Lucius Beebe Memorial Library, Wakefield, Mass.

Title

Frederick Ballard Eaton House :Main Street near Sweetser Street, circa early 1900s

Description

Referred to as the Frederick Ballard Eaton House on Main Street near Sweetser Street, this home was reported to be occupied by Frederick's widow Eliza in Lilley Eaton's Genealogical History of Reading Mass., published in 1874. Frederick was born in Reading (now Wakefield) in May 1792, one of five children born to Samuel Eaton III and Sarah (Evans) Eaton. He married Eliza Vinton in 1815 and the two were parents of five children: Sarah, Henry, Mary, Hiram and Joseph. Sarah married George Reed Morrison, a Deacon in the First Parish Congregational Church and one of the first corporators of the Wakefield Savings Bank. Frederick died in 1858. It is not known when the house was built. The Frederick Ballard Eaton House is believed to be the house occupied by William Stimpson in 1812. According to Lilley Eaton's book, Stimson "was a bricklayer by trade, a peaceable, industrious, and honest man. He afterwards purchased and occupied the farm at the 'head of the pond', now or lately known as the 'Stimpson Farm'," probably the historic house now at 22 Prospect Street. Frederick Ballard Eaton built another house, the Greek Revival style home to the south of the original house, now 196 Main Street, for his son Hiram. A map of 1856 shows two Eaton houses at the corner of Main and Sweetser Streets.

Image from the Wakefield Municipal Gas and Light Department annual calendar, 2019

Photo courtesy of the Wakefield Historical Society.

Contributor

Institution: Lucius Beebe Memorial Library

Wakefield Municipal Gas & Light Department (Wakefield, Mass.)

D'Onofrio, Jayne M.

Coverage

Massachusetts--Middlesex (county)--Wakefield

Date

1900-1910

Format

image/jpeg

Language

eng

Publisher

Wakefield, Mass. : Wakefield Municipal Gas & Light Department

Subject

Architecture, domestic

Type

still image

Photographs

Original Format

1 picture :black & white

Extent

27 x 19 cm.