, the family made only minor changes (OK, they moved the privy indoors). The Fairbanks family (whose foundation still owns the house) established it as a museum in 1904, preserving its 17th-century integrity. There are also a few other First Period houses that are private property but visible from the street, such as the 1720 Joseph Daniell House in Wellesley (formerly Needham!) at the intersection of Oakland and Washington Streets.
Needham has three First Period houses, all of which are private property. The Samuel Wilson House (1718) and the Kingsbury-Whitaker House (1710/1840) have both been renovated over the years; in the case of the Kingsbury-Whitaker House (the History Center’s former home), the original structure is encased within the later renovations, so it is no longer visible except from the attic. Of the three, only the Robert Fuller House, currently 3 Burrill Lane, retains its original structural form.
The Fuller House was built by Captain Robert Fuller (1685-1769) at the time of his marriage to Mary Parker. It was originally a small two-rooms over two-rooms structure. When built, it was located higher up the hill, at the location of what is now 46 Burrill Lane. In Needham’s earliest years, before it had a regular minister and before the Meeting House was built, Capt. Robert’s house was the town’s first meeting place for divine service, and he also boarded the interim Minister.
Capt. Robert was the commander of the Needham militia company in the 1750s, and he served the town in other capacities. He was a Selectman for sixteen years, Town Clerk for sixteen years, Town Treasurer for four years, and a signer of the 1710 Farmers’ Petition for separation from Dedham.
In 1735 Capt. Robert built himself a new house on the site, and moved the original house to the bottom of the lane, now the corner of Forest Street. The 1707 house in its new location was given to his son, Lieutenant Robert Fuller Jr. (1714-1788), when he married Sarah Eaton that same year. Robert Jr. also served the town well, in the militia at Arlington and Roxbury (among others) during the Revolutionary War, and also with the town’s Committee of Correspondence to coordinate the actions of the town with the Sons of Liberty. He was a Selectman for twenty years, and an Assessor for four years.
Shortly after he acquired the house, Robert Jr. bought additional acreage across Forest Street and built his barnyard; the barn, pens, and what looks like a poultry house are shown in the painting to the right of the lane. He also added the sloped exterior shed (“saltbox”) and a small shed behind it (also seen in the painting).
The identity of the other small building—the one along the fence with the three windows and the chimney—is unclear. It shows up on the 1856 map as a shoe workshop, but I cannot find when it first appeared or, for that matter, disappeared.
The house descended in the Fuller family until 1823, when it was sold to Abijah Greenwood. It remained in the Greenwood family until 1896. It was during the Greenwood’s ownership that Timothy Newell Smith painted the house in 1861. Subsequent owners removed the shed and the central chimney, and added ells to the back and to the east side. The house was purchased in 2014 by Babson College. Babson also owns the other two properties on Burrill Lane—the 1735 Fuller Sr. house at the top of the lane and the 1950s house in between.
Although the house has seen many changes over the years to meet the needs of its residents, it has maintained the integrity of its exterior appearance, and a notable portion of its interior and structural fabric. This is extremely rare for an ancient house that has been an active residence for so long. In recognition of its architectural integrity, and acknowledging the important contributions of the Fuller family to Needham’s history, the Robert Fuller House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987: “The Robert Fuller House, Needham, retains integrity of design, materials, workmanship, feeling and association. Architecturally, the building is significant as an example of First Period construction and a demonstration of the evolution of building practices and styles in the colonial period.”
The town is fortunate that its most ancient house is also readily visible from the road. Generations of Needham schoolchildren have been driven by the house during their local-history studies to see the Oldest House in Town. The town is also fortunate that its owners, for whatever reasons, maintained its appearance and a good portion of its structure for an astonishing 318 years.
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Gloria Polizzotti Greis is the Executive Director of the Needham History Center & Museum. For more information, please see their website at www.needhamhistory.org. |