Walkable Reading

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  Foster-Emerson house : 409 Grove Street

  409 Grove Street : The Foster-Emerson House. The home that now stands at 409 Grove Street was moved from its original location at 288 Grove Street in September of 1998. This house is often referred to as the Foster-Emerson house since three generations of Fosters and three generations of Emersons lived there. Samuel Foster and his wife Sarah came to Reading in 1709. He purchased land from John Brown and the house was built shortly thereafter. He and a son, Abraham, jointly owned a mill that later became the Slab City Saw Mill, one of two early mills in town. When Samuel died in 1762 he left his son and grandson, also Abraham, running the mill. Ebenezer Emerson purchased the house from Samuel's grandson in 1769. Ebenezer served in the Revolution under Captain Thomas Eaton. The Meadow Brook Golf Club, organized in 1898, bought farmland to develop the course and in 1912 purchased the Emerson house, barn and property. The house was used as a residence for the groundskeeper from 1923 until the early 1980's. The barn, used as the clubhouse burned in December of 1948 and a new clubhouse was built. In 1997, the golf club decided that it no longer needed the house. A town wide effort avoided demolition and a bidder was awarded the house and it was moved to its present location. The house, a two and a half story central chimney structure with an asymmetrical 6 bay facade, has undergone many alterations and additions, including partial removal and subsequent replacement of the central chimney. But, exposed framing members, visible in closets and upstairs rooms, indicate that the building retains most of its transitional First Period frame intact.