Andover Town House Area

Town House, 20 Main Street, Circa 1870s

Built in 1858, the Town House (also referred to as “Town Hall”) was built to accommodate the administrative needs of the town of Andover. Government offices were found on the first floor, and the upper floor held a large open room for meeting or large functions. During World War II, the upper floor was divided into offices to accommodate the war effort. In the years following the war, the Town House was frequently the target of urban renewal schemes and at risk for demolition, but the building was saved through a grass roots effort of local citizens and the Andover Historical Society. It was renovated and restored in 1988, returning the upper floor to its original purpose as a meeting space. Photo: AHS collection

Derby Building/Valpey Bros., 2-4 Main Street

The Valpey story begins with father Samuel Stevens Valpey, who bought several parcels of land along Main Street in the 1820s and 30s, including Captain Abbot’s house at 16 Main and a plot of pasture land along 2-4 Main Street.  In addition to this land, Samuel Stevens Valpey and his partner Joseph Richardson operated a butcher shop on Essex Street.  This was perhaps the first business to reside in the shop below the Baptist church.  The site is more famous for being the home of Holt’s Dry Goods. Photo: AHS collection, #1987.598.43

Around 1830, on their Main Street property Valpey and Richardson built a small house, livestock pens, a tannery, a slaughterhouse barn, and a rendering plant (for making soap). Unfortunately, their Main Street enterprise failed and was sold at auction in 1839, although the Valpey family continued to live on the site as tenants.

Samuel Stevens Valpey relocated to the newly built city of Lawrence to re-establish his fortune. He became a success in this growing textile center. He reclaimed his Andover properties but remained in Lawrence, leaving his eldest son, Samuel George Valpey, in charge of the Andover butcher shop. Samuel George expanded the butcher shop in Andover, operating from the Colonel Abbot house on the corner of Park and Main through the 1840s and 50s, while residing at #2 Main with his wife and several children.

Sadly, son Samuel George died suddenly in 1863, and his wife a year later. His eldest son George Valpey, (grandson to Samuel Stevens Valpey) who had been living with an uncle in California, moved back to the east coast to become guardian of his younger siblings and to claim his inheritance. With both the elder Valpeys deceased without a settled estate, the family property was put up for auction.

With the financial backing of John H. Flint, George Valpey was able to purchase what was advertised as “one of the best estates in the county.”  Flint also bankrolled George in the early years of his running the family business. By 1866, Flint had bowed out, and George’s younger brother Ezra became a partner in the business. The Valpeys moved the business into the old family homestead on Main Street, while living in their grandfather’s farm house at 60 Elm (which was later known as the Goldsmith Farm). By 1870, George relocated to Boston, where he partnered with Henry Swan in a butcher’s shop in Fanueil Hall Marketplace (Booth 10). George retired in 1888. By the time the Valpey Brothers Andover store closed for good in the 1890s, it was regarded as the longest continuously family-run business in Andover to that date.

J.P. Wakefield, Provisioner, 16 Main Street, Circa 1880

This building, on the corner of Main and Park Street, held the storefront shop of John P. Wakefield. Wakefield’s primary business was butcher, but he also sold dairy, eggs, and other basic supplies, hence the store’s description as “provisioner.” In addition to the storefront, Wakefield also took his business house to house by wagon. Sides of beef were cut to order in front of the customers' homes.  Wakefield was considered by some to be the richest man in Andover at the turn of the century. The building at 16 Main Street was sometimes referred to as the Wakefield Block.

This building, built in 1800, was originally the home of Colonel Benjamin Abbott and later Moody Russell. When built, it was a two-story family home with an entrance on Park Street. In the 1860s, the Valpey Brothers operated a butcher shop at this address before relocating to 2 Main Street and are likely to have added the new first floor by raising the building and adding a storefront on the lower floor.

In the image on the left, you can see the line of the lower addition and the bay window where the original door once was. The building was demolished in 1910 to make way for the Barnard Block. Photos: AHS collection #1989.597, 2000.4.3     

Building From The Bottom Up
27 & 35 Main Street, Circa 1870

In the nineteenth century, methods of developing property were used that would seem extreme or even precarious my modern standards.  Houses would be disassembled and relocated, cut in half, or simply lifted onto a large wagon and moved whole.  Perhaps the most bizarre method of architectural modification was to add a new first floor to a one or two-story house.

These photographs show a pair of houses often referred to as the Draper (left) and Barnard (right) buildings. Originally, these two buildings were two-story private homes. As business began to dominate the landscape of Main Street near Elm Square, front parlors of private homes were often remodeled into store fronts. As you can see in the middle of the photo on the left, the proprietors of the store have built a second entrance to the building and added a large window to display their wares.

As a business flourished, a single room in a private home was too small.  Moving the business to a less profitable location or crowding the family residence even further were unappealing options. In many cases, properties on either side of buildings were occupied by businesses with the same needs expand and nowhere to go. This left one option – to build up! Houses were placed on successively higher and higher timber platforms until the desired height was reached.  A new first floor was then constructed below the older floors.

The above photo was taken in the 1880s. Note the overhang of the upper floor and the small triangle window at the peak of the building to the right. These architectural features are still evident in this building, in the center of the photo below, taken around 1910.

The bay window for the ground floor shop in the center of the first photo has also risen to the second floor, although the roof line of this building has been significantly altered. The addition of a new bottom floor can be even more plainly seen in the photos of the all-brick Wakefield block at 16 Main Street. Photos: AHS collection, #1998.58.1 and 1989.776

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