The Shurtleff Homestead

I found an old photo, heretofor-unseen by me, of my great-grandparents' farmhouse, which inspired this little photo essay.



The Shurtleff Homestead, built in 1838, the farmhouse on Plantingfield Way where my grandmother Mabel Shurtleff Boylston grew up. I don’t know when the photo was taken, but apparently it predates the existence of Shurtleff Way.  I love the simplicity here. 

The Shurtleff Homestead in 2011, showing the same basic structure, but with an added dormer (and a wing on the back). I raised my family next door, and four (soon to be five) of my grandchildren are growing up on their great-great-great-grandparents’ (Charles and Mary Shurtleff) former farmland.
The former Shurtleff Homestead in 2020. You can see that the basic shape remains (same view as above), but much has been added, and what were once open fields with a view of the sky and wind blowing through are long gone. (Below: facing Plantingfield Way)