Fairbanks House

CONTACT:

511 East St.
Dedham, MA 02026
781-326-1170
www.fairbankshouse.org

Frank Carvino

DESCRIPTION:

Fairbanks House is the oldest surviving timber-frame house -- indeed, one of the oldest European-derived buildings of any kind-in North America. Should we care?

Built in 1637 as a farm house for Jonathan and Grace Fayrebanke and their six children, it was lived in continuously by successive generations of that family until 1904, when a benefit corporation was formed to purchase and preserve it. Why bother?

Because no other house of the early colonial period has survived in such unspoiled condition, with so many original features. Because to the archaeologist, this artifact of the "material culture" of its time and place speaks volumes about how the early colonists lived -- about their ideas, values, and practices. Because to the visitor, it offers a clearer sense of where we have come from, and looking further along the line drawn from there to where we are today, we can see where we are headed-onwards and upwards? Or "to hell in a handbasket"? In either case, it helps us see more clearly who we are and where we and our children, and their children, are going.

Curation of this unique museum-piece requires the most sophisticated knowledge and care. Fairbanks House has had the skilled and loving attention of a professional historic property curator; its educational programs are blossoming; but this costs much more than the House earns from visitation fees (unless all of you go to visit it). Short of that, help with a donation to the education program-for history's sake.

(1997: CULTURE: Education: Informal: Historic Preservation)