The Liberal democrat. [volume] (Liberal, Kan.) 1911-1924, 1917-09-20
FAIRBANKS HOUSE HAS STOOD
FOR 281 YEARS.

Brought From England, Frame
Dwelling at Dedham, Mass, Is pre-
served as en Example of Colonial
Architecture.
+" HE Oldest frame house now
standing in the United States is
believed to be the Fairbanks
house in Dedham, Mass, built by
Jonathan Fairbanks in 1886.
1t is in this house that the Fair
banks cousins" from all over the
United States gather every year in
reunion. The sixteenth reunion was
held recently, when some five hun
dred descendants and guests were
present. During the last seven sum-
mers more than thirty thousand per-
sons have visited the historic land
mark from forty-four states in the
Union and twenty-five foreign coun-
tries.
. Mr.. and Mrs. Jonathan Fairbanks,
with their six children, came to Bos-
ton from Sowerby in the West Riding
OF Yorkshire, England, in 1888 and
three years later moved to Dedham,
where they erected what is now the
central portion of the Fairbanks
house, two wings having been added,
one in 1648 and the other in 1861.
Timbers used in the old house were
brought by Mr.. Fairbanks from Eng
land, and the bricks in the chimney
are said to have come to this country
as ballast in ships. No two windows
in the house are of the same dimen-
sions, and contrary to colonial Gus
tom, neither the huge chimney nor
the front door is exactly in the CEN
ter of the house.
The front door, which is entered
from the east, is unusually low and
leads to tiny entry eight feet in
width and three and one-half feet in
depth. Out of this dimnuative halllead
no less than five doors.
The parlor to the right as one en-
tiers was plastered by later genera
tons and in other ways is more mod
ern. But the kitchen, to the left of
the entry, is truly antique. The Wis.,
itor's attention is here attracted by a
fireplace originally seven feet two
inches in length and five feet in
height. An oven was installed in lat
er years, making it considerably small
Ter. From the fireplace hang a bel
lows, tongs and various cooking uten-
sils peculiar to modern times. The
imported timber shows prominently
in the ceiling of this room.
A winding staircase leads from the
entry to the second floor, where there
are two rooms, one bedchamber and
the other spinning room, where an
old hand I0Ona nav ha caan
Many yards of plaster clay, used by
the colonists as further protection
from the wintry blasts, may be seen
worked into the ends of the attic.
The wing on the northerly side of
the original house, which was built in
1913, was the home of John Fair
banks, the eldest son, who was marri-
ed in 1641. From the fireplace in
the larger room still hangs a wooden
crane five feet long and on this crane
were suspended grease lamps called
"widders" or "Old Betsy" to light up
the room during the long winter
nights. A small living room adjoins
In 1901, the Fairbanks family in
America was organized to preserve
the house as a museum of Colonial
date. The organization acquired the
property in 1903 from Mrs. Amory
Goldman of Boston, who bought it
from John Crowley of Dedham, who
had previously purchased the estate
from Miss Rebbeca Fairbanks, the
last of the eight generations of Fair
banks who lived in the house. The
house was opened regularly to the
public in 1908, when Henry Irving
Fairbanks was elected president of
the organization, which office he still
holds.-From the Christian Science
Monitor.