Moses Ellis house

Unfinished digital drawing/painting of the Moses Ellis house.

The Moses Ellis house is located at 283 Pleasant Street in Framingham. Moses Ellis had this Italianate style house built circa 1865 on land previously owned by William Buckminster. It was designed by none other than famed local architect Alexander Rice Esty. It is now the home of the Summit Montessori School.

Moses Ellis made his fortune back in San Francisco as a merchant during the Gold Rush.

Pike-Haven house

The Pike-Haven house sits at the corner of Belknap Rd and Grove St and marks the beginning of what is known as Pike Row (Belknap Rd to Brook St via Edgell Road). It is the only still standing house in Framingham that predates the incorporation of Framingham as a town. Jeremiah Pike built the house ca 1697 and his direct descendants (son, grandson, and great grandson) including Gideon Haven lived there, hence the name Pike-Haven for the house.

71 Harrington Rd, Framingham, MA

At 71 Harrington Rd, sits a federal style house made rather imposing by its four massive corner chimneys that seem to soar toward the sky. It was built circa 1810 on land that belonged to Jonas Eaton (1680-1727). The house was featured on the 2016 Framingham house tour. Apparently, the front of the house became the back and vice-versa when the railroad was built and the road had to be re-directed.

Sketch/drawing of the Eaton house at 71 Harrington Rd, Framingham, MA (from a photo by Lynne Damianos published in the 2016 Framingham house tour booklet).

Now, if you go to the other end of Harrington Rd toward Edgell Rd, there's a house with a similar facade except that it's all brick. That's the John Eaton Jr. house which was also built circa 1810.

John Eaton Jr. house at the Harrington Rd/Edgell Rd intersection.

Crispus Attucks

Crispus Attucks (c.1723—March 5, 1770) was the first casualty of the Boston massacre, in Boston, Massachusetts, and is widely considered to be the first American casualty in the American Revolutionary War. Attucks appears to have been born in Framingham, Massachusetts. This is verbatim from Crispus Attucks.

The article says that Attucks "appears" to have been born in Framingham. There's an ongoing debate on where he actually was born. Was it Framingham or Natick (Attucks's mom was a Natick praying Indian)? Hard to tell until someone figures out where his family actually lived and where the boundary lines between the two towns were back then. Not that it matters much though.

Charles Russell Train

Charles Train was born in Framingham in 1817. He was a lawyer by trade but he also served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. His house in Framingham (built in 1836) was located at 125 Edgell Road. He was good buddy with General George Gordon, a fellow Civil War veteran and lawyer.

Sketch of Charles Russell Train from a bust by Perry exhibited at the Framingham History Center.

Sketch of Charles Russell Train from a photograph in the Brady-Handy Photograph Collection.

General George Henry Gordon

I think we all know that George Henry Gordon was a Union Army general during the Civil War and that he fought at Antietam. After the war though, he went back to being a lawyer in Boston and wrote a few history books about the Civil War. He and his family lived at 936 Central Street, Framingham in a house built in 1850.

If you want to know a lot more about general Gordon, reading "Framingham's Civil War Hero:: The Life of General George H. Gordon (Civil War Series)" by Fred Wallace is probably a good first step.

Cartoonish representation of General George Henry Gordon after Daniel Chester French.

Lloyd's Diner

Lloyd's diner, formerly Whit's Diner in Orange, Massachusetts, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places since 2003. It is one of the many diners built by the Worcester Lunch Car Company in operation from 1906 to 1957. This diner was built in 1942 and stationed in Orange, MA until 1990 when it was purchased by the Llloyds and moved to Framingham (where it sits today). Watch out for the hours of operation as it's only opened on week-ends and in the morning. At one point, Lloyd's diner was called the Tropical Cafe but that didn't last too long.