What is was . . . What it is now!

Writer Barbara Bunn visits unique places around Andover

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My next few History Buzz posts will be about a few family sites around Andover. Thanks to the Andover Historic Preservation website as well as the Andover Center for History and Culture for their help with the research for this topic.

These sites all have something in common.  Can you guess what that might be?

I’m calling these posts — What it was then and what it is now!

Do you recognize these steps? What did they lead to?

NOW . . .

THEN . . . Up these stairs was once of the home of a French Empire house built in 1886.   Three different families called this house home.  Here is their story.

 The land was originally owned by Jonathan Towle who sold the lot to Jonas Spaulding of Townsand, MA in 1886.  Jonas and his brother Waldo owned a successful company, Spaulding Brothers, which made leatherboard.  After the death of Jonas in 1900 the Andover home was sold to Bernald Allen.

Mr. Allen was a professor at Phillips Academy.  The Allen Family lived in this house until 1920 when the family moved to Connecticut. The property was then sold in June of 1920 to Randall Hurley who had immigrated to America in 1890 from Ireland. Randall died 2 years later but his wife, Bridget, and many of their eight children continued to live in this home. Bridget died in 1955 at the age of 81.  One of her sons, Randall, purchased the property and the Hurley Family owned this property for 49 years!

In 1969, a special town meeting took this property by Eminent Domain for the future use of building a school. At that time the Stowe School was located next door. The Hurley Family was forced to move from their home that they had owned for many years.

Sadly, this house was razed in 1970 but thankfully the large yard was made into a playing field for the Andover Soccer Association.

It took many years before the current playground was established in 2017.  The Andover Center Playground meets the need for a local downtown area that people can walk to with their children.

I imagine the Spaulding-Allen-Hurley families would agree that this creative playground is a very good use of the land that they called home.

What about you? Do you have memories of a neighborhood playground? Leave a comment! We’d love to hear from you.
~Barbara