Agrarian history saved in new home
21st-century home looks like 18th-century farmhouse
dracut » The early 18th-century farmhouse at what is now 1550 Mammoth Road is gone, but a 21st-century house — bearing a strong resemblance to the original — has risen in its place.
The original farmhouse was the home of Asa Clement, who inherited the family farm and house in 1813 and lived there until his death in 1894. Over time and a few generations, it decayed and could not be restored.
Besides, as Dave Paquin of the Dracut Historical Society says, “We had to make some adjustments for the 21st century.”
The new house sits at the intersection of Mammoth and Clement roads. It was the last house built in a new subdivision. A commemorative plaque now adorns the lawn.
A real-estate agent’s 2019 advertisement for the house boasts it has “everything a buyer of a new home wants, including nearly 2,700 square feet of open-concept living space and a two-garage underneath.”
Those two features of the property alone would puzzle a 19th-century farmer.
In fact, the only thing the Clement family might recognize in the interior of the house is the fireplace in the living room.
But the exterior mimics that of the old farmhouse, thanks to the efforts of a well-known Dracut resident, the late Harvey Gagnon, who worked with Dracut builder Thomas Piekarski to replicate the dwelling.
The details of Clement’s life sound like those of Gagnon’s. Both were committed to their community and their churches and involved in many civic activities.
Clement was also “a prolific farmer and avid horticulturist,” according to the Dracut Historical Society’s newsletter, and discoverer of the Dracut Amber Grape. The Commissioner of Agriculture’s Report of 1859 states that Asa Clement found the grapes in the woods of Dracut and cultivated them for several years. The grape can still be found growing wild in Dracut.
The new house on Mammoth Road is owned by Yin Qian and family, who immigrated from China and will have a chance to write a new chapter in the history of the town. The family declined to be interviewed.