A Guide to Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Hingham

Hingham is one of the oldest towns in America (settled 1633). The towns’ primary resource that underlies the environmental excellence is its distinctive, contiguous, wood-frame architectural resource is an aesthetic, cultural and economic resource that is also a national heritage. During each year many questions are posed to me regarding Hingham’s natural and historic resources. Without question, the most sought after information is for a history of the town’s old buildings. Invariably I am asked, ‘Where is and how old is the oldest house in Hingham?’ Unfortunately, the oldest house is not yet known. There are no comprehensive records. Hingham’s pioneers were too fully occupied in clearing the land for planting and grazing fields, building stone fences and in other pursuits necessary for survival in a new land to record the date on which their house, barn, or saw mill frame was raised. Many of them could not write further than to put their mark on official documents. How then could they know that every swing of the axe and hammer was paving the way toward that day when the ‘shot heard round the world’ would give birth to the American Republic?