Arlington Historical Society: Archaeological Dig At Jason Russell House

Press release from the Arlington Historical Society:

August 24, 2021

The proposed geothermal project was funded by Community Preservation Act funds and will help to improve climate inside the historic home with minimal invasiveness to historic fabric and at minimal ongoing cost. The house is currently not heated or cooled, and this will help to protect the material of the house itself as well as the objects within and also make it more comfortable for visiting public during summer and winter. The geothermal project will require the digging of a three- to four-foot-deep, 40-foot-long trench running northeast from the house’s northeast corner to a 40 by 20-foot drilling area. Three to five wells will be installed in the drilling area to a depth of 250 to 300 feet. There will be no aboveground structures associated with geothermal installation in keeping with property’s preservation restriction and restrictions associated with its status as a contributing building to several historic districts in Arlington.

https://arlingtonhistorical.org/archaeology-at-the-jason-russell-house/

The Jason Russell House grounds have been quite disturbed over the years as the land around the farmhouse evolved into the residential and commercial area we now know as Arlington Center. Portions of the property were sold off by descendants so that by the late-nineteenth century very little of the grounds that we know today survived. Several new homes were constructed around and in front of the house between 1884 and 1908. The Historical Society purchased the house in 1923 and purchased and removed four surrounding buildings in the 1960s to provide a more period appropriate setting for the house and to make it visible from the intersection of Jason Street and Massachusetts Avenue.

What we know about the Jason Russell House is constantly evolving based on ongoing expertise and analysis. In 2012 the Society hired a dendrochronology firm to conduct tree ring dating of cores inside the house, which determined that the house was not built in two stages starting in the late 1600s as was previously believed. The house was likely built in a single campaign in the 1740s using materials salvaged from an earlier 17th century structure – likely a home he inherited from his grandparents. See https://arlingtonhistorical.org/what-do-we-know-about-the-construction-of-the-jason-russell-house/ for more information.

This press release was produced by the Arlington Historical Society. The views expressed here are the author’s own.