Crowd Site

The Crowd Site in Sturbridge, Massachusetts is named after Robert Crowd, a man of mixed African American and Native American ancestry who worked at the Tantiusques graphite mine during the 1850s. The Trustees of Reservations purchased this property in 2002 and added it to Tantiusques reservation.

Davis/Crowd House

The Crowd's house measured just 20 by 25 feet (or 500 square feet) and was constructed around 1815 by a newlywed couple, John Davis and Rhoda Vinton. They built their home on land owned by Rhoda's father, Jabez Vinton, and may have expected to enlarge it as their financial situation improved. The untimely death of John Davis in 1820, however, transformed the trajectory of that family and the fate of their house.

Rhoda soon moved back into her father's home and the house she and her husband built became a rental property. For the next 22 years it remained so and in 1830 its occupants included men who worked in the nearby graphite mine. In 1842 the house and property were purchased by another young couple, Robert Crowd and his wife Diantha Scott. Diantha's parents lived just two miles (3 km) up the road, so their purchase of the former Davis farm may have been one of convenience as much as economic necessity.

The Crowds continued to increase the size of their land holdings, but seem to have made few improvements to the house itself. Illness and changing fortunes eventually led the family to move away around 1860. After that, others lived in the house until it burned down sometime around 1924

Old Sturbridge Village

In 1994 and 1995, Old Sturbridge Village staff conducted archaeological excavations at the site, which along with documentary research indicated that the Davis/Crowd house was very similar to other local "small house" of the period.

These are architecturally significant in that they represent a housing form that is now almost completely vanished from the New England landscape. These houses had chimneys located in their northwest corners or along the north wall and unfinished attics. Most of the downstairs space was taken up by one single room. They are demonstrative of how a significant proportion of local people lived in early 19th century.

Archaeological evidence on the layout of the Davis/Crowd farm, and from the artifacts found at the site, will help inform the interior plan, the furnishings, and the interpretive scenario for the new Small House Exhibit at Old Sturbridge Village. The interpretive scenario of the new small house will expand the living museum's representation of New England's social diversity, reflecting the lives of a significant portion of the population who could not afford relatively spacious houses and other comforts found in all their other current dwellings.

The Small House Exhibit will be a major departure from the larger houses of Old Sturbridge Village and will provide visitors with a new perspective on life in early New England.

References

* [http://www.town.sturbridge.ma.us/Public_Documents/SturbridgeMA_SelectMin/S00093334-00093337.0/Min010702.pdf Town of Sturbridge Public Documents]
* [http://www.dixonusa.com/index.cfm/fuseaction=history.dixon Dixon Ticonderoga Company]
* [http://www.thetrustees.org/pages/368_tantiusques.cfm Tantiusques Graphite Mine]
* [http://www.osv.org/learning/DocumentViewer.php?DocID=2187 Old Sturbridge Village: Online Resource Library]