Clara Sexton Memorial House
History
The Clara Sexton House was bought and bartered among traders for a bit until 1840. At that point the proud owner of the house was Joseph F. Hill, a local doctor. Those who followed him were also doctors, which is why to the left of the main house, there is a small office, possibly for one of the physicians; this is known as a dependency. Clara was always ready to participate in town events and social gatherings. In total, the home has had 13 documented owners since its construction. It is a first period house, built before 1725. On April 10th, 1936, Clara E. Sexton passed away at the age of seventy-eight and left the house to the Billerica Historical Society. In Clara’s obituary, it is quoted that Clara was “one of the best-known residents of Billerica”. The land was left with a request that the house be kept as a local historical landmark.
According to Hazen’s History of Billerica, the acreage, of which the house lot was a part, was owned by Jacob Brown who sold his granted rights to the location to John Stearns in 1663 and then disappeared from town. Stearns died in 1668 at the age around thirty-seven. No mention is made again of the location until 1723 when three quarters of an acre of this land was sold by the above John Stearns’ son John and his wife Johannah “with buildings thereon” for thirty pounds to Jacob and Rebecca (Patten) Danforth. (Jacob was the grandson of the illustrious Jonathan Danforth who had “tied the town together” by means of his expert surveying of the early land grants.)
The framing of the house indicates that at this time it was of saltbox construction. Jacob, a blacksmith, lived here most of his married life. He died at fifty-seven, in 1756, predeceasing his wife by almost twenty years. David, one of his two remaining sons, in 1763, sold his share of his father’s estate to the Reverend Henry Cumings who remodeled the home. Reverend Cumings, then twenty-four years old, had just become the Pastor of the First Parish Church in which position he was to remain actively for fifty years, with eleven years in semi-retirement until his death in 1823. He was a distinguished scholar, a leading figure in American Revolutionary affairs, and the author of over twenty published sermons, some of which are preserved at our Historical House. As was typical at the time, he numbered his sermons and delivered them at intervals, using each several times. He was married three (some report four) times and was the father of five children. more…
House Restoration
BILLERICA — After being closed since early last year (2020) and completing a huge restoration project, the Billerica Historical Society welcomed visitors back on Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021, to the historic Clara Sexton Memorial House.
With funding from a Community Preservation Act grant of $100,000, the organization restored all the Concord Street house’s aging windows and repainted the exterior of the building, along with other repairs and restorations.
“It involved taking (the windows) all out and sending them to a company that restores antique windows and having them all reinstalled again,” said Society President John Bartlett. “It’s more expensive because you have to do it historically accurately.”
Each pane of glass in the 30 or so windows were removed, labeled and restored individually by Sergio Quiroa, of FPP Window Repair, Restoration and Weather Sealing.
On Saturday, members of the Historical Society dressed in historical costumes showed visitors around the home and its new displays. One group put together an apple pie in the house’s original 1723 kitchen, placing it in a Dutch oven outside and cooking it on hot bricks and coals. Others demonstrated candle-making techniques or made leather items. more…
Barn Restoration
Dedication