The ruins of the Samuel Hartwell House are located along the Battle Road Trail between the Hartwell Tavern and the Captain William Smith House. The best way to see it is to start at the tavern and walk a tenth of a mile down the trail to the east. All that remains is a chimney, but the National Park Service has constructed a wooden frame that shows the size of the original house. It was being used as a restaurant in February 1968 when it burned down.
The house is thought to have been built sometime between Samuel Hartwell Jr.’s marriage in 1692 and its first mention in the public records in 1716. When Samuel died in 1744, the property went to his son Ephriam (the man who owned the Hartwell Tavern). On April 19, 1775, when British troops marched past the house on Battle Road—then called Bay Road or Concord Road, among other names—Ephraim owned the house, but his son Samuel III was living in it, which is why the National Park Service now calls it the Samuel Hartwell House.
The house remained in the Hartwell Family until 1846. It was then sold a number of times after that until it ended up as a restaurant that operated from 1929 until it burned down in 1968.
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Last updated on September 5, 2023