Look to your left for a three-story painted brick building with a perfectly symmetrical shape, featuring a central entryway portico supported by delicate columns.... This is the Bartlett-Russell-Hedge House, built around eighteen oh three for a prosperous ship's captain named Joseph Bartlett.
This is a prime example of Federal architecture, an early American building style known for its graceful balance and classical details. Notice the elegant Palladian window directly above the main entrance, which is a signature feature of the style... a tall central window with a rounded arch, flanked by two narrower rectangular windows. And right at the very top sits a small structure called a cupola, a perfect lookout point for a captain watching for ships to return. You can see its perfectly balanced proportions clearly on your screen.
But Captain Bartlett's success did not last. The War of eighteen twelve struck, devastating the maritime trade and ruining Bartlett financially. To save the family estate, his son William took over the property and converted this grand private home into a public inn.
It was in this lively inn that William's son, John, spent his early childhood. Perhaps that exposure to the countless stories of passing travelers inspired him, because John Bartlett would eventually achieve fame as the creator of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, a massive reference book of famous phrases still used today. The house later passed to local iron merchants, the Russell and Hedge families, before becoming a bank in nineteen fifty-one.
Despite the modern additions hidden in the rear, the proud face of this house still holds the memory of a rising maritime nation. Take your time enjoying the architecture, and whenever you are ready, we will continue our walk.
