The Brass Ball Tavern

The town of Walpole, Massachusetts, according to MapQuest, is situated approximately 20 miles from Boston, Massachusetts and 25 miles from Providence, Rhode Island, making it approximately a halfway point between two major east coast cities. Today it is a quick and easy trip on Route 95 to travel between these two cities. However in the 1700s and 1800s it took the better part of a day to make the trip one way by stagecoach.  These coaches arrived in Walpole around lunchtime, stopping here for a quick break from their trip. Here they would take some temporary respite from their journey. Resting from what must have been a very bumpy ride, grab a bite to eat and have their horses fed and watered. It should be noted that these local taverns also served their communities offering a place for people to gather.

Over approximately 150 years, Walpole was home to five taverns that not only served weary travelers, but also offered a place for locals to meet: Fuller’s Tavern and Polly’s tavern in South Walpole, the Hidden Tavern in West Walpole, the Morse Tavern in East Walpole and the Brass Ball Tavern in Walpole Center. Only two of these taverns are still standing and are now private homes. It is interesting to note that the highway between Boston and Providence changed over the years. The first highway through Walpole was today’s Main Street also known as Route 1A, the next was the Norfolk-Bristol Turnpike also known as Washington Street, then the Boston-Providence Highway known today as Route 1, and finally Route 95 which was built in the mid-1900s. These taverns had to be situated near or on these routes in order for stagecoach drivers to consider stopping.

The earliest tavern in town was the Brass Ball Tavern, owned and operated by Ezekiel Robbins and his wife Mary. It was located in Walpole Center on “the Old Wrentham Road” now West Street near the Walpole train depot. Although we do not know when the Robbins opened their tavern, we do know it was before 1740 as Robbins erected a mile marker in front of his tavern. This mile marker now sits in front of the old town hall on Main Street and says, “20 MILES BOSTON 1740.” There are no pictures or descriptions of the Brass Ball Tavern as it was torn down in the early 1800s. What is left behind are land deeds and notations about the use of the tavern, as well as scholarly writings about taverns in general. It is through these documents we can learn about the importance of the Brass Ball Tavern to the town of Walpole.

The tavern seems to have been located on the Robbins house lot, but it is unclear if the tavern and the family home were two separate structures or a single structure. Some historical writings regarding the Robbins property seem to indicate the tavern and the homestead were two separate structures, located near each other and in other documents it seems it may have been the same building. This question may be one that can never be answered. But if the tavern and the home were the same building the tavern owner’s family would have lived over the tavern. The tavern appears to have been a rather large building as it was able to accommodate church and town meetings when a new meetinghouse was being constructed.

We know stagecoaches stopped here so their passengers could take a break from a very uncomfortable ride. Individual travelers may have spent the night here. The Brass Ball Tavern also would have provided services (water, food and stables) for the travelers’ horses.  On the Sabbath, church attendees often took their lunch at the Brass Ball Tavern between the morning and afternoon meetings, and it was also a place for locals to meet for conversation, acquire news or handle a transaction and have a pint of ale. During the American Revolution soldiers often stopped here either on their way to report for duty or on their way home. It is said George Washington stopped at the Brass Ball Tavern. In researching his book, The Story of Walpole, Willard DeLue found journals and diaries that contained entries about stopping at the Brass Ball Tavern. One of the journals noted stopping there for supper and receiving excellent attention from the staff and another noted a fine fishing pond on the property.

When Ezekiel Robbins died in 1772, his wife Mary continued to run the tavern until her death in February of 1783. Then the tavern, through the wishes of Ezekiel Robbins’ will, became the property of the Church of Christ in Walpole (now the United Church in Walpole). This was serendipitous, as in November of 1782 the church decided to tear down the old meetinghouse and build a larger one to accommodate their growing congregation. In May 1783, the old meetinghouse had been torn down, so the town meetings as well as the Sunday services met in “the House late property of Dea’n Robbins, Deceas’d” and for the October 1783 town meeting, they met “at the House of Samuel Fuller, Inholder (sic) in Said town.” We know Samuel Fuller took over the running of the Brass Ball Tavern, so he may have been living in the Robbins’ house as well. By March of 1784, records indicate meetings were being held in the new meetinghouse.

In April of 1784 the Church sold the Robbins estate. Church records indicate James Clap bought the house lot, which he eventually sold to John Needham (although there is no deed on file for this sale). Needham continued to run the Tavern, offering travelers a place to stop and rest as well as a place for locals to meet. After his 1814 death, his representatives sold the property to Nathaniel Bird in 1818.

It is interesting to note when James Clap bought the property in 1784 it contained 44 acres and when Needham sold the property in 1818 it contained 33 acres, an 11 acre discrepancy. It is possible Daniel Clap (a distant cousin of James Clap) may have acquired the 11 acres as he had a fulling mill next abutting the land when Needham sold it. Bird died in 1821 and his wife began selling off his assets. The property ended up in the hands of Harlow Lawrence who had purchased Daniel Clap’s fulling mill in 1821. He tore down all the structures on the Robbins house lot to enlarge his manufactory where he made thread. In 1863 the property was sold to Willard Lewis who began manufacturing cotton batting in the mill. In 1904, George A. Plimpton purchased the Lewis Batting Company, putting his nephew, Henry Plimpton Kendall in charge of the operation. Kendall grew the company into a multi-million dollar worldwide corporation. Today many of the mill buildings are still standing, including one built by Lawrence but they now are used as office space.

For over 80 years the Brass Ball Tavern was an important part of the fabric of Walpole. It was a place for travelers to stop for a short while and a place for locals to meet. We will never know anything about the physical structure of the long gone tavern, as those descriptions do not exist. By looking at surviving documents about the property, we can begin to illustrate how this tavern was part of the life for the growing town of Walpole, and perhaps bring this tavern back to life for the modern Walpolian, even just for a little while.

Sources:

• Clap, Daniel to Lawrence, Harlow, Norfolk County Deeds book 65/page 606 4 Dec 1821
• Walpole Historical Society. Images of America: Walpole. Charleston (SC): Acadia Publishing, 1998.
• Plimpton, George to Lewis, Willard, Norfolk County Deeds 1004/290. “A deed of Lewis Batting Co.” 28 Mar 1904.
• Lewis, Willard to Lewis Manufacturing, Norfolk County Deeds 1357/188. 15 Nov 1915
• DeLue, Willard. The Story of Walpole. Norwood, Massachusetts: The Ambrose Press, 1925
• Mrs. Porter Boyden, “Early Notes on Walpole” Walpole Public Library, Walpole-ma.gov Walpole, MA: Walpole Public Library, 1897.
• Gavin R. Nathan, Historic Taverns of Boston: 370 Years of Tavern History in one Definitive Guide, Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, 2006. 7 and David W. Conroy, In Public Houses: Drink & the Revolution of Authority in Colonial Massachusetts. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1995.
• Isaac N. Lewis, A History of Walpole from its Earliest Times. Norwood, MA: The Plimpton Press, 1905.
• Roberts, Alton C. Our Church and Its Ancestors: The United Church in Walpole, Massachusetts. Foxboro, Massachusetts: Rea-Craft Press, Inc., 1962.
• George Morey, The Record Book of George Morey. Walpole, MA: Part of the Collection of the United Church in Walpole, 1784 -1820.