What the Painting Reveals: The Hitchcock House of Wilbraham and Hampden

From 1731 until 1895, a single family owned a tract of land that today lies along the Wilbraham–Hampden town line, with the house itself standing just within Hampden on the east side of what is now Wilbraham Road. For more than a century and a half, the Hitchcock family shaped this landscape, establishing one of the earliest domestic sites in the southern portion of the Outward Commons.

The land originated as Lot No. 45 of the Outward Commons on the east side of the Great River in Springfield. In 1731, Samuel Terry, who had received the original grant, sold the parcel to Luke Hitchcock, 3rd. While no construction date survives, a deed recorded in 1742 confirms that a dwelling already stood on the property. In that year, Luke Hitchcock conveyed the land to John Hitchcock, Jr., describing it explicitly as land “with buildings thereon.” This places the erection of the house firmly within the earliest period of settlement in the southern Outward Commons. Just to the north, the Hitchcocks’ nearest neighbor was Thomas Mirick (Merrick), who constructed his home on Lot No. 42 in 1734. He was the father of Timothy Merrick, who died from a rattlesnake bite on the family farm on August 7, 1761.

The arrow indicates the old Hitchcock House. dfb

At the time, this area lay on the frontier of organized settlement. According to Rufus P. Stebbins, D.D., author of The History of Wilbraham (1863), Stephen Stebbins arrived in 1741 and was long regarded as the first settler in what would later become South Wilbraham and, eventually, the town of Hampden. Later historians, including Hampden’s Carl C. Howlett, questioned whether this tradition fully reflected the record. The confirmed existence of the Hitchcock house before 1742 suggests that settlement activity may have begun earlier and with greater complexity than once assumed.

Although the house itself has long since disappeared, its appearance has been preserved through a remarkable painting completed in 1896. By the 1950s, the painting was in the possession of Mrs. John Peterson of Mountain Road in Hampden, a granddaughter of Levi Hitchcock, who was born in the house in 1819. The image captures the Hitchcock homestead as it stood near the end of its existence, facing what is now the Ethelbert Dunsmoor residence.

When Carl C. Howlett examined the painting in 1958 while researching his book Hampden: Its Settlers and the Homes They Built, he immediately recognized both its architectural significance and its rarity. A careful study of the structure, as represented in the painting, revealed clear evidence of incremental construction. The orientation of the roof boards and the massing of the building suggest that the right-hand portion of the façade and the central chimney were the earliest elements. Additional rooms and ells appear to have been added later, following a common New England pattern in which a modest Cape-style house expanded over time as family size and resources allowed. This architectural evolution aligns closely with eighteenth-century building practices in rural Massachusetts.

Based on these features, Howlett concluded that at least a portion of the house likely predated 1741. The painting, therefore, serves not merely as a family keepsake but as a visual document supporting the early settlement history of the region. Howlett described it as a “distinct find,” and the image was later redrawn by Mrs. C. Kilbourne Bump for publication, further preserving its historical value.

Drawing of the Hitchcock House by Mrs. C. Kilbourne Bump

The Hitchcock house also played a role beyond that of a private residence. Local tradition and documentary references suggest that it was used as a schoolhouse in the early 1800s, serving children from both Wilbraham and Hampden before permanent school buildings were established nearby.

The prominence of the Hitchcock family extended well beyond this homestead. John Hitchcock, Jr., who acquired the property in 1742, was a leading figure in the community. He served as the first deacon of the church in South Wilbraham on the Village Green, held the rank of lieutenant in the militia, and was remembered for extraordinary physical ability, including a much-repeated account of outrunning a trotting horse on the road to Springfield.

Ownership of the farm passed through successive generations, John to Aaron, Aaron to Ithamar, then to Walter Hitchcock and Walter Hitchcock, Jr. The final family member to reside on the property was Louise Hitchcock, who served for many years as organist of the Wilbraham Congregational Church. Her departure in 1895 marked the end of Hitchcock's occupancy after more than 160 years.

One descendant, Levi Hitchcock, would go on to become a significant figure in nineteenth-century Springfield. He was among the city’s most active real estate developers, laying out streets and building lots in what is now the Jefferson Avenue area and holding substantial property along Main Street. At the time of his death, he owned the block south of the present Whitney Building, later developed by his son-in-law, E. H. Hamblen, as the Hitchcock Building.

Today, the house itself no longer stands. Its image, however, endures through the 1896 painting still preserved within the family of Elaine H. Peterson, a descendant of this notable line. More than a portrayal of a single structure, the painting provides rare visual evidence of early settlement, evolving domestic architecture, and the remarkable continuity of one family upon the land. In this way, it remains as valuable to historians as the deeds and written records that quietly affirm the story it tells.