Willard House   (Manse at Deerfield Academy)

Willard House (Manse at Deerfield Academy)

Mary Allen photographed the Manse in 1892 or before, as a variant without the First Church (built 1824) appeared in the illustrated article Old Deerfield, written by her for the September, 1892 issue of The New England Magazine. (1.)

Purchased in 1811 by the Rev. Samuel Willard, the first Unitarian Minister in Western Massachusetts and dating to 1768, the home (or Manse-for parsonage) is now owned and used as the official residence for the headmaster of Deerfield Academy, a private boarding school in Deerfield, MA. (founded 1797)

The following description from the online resource Historic Buildings of Massachusetts first appeared in 2008:

The building in Old Deerfield known as the Manse, or the Willard House, is a 1768 Georgian mansion that was at one time the home of Rev. Samuel Willard. An earlier house, constructed in 1694, was already on the lot when the land was sold by Samuel Allen, the grandfather of Ethan Allen, to Samuel Barnard of Salem. Barnard bequeathed the land to his nephew, Joseph Barnard, who built the Manse in 1768, spending thirteen years selecting wood without knots. The earlier gambrel roofed building became the current ell. The Barnards continued to live in the house until 1795 when, facing financial difficulties, Samuel Barnard moved his family to Vermont. In 1807, the house was rented to Hosea Hildreth, preceptor at Deerfield Academy, whose son Richard Hildreth, later author of a well-known History of the United States, was born in the house. In 1811, the house was bought by Rev. Samuel Willard, who had already been living there since 1807 and would own the house until his death in 1859. Dr. Willard was the first Unitarian minister in Western Massachusetts and entertained such visitors as Charles Sumner, Horace Greeley and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the house. Willard’s heirs sold the home in 1885 and it had other owners. Today it serves as the residence of the Head of School of Deerfield Academy. (2.)

  1. See pp. 33-46: Boston, MA: New England Magazine Corporation
  2. Historic Buildings of Massachusetts website: blog post from Nov. 23, 2008
Title
Willard House (Manse at Deerfield Academy)
Photographer
Country
Medium
Year
Dimensions

Image Dimensions11.3 x 19.0 cm

Support Dimensionsnone

Print Notes

Verso: in graphite:  Manse    50; ink stamp: FRANCES and MARY ALLEN.
DEERFIELD, MASS.
All Rights Reserved

The photograph was most likely purchased from the Allen Sisters exhibition and sales gallery on the first floor of their Old Deerfield home for .50¢

 

Published

The New England Magazine, September, 1892, halftone, p. 38, “The Willard House” (cropped variant)

Post card variant halftone of this image with the title Old Deerfield. (Meeting House and Willard House)  by the Allen Sisters. Uncredited and published around turn of 20th century by the Trustees of the Village Room.