By ROD LEE

A spring house tour sponsored by the Uxbridge Historic District Commission (UHDC) that involves several of the town’s prime vintage properties will give homeowners like Peter Frabotta III of “Barbara’s Blue House” at 46 Capron St. a chance to unveil for rare public viewing residences they are proud of and eager to show off.

 

 

 

 Unlike some other homes in the neighborhood that have been “bastardized” over the years, Peter Frabotta’s residence at 46 Capron St. has undergone only enhancement from its original state, as depicted in these photos of various rooms. The home will be open as part of a spring house tour being sponsored by the Uxbridge Historic District Commission on April 30th.

Dubbed “A Walk in the Park,” the spring house tour is scheduled for Sunday, April 30th from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. All are welcome to participate. In lieu of an admission charge, those joining the tour are asked to bring a food item for donation to the local pantry.

An Uxbridge Senior Center shuttle will be available from the McCloskey Building parking lot, and informational flyers can be obtained at the Mendon Street Kitchen’s main location. Mendon Street Kitchen is also playing an active role with the food aspect of the proceedings as well.

The 77 Blossom Shop and Lucille’s Floral Designs are contributing arrangements for the homes that are open for the tour.

UHDC Chair Jane Keegan and her colleagues are using the event to build interest in hoped-for passage of an amended town bylaw that would expand the bounds of the historic district farther along Mendon, No. Main and Capron streets. The proposal is headed for a vote at Town Meeting on May 9th. It has received the unanimous endorsement of the Uxbridge Planning Board.

Ms. Keegan says “strollers” taking advantage of the tour are invited to start at the east end of Mendon St. in the “Wheelocksville,” or “Wheelock Village” area with its “astonishing mixture of distinguished architecture.” In this sector, mill owners and management personnel lived side-by-side in close-to-the-street homes.

Continuing in a westerly direction from that point, beyond “the flats” and the Blackstone River lies the Central Woolen Mill, or “Workingman’s,” district, including the repurposed Stanley Woolen Mill with its antique shops connected to the Blackstone River Canal tow path.

The highlight of the spring house tour will undoubtedly be homes that will be open for inspection. These include the aforementioned 46 Capron St. (Mr. Frabotta’s home), 236 Mendon St., 35 Capron St. and 115 South Main St.—the Zadock (Taft) House.

Like Mr. Frabotta, Timothy and Kristina Johnson, Karen Beane and Kevin Donaldson are eager to put properties they own on display for the community’s admiration.

Ms. Beane and her sisters Alice and Pat own 236 Mendon St., which she calls “The Beane Compound.” The Johnsons own 115 South Main St.—the circa 1780 Zadock (Taft) House. They also live at 8 Capron St. Mr. Donaldson’s owns 35 Capron St.

Mr. Frabotta’s enthusiasm for showcasing 46 Capron St. runs high. He has spared no expense in turning Barbara’s Blue House into a masterwork. A man with discerning and exquisite taste, he has filled the premises with period furnishings and antiques acquired throughout New England. All of these are creatively and tastefully arranged. He frequently entertains guests.

Barbara’s Blue House is a circa 1908, 4500-square-foot center-entry formal Colonial named for Mr. Frabotta’s mother. The handsome two-story structure was purchased by the Frabotta family for $28,000 in 1968. It sits on three-plus acres of land and is fronted by handsome black wrought-iron fencing with a separate carriage house and garage in back.

“The fence is brand new and looks like it was put in one hundred years ago,” Mr. Frabotta says.

“I want to personally thank Joe McCourt for his tireless efforts and hard work in the revitalization of this property,” Mr. Frabotta said. Mr. McCourt is a retired Uxbridge teacher who still coaches tennis. He has proven to be of invaluable assistance as Barbara’s Blue House (Peter Frabotta’s mom’s favorite color) has been updated over the past several years.

Furnishings that add character can be found in almost every room. An original hand-carved cigar-store Indian. Distinctive floor lamps from the playhouse in Marblehead. An 1880s Charles Stieff piano from Baltimore. All original crystal chandeliers. Genuine tribal Persian carpets (“very rare, very hard to come by”). A Belgian hunt board from the 1890s.

An encyclopedia of cartoons from The New Yorker on a coffee table embellishes the spacious living room with a literary touch.

In an interesting twist, Mary Brady, from whom the Frabotta’s purchased the home, “forgot her hair pins and her cane.” They remain on the premises, in a coat closet on the first floor.

That Barbara’s Blue House has good bones is reflected by Mr. Frabotta’s comment that he only recently replaced a more than one hundred year-old boiler.

He has been told “your parents would be so proud” of the embellishments he has incorporated into the home.

Donaldson home in the family since 2015

Nearby, 35 Capron St. has had a slightly different history.

“The original structure was built in the late 1800s,” Mr. Donaldson says. “In 1910 the house sustained a fire and the deed was rewritten. The home was rebuilt as it stands today.

“The Donaldson Holdings Trust is the fifth owner of the house.”

Mr. Donaldson notes that “the unique layout of the house” has accommodated many political parties throughout the years, including a campaign function for John F. Kennedy.

“The company that manufactured the wallpaper that can be seen in the main halls and dining room went out of business in 1956.

“In the early 1900s the Clark family” of the Clark Electric Co. owned the house and poured a lot of money into maintaining it.

“Some of the fixtures seen throughout the house were written into the original deed to remain in the house,” Mr. Donaldson said.

In 2015, Mr. Donaldson said, “the Donaldson Holdings Trust purchased the house after it sustained damage from a Boillard failure, flooding all of the steam lines and the house hard froze.

“The restoration continues to this day.”

Beane home was “the Keegan house”

The Beane Compound on the northeast side of Mendon St. has been occupied by the family since 2011, Karen Beane said.

Since it was constructed in 1939, the ten-room, three-and-a-half-bath home has been known as “the Keegan House” after its original owners. It was conceived by a partner at Hutchins & French, a prestigious architectural firm in Boston.

For almost fifty years the property was the home of Gordon W. Keegan Sr. and his wife Florence Moore, both of Uxbridge.

The land on which the house sits was a wedding present from Sarah Austrup Scott, whose son, Gordon, was the groom’s best friend. As bachelors, they lived in the Cornet Farnum House (c. 1715) with Leo Kenney, later a well-known state representative. Both “Gordons” were prominent in the woolen business, the former being employed at Scott’s Mill at the end of Hecla Street and the latter as the wool buyer for the Uxbridge Worsted Co. owned by Charles Root Sr. and originally on the site of the Bernat Mill, which burned in '07, at Mendon and Depot streets.

The stretch of Mendon Street, known locally as “Wheelocksville,” is officially labelled “Wheelock Village” by the Massachusetts Historical Commission. The architectural style of the Keegan House is described in MHC records as Colonial Revival. Like nearby wood-framed houses, the front face is clapboard. But unlike its neighbors, the architect departed radically from the norm, using brick on the side faces and then building a distinctive brick wall versus a more traditional NE picket fence in the front yard.

Also, the house is set back farther from the street than the others, and the brick wall offers more separation and privacy from this busy main east/west thoroughfare through town.

Not only does the Keegan House differ architecturally with its combination of brick and clapboard, the roof and driveway are slate. Formal, circular gardens with a pergola and large fieldstone fireplace for barbecues were constructed in the back yard.

The (original) interior features were unusual, too, Jane Keegan points out.

Several exotic woods were chosen to panel the formal living room, den, and large basement area, but family memory only recalls one. The basement family/rec room featured Japanese wormwood. That ran short during World War II, and the “wormwood effect” had to be achieved by drilling holes in another wood to approximate the “look” of the original panels. A fireplace and bar area with beer on draft finished the family room.

In addition, there was a basement photographer’s dark room, mangle in the laundry off the kitchen, “bell system” to connect help, heated two-car attached garage and built-in, bedroom bureaus/closets, predating the California closet concept by generations.

Since the Keegan House was sold in the late 1970s, three sets of owners have made interior and exterior changes to accommodate 21st Century tastes. The original screened-in porch, shutters and seasonal awnings have been removed. In the back of the house, den, kitchen and laundry areas have been reworked for a more open concept, and the in-ground swimming pool replaced the formal gardens.

“To blend old with new is the essence of ‘preservation,’ and the Keegan House remains a lovely lady more than eight decades later,” Ms. Keegan said.

Ms. Beane said the home features ten rooms and three and a half baths; and a fireplace.

Zadock (Taft) House “has a lot of character”

The Zadock (Taft) House was probably built in the 18th Century and received its present Greek revival styling in the 1840s or 1850s, according to Ms. Keegan.

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

Tim and Kristina Johnson of Capron St. purchased the home, which is situated just south of Uxbridge Center, in January of 2022 and immediately set to work updating the property.

“We’ve always loved old houses,” Mr. Johnson, who is assistant vice principal at Hopedale Junior-Senior High School, said, in welcoming a visitor to the address on Palm Sunday.

Ms. Johnson worked at UMass Memorial in ultrasound and has taken on restoration of the home as somewhat of a personal crusade.

The home features four large rooms on the first floor and four large rooms on the second floor and has “a lot of character,” Kristina Johnson and her husband point out. This is typified by “a lot of the original molding,” old built-ins, old floorboards, and window seats. Ms. Johnson has tackled much of the interior redesign she wants to see happen, with the addition of wallpaper as an accent piece, for instance.

Their initial intent is to use the home as an Airbnb, “to rent the whole house,” and to utilize it for small events including bridal parties and showers. But Ms. Johnson’s long-term objective is to possibly have a coffee shop on the premises.

The land has long been associated with the locally prominent Taft family. As early as 1708 it was the farm of Joseph Taft, who helped oversee construction of the town of Uxbridge’s first meeting house in 1728-30. It was acquired in the 1860s by Zadock Taft, a great grandson of Joseph Taft, who owned several industrial concerns including a half interest in the Rivulet Mill complex.

The Zadock (Taft) House will host a Mother’s Day Tea Party from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.

“We’re feeling really good right now,” Mr. Johnson said, of the couple’s acquisition of the home, with rooms they have labelled “The Flower Room,” “The Family Parlor” and “The Tea Room.”

All of these properties are part of what the UHDC sees as “a logical extension” of what the town had in terms of an historic district in 2004 “and coming upon our 300th anniversary. We have a lot of precious history” to hold onto, she said.

Contact Rod Lee at [email protected] or 774-232-2999.