Listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), the John Spurr House on Charlton’s Main Street was one of the first buildings erected in the town over 225 years ago. According to the records of the U.S. Department of the Interior, the building was nominated for the Registry in March 1976 and then listed in April 1976. It is a private home, not open to the public, and listed in excellent but transformed condition. 

Major General John Spurr who lived from 1759 to 1816 was in his late 50’s when he died. He was considered a leader in Charlton affairs. Born in Stoughton, Mr. Spurr served in the Continental Army and, according to the NRHP’s Statement of Significance description, he was among the group of patriots who threw overboard the hated tea from the ships Dartmouth and Eleanor at Griffin’s Wharf in Boston on December 16, 1773.  Was this man brave! 

Following the Boston Tea Party, he fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill and was commissioned an officer soon after where he served in the 4th Massachusetts Regiment until 1779.  In 1788 he moved to Charlton and took ownership of 3,000 acres of confiscated Tory land acquired through his wife. In politics, General Spurr was a strong Jeffersonian Democrat opposing Federalists. 

Design-wise, General Spurr’s home is considered to be one of Charlton’s finest homes as it was the only home built in the 1700s on the Charlton Common area. It is considered to be of Georgian Style which is defined by rigid symmetry, balanced facades, central entryways, and evenly-spaced windows. One of the home’s interesting listed features is that of a hinged panel common wall between the second story north chambers that can be swung up to create a larger space for socializing. 

Much of the data entered for the National Historic Register listing was composed from Evelyn Davis Fischer’s Spurr Family’s Genealogy records of 1974, Charlton’s Town Assessor records of 1798, Benjamin Thatcher’s Tea Party List of 1835, Hamilton Hurd’s History of Worcester County of 1877, and Wesley Griswold’s The Night the Revolution Began, printed in 1972.

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