Save Simon Johnson's American farmhouse!

The unassuming house standing empty and silent at 26 Prouty Road in Burlington, MA, is hiding a lot of history, and many authentic and unusual architectural features.

 

HISTORY

Augustus Prouty, an esteemed member of the Burlington community, built the house about 1860. Prouty sat on many city boards and advocated for the one-room schoolhouse.  After his death in 1911, a Swedish immigrant, Simon Johnson, bought the house and built his "American dream," working at a patent leather factory,  running his small farm, and serving on city boards. He opened his farm in the summer, and "Johnson's Grove" became a popular social, recreational and meeting center for the area's Swedish immigrants and farmers.

 

CRISIS

The Prouty-Johnson farmhouse is for sale and is temporarily protected from demolition by the town's Demolition Delay Ordinance, which protects houses 100 years or older from being razed. In the interim, the owners could sell to someone or some group that could preserve and restore the building. If this does not happen, the house could be torn down.

 

HISTORICALLY SIGNIFICANT

The commission found that the house, known locally as the Prouty-Johnson house, is historically significant, and should be “preferably preserved” because it reflects “distinctive features of the architectural, cultural, political, economic, and/or social history of the town.”

 

John Goff, a preservationist and architect, who recently compiled a report for the commission, called it a “rare example of an intact 19th century Greek Revival” and “architecturally, a beautiful property.”

 

Goff noted these “amazing architectural features:”

·A circa 1850 Greek Revival design

·Six-over-six windows

·Original clapboard front

·Original front door framing

·Pumpkin pine floorboards

·Greek Revival mantels

·Brick beehive oven

·Two original chimneys and timber framing

 

Goff said the house is an example of Burlington’s agricultural heritage; it connects to the leatherworking history of Burlington’s Francis Wyman House, and is a significant part of Massachusett’s Scandinavian-American, Revolutionary War and Native American history.