Young Couples Can Live in Wakefields Oldest Home for Free

When Ariel and Tyler Gaudet graduated college about a year and a half ago, the couple needed a place to live preferably, somewhere cheap, where they could save enough money to eventually put a down payment on a home.

Ariel and Tyler were familiar with the Colonel James Hartshorne House, the oldest home built in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Ariels mother was on the board of directors for the historic home, and Tyler had spent the first months of his life there, when his parents were the Hartshorne House caretakers roughly 30 years ago.

Serendipitously, the Hartshorne House was in need of new caretakers just as the Gaudets returned to Tylers hometown, Ariel said. Though the town of Wakefield owns the home, the Colonel James Hartshorne House Association and a board of directors manage it. They also elect the homes caretakers always a young couple without kids, Ariel said. This ensures caretakers can manage the homes upkeep while saving for the future, as caretakers live there rent-free.

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The Gaudets leapt at the chance to follow in Tylers parents footsteps. After undergoing an interview process with the house committee, the Gaudets beat out a few other couples to be chosen as the propertys new caretakers.

Its perfect, Ariel said. Were so happy we got it.

Courtesy of the Colonel James Hartshorne House Association

A young couple Thomas and Mary Hodgman are thought to have built the Hartshorne House in 1681 (or earlier), the homes historian Nancy Bertrand said. Interestingly, the home didnt earn its name till James Hartshorne, a cordwainer (a luxury shoemaker,) bought it in the early 19th century. Bertrand said the home was probably named for Hartshorne because his family owned the property for such a long period of time (1803 to 1890).

The home sits on the shores of Lake Quannapowitt, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In the past 335 years or so, it has served as a private residence, tavern, and tenement for icehouse workers for the adjoining Morrill-Atwood Ice Company in the early 20th century.

Ariel said she feels lucky to be a part of Wakefields history.

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Young Couples Can Live in Wakefields Oldest Home for Free