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)

Desecration

The Shurtleff homestead on Plantingfield Way has been sold and is now being gutted. While it is sad to see my great-grandparents' farmhouse fall out of the hands of family (it has been owned by my cousins, Pat and Gordon Tyra for the past decade or so), and very sad to see its innards being torn out - rooms where my mother and her cousins played games together by lamplight on many a childhood summer's evening - I've lived through enough change - have seen dancing eventually springing forth from tombs - to know that this is not the last chapter for this old house. Change is hard - especially when it's so close to home - but not always necessarily bad. Stay tuned.



The Shurtleff homestead in more intact and peaceful days.


My Great-granny Mary Isadora Lawlor Shurtleff, whose parents, James and Mary, hailed from Co. Kildare. I never met Granny Shurtleff, but have come to know her, in a way, through Irish music, which I'm sure tickles her to no end.

Plantingfield Paving - Progress?

They began re-paving Plantingfield Way this morning, and in the process they are also widening the road. Unfortunately, I predict that the "new and improved" road will become even more of a speedway than it already is.

Yes, it's a little annoying to have to slow down when you encounter large trucks approaching from the opposite direction (and God knows, there have been plenty of trucks in recent years, what with all the new construction down at the end of the road), but think about it - will enabling the traffic to move faster on Plantingfield Way improve the neighborhood?

My brother, John, and I grew up playing on Plantingfield Way in the family lot that was once my great-grandparents' cow field - he meeting up with the neighborhood boys - Jimmy, David, and Eddie - to play baseball; I to fly kites and build log cabins - the same lot where I would later build a house, raise my family, and live for thirty years. Fifty years ago, Plantingfield Way was a country lane. As the far end of Plantingfield Way became developed, the traffic increased and also got very fast; scary-fast for a rural road. God knows, my heart was in my throat raising kids on that street, and today (being the safety freak that I am) I always include, in bold red letters on my rental lease: "THE ROAD OUT FRONT LOOKS INNOCENT, BUT IT IS NOT! KEEP YOUR CHILDREN AWAY FROM THE ROAD."

The main problem is, after the city folks who rent or live down at the end of the road have endured the painstakingly slow and bumpy drive over the unpaved section of Plantingfield Way, once they hit the tar, it's "pedal to the metal".

Sorry to say, the speeding will become exponentially worse once the street is widened and given a fresh smooth layer of tar.

I hope I'm wrong, but I know I'm not. But there's no stopping progress.