The Dedham Community House is a house on the banks of the Charles River in Dedham, Massachusetts, owned and operated by the Dedham Community Association. [1]
The Dedham Community House is a house on the banks of the Charles River in Dedham, Massachusetts, owned and operated by the Dedham Community Association. [1]
It was originally built in 1798 for Judge Samuel Haven and designed by Charles Bulfinch. [2] [1] The land was once owned by Haven's father, Jason Haven, and maternal grandfather, Samuel Dexter. [3] It was noted as one of the most hospitable houses of the day in Massachusetts. [3] The Havens entertained many distinguished guests, including Richard Henry Dana Sr., Elizabeth Peabody, Nathaniel Hawthorne and his wife, Horace Mann and his wife, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Washington Allston and his wife, Charles Folsom and his wife, Judge Theron Metcalf and his wife, [3] and Abraham Lincoln. [2] [1] The house is mentioned in The Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne by Julian Hawthorne. [3]
The rooms on the first floor feature high ceilings, long French windows, tiled fireplaces, carved mahogany mantles and moldings, and original chandeliers. [4] A curved staircase leads to a second floor with smaller chamber rooms. [4] The front door handle features a hex mark designed to keep witches and fire from harming the house. [5]
After the Havens, the house was owned by Freeman Fisher. [6] [lower-alpha 1]
On September 20, 1848, then-Congressman Abe Lincoln arrived by train at Dedham station. [7] He was met by a brass band and they accompanied him down the street to the Haven House where he had lunch. [7] Lincoln then walked to the Temperance Hall where he gave a speech promoting Zachary Taylor's bid for the White House. [7]
Lincoln's hour long speech was praised by Whig newspapers but criticized by Democratic ones. [7] The Roxbury Gazette, for example, called it "a melancholy display" while journalist George Moore said Lincoln was "all the time gaining on his audience. He soon had us under his spell." [7] The crowd asked him to stay longer, but Lincoln left when he heard the newarby train whistle as he had other engagements that evening. [7]
A bust of Lincoln, sculpted by Dedham's Alexander Doyle, is now on display in the house. [7]
In 1922 it was purchased by Charles J. Kimball and a group of civic-minded citizens for use as a community center. [4] [2] In the early 1970s it housed the Town's teen center. [8] [9]
Today the Community House is dedicated to "advancing the educational, recreational, cultural and civic interests of residents of all ages of Dedham and surrounding communities." [4] They offer a pre-school, summer camp, and a variety of classes and workshops throughout the year for all ages. [4] [1] In 1924, the House hosted six weeks of supervised play for children during the summer months. [10] The program was expanded and moved to the various neighborhoods of town the following summer. [10]
In 2017, a grant from the Foundation for MetroWest paid to refurbish the 27 windows of the building. [1] As part of that project, old cupboards and cabinets were discovered after having previously been painted shut. [1] The house was shown in the 2014 film The Judge. [11]
Dedham is a town in and the county seat of Norfolk County, Massachusetts. The population was 25,364 at the 2020 census. It is located on Boston's southwest border. On the northwest it is bordered by Needham, on the southwest by Westwood, and on the southeast by Canton. The town was first settled by European colonists in 1635.
The Boston Brahmins or Boston elite are members of Boston's traditional upper class. They are often associated with a cultivated New England or Mid-Atlantic dialect and accent, Harvard University, Anglicanism, and traditional British American customs and clothing. Descendants of the earliest English colonists are typically considered to be the most representative of the Boston Brahmins. They are considered White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs).
The MIT Endicott House is a conference center located in Dedham, Massachusetts, about 10 miles (16 km) south-west from downtown Boston. The center consists of the Endicott mansion, a Normandy French-style chateau, along with an art lecture facility known as the Brooks Center, and 25 acres (100,000 m2) of gardens, lawn, woods and ponds. Since 1955, when it was given to Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the Endicott family, it has been owned and operated by MIT. It is one of the oldest such facilities in the United States. Endicott House serves as a meeting facility for many MIT departments and is the primary site of the Senior Executive Program of the MIT Sloan School of Management. The house also hosts conferences and meetings for other educational, medical, governmental, and nonprofit organizations.
Charles Wentworth Upham was a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts. Upham was also a member, and President of the Massachusetts State Senate, the 7th Mayor of Salem, Massachusetts, and twice a member of the Massachusetts State House of Representatives. Upham was the cousin of George Baxter Upham and Jabez Upham. Upham was later a historian of Salem and the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 when he lived there.
The history of Dedham, Massachusetts, from 1800 to 1899 saw growth and change come to the town. In fact, the town changed as much during the first few decades of the 19th century as it did in all of its previous history.
Nathaniel Ames, a colonial American physician, published a popular series of annual almanacs. He was the son of Nathaniel Ames first (1677–1736) and the father of Nathaniel and Fisher Ames. The family was descended from William Ames of Bruton, Somerset, England, whose son William emigrated to Massachusetts and settled at Braintree as early as 1640.
Augustus Bradford Endicott was a Massachusetts state legislator and sheriff of Norfolk County.
The Old Village Cemetery is an historic cemetery in Dedham, Massachusetts.
Nathaniel Ames represented Dedham, Massachusetts in the Great and General Court.
The Ames Tavern was a tavern in Dedham, Massachusetts. Founded as Fisher's Tavern in 1649 by Joshua Fisher, it eventually passed into the hands of Nathaniel Ames through a complicated lawsuit based on colonial laws of inheritance. It was eventually owned by Richard Woodward, who renamed it the Woodward Tavern by the time the convention that adopted the Suffolk Resolves met there.
Samuel Haven was an American judge.
St. Paul's Church is an Episcopal Church in Dedham, Massachusetts
Temperance Hall was an assembly hall in Dedham, Massachusetts associated with the temperance movement.
The history of Dedham, Massachusetts in the 20th century saw great growth come to the town. It played host to the Sacco and Vanzetti trial, saw the Endicott Estate and a number of schools constructed, a great deal of economic development, and growth in the number of services provided by the Town.
This is a timeline of the history of the town of Dedham, Massachusetts.
The Dedham Public Library is a public library system in Massachusetts established in 1872. It is part of the Minuteman Library Network.
Jeremiah Shuttleworth was a merchant and postmaster from Dedham, Massachusetts.
The Fisher-Whiting House is an historic home in Dedham, Massachusetts originally built around 1669 by Anthony Fisher, Jr. Located at 218 Cedar Street, it is the second oldest house in Dedham after the Fairbanks House.
Barnes Memorial Park, also known as Memorial Park, is a public park in Dedham, Massachusetts, dedicated in honor of John Andrew Barnes III and the men of Dedham who served in World War I.
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