AMERICAN HOMES 



AND GARDENS 



^ 



n=ii era " ; ~~~~ um cot 



Volume X 



September 1913 



Number 9 



A Medfield Farmhouse 



By Marion Norcross 

 Photographs by Mary H. Northend 



N these days, when so much modern archi- 

 tecture is being developed, it is refreshing to 

 find old-time architecture restored in the re- 

 modeled farmhouse, which stands back from 

 the winding country road, a direct manifes- 

 tation of what is being done to-day to save 

 our Colonial homes. These comfortable and attractive 

 dwellings are shaded by stately elms, whose wide-spreading 

 branches seem to beckon the passer-by to come and take 

 another abandoned farm and reclaim it for a modern coun- 

 try home. Few who are house-hunting can resist this appeal, 

 and what is more charming than the old lean-to, or the hip 

 roof, or the Colonial lines of one of these houses which 

 suggest delightful interiors that are filled with possibilities 

 of all sorts of numerous odd nooks and corners as well as 



secret hiding places that are surely fascinating and unique. 



Possibly there were many better examples of the restored 

 farmhouse than this Medfield home, but few have as many 

 charms as exist here. It stands, a picturesque building show- 

 ing good lines, near a turn of the road, on the border line 

 between Medfield and Walpole, in Norfolk County, Massa- 

 chusetts. 



This particular house has two values, — its historical im- 

 port and its old-time construction. It was erected about 

 1652, and at that time was a small and unpretentious build- 

 ing about twenty-five feet square, constructed of hand-hewn 

 timbers. The interior showed, in addition to the lower story, 

 loft bedrooms. Descending from generation to generation 

 through two centuries, this little farmhouse was occupied 

 by the Adams family, a branch that was akin to the presi- 



The old-fashioned garden of the Medfield farmhouse is reminiscent of bygone days 



