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The Old “Third Road”

Have you ever noticed this home which was built in 1785 by Samuel Kilburn and located today at 3113 Boston Road? Have you noticed that the positioning of this home does not face the road as you would expect?

3113 Boston Road, built in 1785.

The front of this house faces west and not towards the current Boston Road for good reason. Back in the day in which it was built, the front of the home did face the road that it was built on, the Third Road. This so-called road is known as Crane Hill and Glendale Roads today. This road used to come out onto Boston Post Road in front of this home. When this part of the road was abandoned, the property on which it stood was split in half and given to the adjoining neighbors. A small stone wall can be observed today running from north to south which marks the middle of this abandoned road.



This home is a fine example of a two-and-a-half-story Federal style house. It is five bays wide and one bay deep, which was a fairly common house plan for Wilbraham’s Federal houses.

Approximately fifty years after this home was built, the Great Western Railroad was built linking Boston and Worcester to Springfield. The tracks were laid just to the south of this home. This created a railroad grade crossing, called Butler’s Crossing, named for the family that lived in the area. In 1895 this grade crossing was eliminated and Crane Hill road continued approximately 200 feet further west to a point where an underpass was built which we see today. This was done for safety so that travel would not cross over the tracks.


Again Crane Hill and Glendale Roads were not always known by these names. In 1767, the “new” Town of Wilbraham laid its “third road”. Later, it would be called East Street.



Interesting note: Turning onto Crane Hill Road from Glendale Road about by half a mile or so, Peck’s 1913 history states “on the east side of the road there is a cellar hole which marks the site of a house burned several years ago.” This property in 1913 was owned by Henry M. Green. The former owners: were Mrs. Julia (Butler) Green, Benjamin Butler, Orsemus Smith, and Alvin Bennet.


Mr. Orsemus Smith was killed on the railroad near the North Wilbraham station in 1867, and Mrs. Sarah Smith drowned herself and her child in Twelve Mile Brook which was east of their home in 1872. Looking through East Wilbraham Cemetery records I could not find any information on this child who drowned in 1872. The only record indicates that Sarah and Orsemus only had one child named Martha who was born on January 9, 1859, and died on February 23, 1938, at age 79. It is presumed that Sarah was pregnant out of wedlock when she committed suicide.

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