OLD BUILDINGS. 233 



and the other near the fence of George Swain, Sr.'s, lot, 

 separating the said lot from the Capt. Rule or later Ed- 

 ward Eay farm, — both being northeasterly from the 

 school-house and north of the now travelled road. 



Probably the next oldest dwelling was the Eliakim 

 Swain house in Newtown, northeasterly from Elisha 

 Smith's on Orange Street. This is said to have been 

 built by John Swain, Jr., for his son, Eliakim Swain, 

 who married his first wife, Elizabeth Arthur, April 

 18, 1717, and was living in it in 1726 or 1727, when the 

 Thomas Howes house, now Elisha Smith's, was built. 

 The carpenters who came from Boston boarded in the 

 Eliakim Swain house while they were building the 

 Howes house. The former has lately been taken 

 down. 



Another old building, still standing but moved out 

 of town and made into a barn on the farm of James 

 Gibson, was long known as the dwelling-house of 

 Shubael Gardner (" blind Shubael "), and stood where 

 now stands the house of the late H. G. O. Dunham, 

 Esq., and was built for Capt. Eichard Gardner, Jr., 

 who died March 8, O. S. 1728. It was probably built 

 previous to 1700, certainly not long after. 



There is another old house that stands on its original 

 site; it is on Ihe south side of West Centre Street, and 

 was built for Richard Gardner, 3d, son of Richard, Jr., 

 who was married May 26, 1724 O. S., and died Feb. 

 27, 1724-5 O. S., so that the house was doubtless 

 erected in 1724. It fronts south, with its long back 

 roof towards Centre Street. 



The old North Vestry was built in 1711 in the 

 Holmes Country, northerly from " No-bottom Pond," 



