Samuel Hartwell House

The building, whose main façade faces south, was originally constructed as a home for Samuel Hartwell and his first wife, Abigail Stearns.^[1][3] Built on land purchased in 1694 from Richard Rice,^[3] only the central chimney of the Samuel Hartwell House still stands, amongst a basic reconstruction of the building.^[4]

When Samuel died in 1744, aged 78, Ephraim inherited his portion of the family farm. By 1749, the farm was one of the most productive in Concord and consisted of 141 acres.^[5]

The property was part of Concord until 1754, when the town of Lincoln was incorporated.

After Samuel's grandson, also named Samuel, married Mary Flint in 1769, his father, Ephraim, gave him the house.^[1] The Hartwells lived there until 1785.^[6]

Thomas John Dee purchased the farm around the turn of the 20th century. After his death, it passed to his son, who sold the property and a few acres of its land in 1925^[7] to Marion Abbie Fitch, a Boston schoolteacher, and Jane Hamilton Poor, an architect.^[8] They converted it into a restaurant called Hartwell Farm.^[1]

• 
  The remnants of the Samuel Hartwell House
• 
  Chimney and hearth
• 
  Looking west along Battle Road from the Samuel Hartwell House to Hartwell Tavern

The battles of Lexington and Concord took form before dawn on April 19, 1775. Soldiers passed by the house on their way to Concord, and again on their way back to Boston. Three of Ephraim and Elizabeth Hartwell's children — Samuel, John and Isaac — were in the Lincoln minutemen that fought at Old North Bridge and on the battle road. All three later served in the Revolutionary War.

Paul Revere and William Dawes were detained by a British Army patrol nearby during the "Midnight Ride" to Concord of April 18. Samuel Prescott, who was also riding with them, escaped by jumping his horse over a wall and into the woods. Prescott emerged at the Hartwell Tavern, awakened Ephraim and informed him of the pending arrival of the British soldiers.^[9] Ephraim sent his black slave, Violet, down the road to alert his son and his family. Mary then relayed the message to Captain William Smith, commanding officer of the Lincoln minutemen,^[10] who lived a little to the west and whose home still stands along Battle Road. The minutemen received the notice in time, and arrived at Old North Bridge before their enemy. Prescott made it to Concord.^[11]

• Fischer, David Hackett (1994). Paul Revere's ride. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-508847-6.

• "The Hartwells of America", June 27, 1942 – HartwellClan.org