Historical Background and Significance of 9 Summer Street, proposed site of drive-through Walgreen's Drugstore

This house and 19 Summer Street were demolished on January 19, 2001.  The site has been incorporated into the Bridgewater Town Historic District.

Source:  Massachusetts Historical Commission
220 Morrissey Blvd.
Boston, MA 02125

Go to 19 Summer Street

9 Summer Street, the Colonel Abram Washburn House

9 Summer Street, front view

Description:
Date:  1825
Style:  Federal
Major alterations:  3 "hot houses" (1 attached to house, 2 separate) removed from property c. 1900.

Architectural Significance
This L-shaped frame residence is one of Bridgewater's finest late Federal style houses.   Rising 2 stories to a low hip roof, its 5 bay main facade exhibits 2/2 wood sash windows and an elegant central entrance--its front door is flanked by  narrow multi-pane sidelights and is surmounted by an elliptical fanlight window.  Together with the old Carver Washburn offices (west) and the late Federal style Nahum Stetson House, the Washburn house provides a glimpse of life in the prosperous Bridgewater of the 1820s.

Historical Significance
Built in 1825, this house has important historical associations with Colonel Abram Washburn.  A founder of Carver, Washburn and Co., he was also a naturalist, temperance reform advocate, trustee of Bridgewater Academy and anti-slavery sympathizer.   A descendant of John and Rebecca Washburn, donors of the old graveyard and First Parish Church's land (1717) he was the son of Nathaniel Washburn (19 Summer Street) and the grandson of Captain Abram Washburn "of Revolutionary  War fame."   Colonel Washburn was born in Pomfret, Vermont in 1795.  He settled in Bridgewater in 1811 and "was early connected with business of Carver, Washburn & Co."  Traveling widely throughout the South for this cotton-gin manufacturing company, he eventually became a full partner of this firm.  Active in the organization of the local rifle company (1819), "he was possessed of a fine physique, and in the saddle presented a most commanding figure as an officer."  An ardent naturalist, he planted trees throughout the town and water lilies on Carver Pond.   During the 1830's and 1840's his special project was the beautification of the old Graveyard.

Colonel Washburn sheltered fugitive slaves from the South in his Summer Street home, including William and Ellen Craft.

This house was built during Bridgewater's building "boom"--a boom precipitated by the incorporation of the town in 1822 and the development of manufacturing concerns such as Carver, Washburn & Co., the Lazell, Perkins Iron Works, and the Bartlett Tack Factory.

Bibliography
Bridgewater Bicentennial Commission.  Highlights of History, Bridgewater, MA.   1976.
Hurd.  History of Plymouth County.  1894.
Maps 1852, 1879, 1903.

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