BOXFORD - A homeowner knows only too well how routine maintenance and upkeep activity to preserve their house is continuous and costly. The historic 1760 Holyoke-French House, well recognized as one of New England’s premier Greek revival style colonials as listed in the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, is certainly no exception.
Over the last decade, the 262-year-old H-F House located in Boxford Village and maintained by the Boxford Historical Society has benefitted from major expenditures with a new heating system, electrical wiring safety update, the front entry door fully restored, exterior of house completely repainted with the windows re-glazed, and a new cedar shake roof installed.
This month the badly deteriorated 160-foot white picket fence was removed and replaced with a similarly designed fence by area contractor, Boston Fence. The much needed fence installation was funded 100% by anonymous donations from Boxford Village neighbors to whom the BHS wishes to publicly extend its sincere thanks for their generosity. The highly durable, grade one, white oak pickets, posts, and rails with the four much larger red oak Corner Box posts were uniformly stained Monterey white to match the 1760 H-F House trim color. The new fence design and construction are anticipated to demonstrate greatly improved service life.
This customized picket fence encloses one of Boxford Village’s little known, hidden treasures, the Holyoke-French Parlor Gardens. A true 18th Century Period Garden, the Parlor Gardens design was collaboratively created in the 1980’s by several members of the Boxford Village Garden Club. This unique collection of 18th Century Period Gardens plants, employs a color palette of white, yellow, blue from an assortment of distinctly prominent bloomers: Biennial Foxglove, Shasta Daisy Becky, Black Eyed Susan Goldstrum. For additional information, a short June 2022 video depicting the Holyoke-French House Fence Replacement and Parlor Gardens is available on Boxford Cable Television.
The Garden Club seeks to maintain the original design as accurately as possible while new cultivars do replace older plants to encourage hardiness and longevity of bloom. The garden is meticulously weeded and attended to weekly by Garden Club Civic Beatification team members. Recently, a small copper butterfly sculpture was created and placed within the Parlor Gardens in honor of a deceased dedicated member of the H-F House beautification team who so loved the house site. Now, all those who pass by the H-F House can more fully enjoy the seasonal display perpetuated by members of the garden club.
The 2022 fence job was successfully completed well before the July 4th Parade Celebration and this year’s Annual Apple Festival on Saturday, September 17th. The all-volunteer Boxford Historical Society, which welcomes every town resident to join, sponsors, plans, organizes and conducts the Apple Festival as its only annual fundraiser. Proceeds realized from the Apple Festival, held on the third Saturday of September, are used to maintain the Holyoke-French House. For more information, visit http://boxfordhistoricalsociety.org/about.
Contributed by Andrew Gori, trustee, Boxford Historical Society