While no exact build date is readily available for the house, signage on the Col. Lemuel Sweetser House indicate it was built prior to 1735 in Wakefield, Mass.

A shoe manufacturer, Sweetser was “a ‘colonel of cavalry, school committee, justice of the peace, and representative,’ who was described as an ‘original thinker, well-posted; an effective public speaker; a man of firmness, courage, and probity,” according to information on the Lucius Beebe Memorial Library website. “In some particulars he was remarkable and peculiar.'”

Huh. Aren’t we all, though?

Another notable owner of the house was Captain Asaph Evans, who, with his wife, Lucinda, had eight children between 1830-1851.

Evans was a Captain in the Reading Infantry Company, Wakefield’s first militia, which was established in 1644. The company disbanded in 1840; he was its last Captain.

According to the 1860 United States Census, he worked as a laborer. His heirs lived in the home for several years after his 1881 death.

The house now is a multi-family home with more than 4,100 square feet. It last sold in 2001 for $220,000, but is likely worth at least twice as much now. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.