Eustis Estate
Boardman House
Edward Page (1850–1928)
Saugus, Massachusetts, 1899
Oil on canvas
14 5/8 x 18 5/8 in.
Museum purchase
2010.16.1
In the early years of the twentieth century, many New Englanders were drawn to old things, whether architecture or artifacts, as tangible pieces of the past during a time of economic upheaval and mass immigration. Boardman House, a great historical relic built in 1692 in Saugus, Massachusetts, remained in the Boardman family until 1911. By that time the original 300 acres surrounding the house had been reduced to four. When the house was threatened with development in 1914, Historic New England founder William Sumner Appleton (1874–1947) purchased it. It remains one of the organization’s most significant early properties.