PARSON BARNARD HOUSE & BARN
PARSON BARNARD HOUSE & BARN (1715)
The Parson Barnard House (1715) at 179 Osgood Street is the Society’s other historic house. The exciting preservation techniques used by Abbot Lowell Cummings highlight the original construction and interior modifications. As you visit each room, you will see furnishings that show the changes in lifestyle as experienced by four early inhabitants of the house from 1715 through 1830. FIRST SATURDAYS.
located at 179 osgood street
The Parson Barnard House (1715) is located at 179 Osgood Street and retains many of its original features, based on a documented history of this significant Eighteenth Century building.
The first owners were ministers
The first owners and inhabitants of the house were ministers of the North Parish Church of North Andover, including Rev. Thomas Barnard, Rev. John Barnard and Rev. William Symmes. Towards the end of the eighteenth century the house was used as a summer home at which time the carriage barn was built.
North andover historical society purchase
The North Andover Historical Society purchased the Parson Barnard House in 1950 in the belief that this was the home of Simon and Anne Bradstreet. During the preservations that transformed the house into a museum, the truth that this house had been built in approximately 1715 many decades after their death was rediscovered.
CARRIAGE BARN
The Parson Barnard House was built in 1715 by Parson Thomas Barnard. The carriage barn was built during the early 19th century by John Norris, a founder of the Andover Theological Seminary. As Mr. Norris practiced law in Salem, Massachusetts, the Parson Barnard house was used as local base and as a summer home for his family.
THE BARN FOUNDATION WAS UNSTABLE
The building was structurally unstable because the ground on which the back wall was sited was positioned on a slope. The hill was eroding. The Historical Society was forced to discontinue its use in school programs for many years, no longer able to us this space to highlight the history of the Parson Barnard House.
COMMUNITY PRESERVATION ACT GRANT
Thanks to a $148,000 Community Preservation Act grant, the society was able to do substantive renovations to the structure. It was able to stabilize the structure with a retaining wall. In July 2017, the first floor of the barn was open, and the Historical Society ran a free open house, highlighting the potential textile demonstrations they can now use the barn for.
OPEN ON First SATURDAYS in Summer
The barn is open as part of the first Saturday (June - October) First Saturday series, sponsored by North of Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The goal is to bring the school programming back to the Parson Barnard House now that there’s more space in the barn.
Beautiful new interpretive signs installed in July of 2017 and located outside of the barn, were funded in part by a 2016 Partnership Grant from the National Essex Heritage Commission in July 2017.
PARSON BARNARD HOUSE PUBLICATIONS
Early Owners of the Parson Barnard House & Their Times by Horatio Rogers, M.D.
The History of the Parson Barnard House by Abbott Lowell Cummings.