Jason Russell House

The Jason Russell House is a historic house in Arlington, Massachusetts, the site of the bloodiest fighting on the first day of the American Revolutionary War, April 19, 1775 . The house was purchased in 1923 by the Arlington Historical Society which restored it in 1926, and now operates it as a museum from mid-April through the end of September, together with the adjoining Smith Museum, built in 1981 to house changing exhibitions of life in Arlington.

About 1740, Jason Russell , a relatively prosperous farmer, constructed the house on pasture land he inherited in 1738. To have the front facing south, in the New England tradition, he placed the north side angled toward the Concord Road . Perhaps five or ten years later, he added two more rooms to form a typical New England farmhouse with five windows across the front, a door in the center and a large chimney in the middle of a pitched roof. There is some evidence that the hall and its chamber above, as well as the garret, were original to Grandfather Jason's original structure of 1680. The hall and parlor of the house, with their chambers and the garret, are essentially unchanged today, although in 1814 a porch was added to the front door, and further extensions were subsequently added to the sides around 1863. Inside the central part are four rooms: to the left of the entry are the kitchen and children's chamber , and to the right, the parlor and parlor chamber. The kitchen ceiling retains its original whitewash and sponge painting decorative surface treatment. The outside walls may have been plastered originally, but in 1924, when the house was restored, wood sheathing was installed.

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