145 Main Street, Malden
1725
The Parsonage was built in 1725, across from Bell Rock Pasture and the church, after the old parsonage burned. The house was finished on January 5 of that year, for a total cost of £335, 11 shillings, and 5 pence. “The charge of five pounds for ‘Raisen of the house’ is suggestive. Lemons, sugar, and rum may have crept in to swell the cost under that item.” (Corey, p. 483)
The first minister to occupy the Parsonage was Rev. Joseph Emerson (1700-1767), who was the seventh minister of the First Church. He and his wife Mary Moody Emerson were the great-grandparents of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Their learned granddaughter, also named Mary Moody Emerson, was a muse of the Transcendentalist movement.
Rev. Peter Thacher (1752-1802) began his career here, before being called to preach at the Brattle Street Church in Boston. He was a prominent local Revolutionary, and his diary is full of encounters with the public figures of the day. “Dec. 27 [1784]. I was at ye governor’s [i.e. John Hancock]; he gave me a rich damask gown for my wife….” (Register, p. 56)
Adoniram Judson Jr., a pioneering missionary to Burma, was born here in 1788, son of Rev. Adoniram and Abigail Brown Judson. Educated for the ministry at the Andover Theological Seminary, he set sail for India with his wife Ann Hasseltine. Turned away from India, they made their home in Burma, where they are given credit for the preeminence of the Baptist denomination among Christians there.
Cyrus and Darius Cobb were born here in 1834, twin sons of Rev. Sylvanus Cobb, Sr., minister of what had by that time become the First Unitarian Universalist Church. Sylvanus Cobb, Sr. was an abolitionist and temperance activist. (Harris, p. 117) Cyrus and Darius found fame as artists; Cyrus as a sculptor and Darius as a painter.
In 1845, the Parsonage was decommissioned, and sold away from the parish to George H. Wilson. Wilson was an abolitionist, who had signed a petition to the Massachusetts General Court against the rendition of fugitive slaves. The Parsonage was one of four Malden stations on the Underground Railroad. (Russell, p. 60)
This symmetrical five-bay house is an early example of the Georgian style. In the last half-century it has lost a chimney on the north end, its shutters, its 6-over-6 windows, and gained a small addition on the south end.
Further reading:
Baker, Noelle A. and Sandra Harbert Petrulionis. “Mary Moody Emerson Was a Scholar, a Thinker, and an Inspiration.” Humanities, Winter 2017, Vol. 38, No. 1. (neh.gov/humanities/2017/winter/feature/mary-moody-emerson-was-scholar-thinker-and-inspiration-all-who-knew-her)
Bi-Centennial Book of Malden. Boston, 1850. (books.google.com/books?id=FV9CvAEACAAJ)
Cobb Family Papers. Syracuse University Library. (library.syr.edu/digital/guides/c/cobb_fam.htm)
Corey, Deloraine Pendre. The History of Malden Massachusetts 1633-1785. Malden, 1899. (archive.org/details/historymaldenma00coregoog/page/n10)
Echoes from Mystic Side: Malden, Melrose, Everett. Boston, 1890. (books.google.com/books?id=aBFFAAAAYAAJ)
Harris, Mark W. The A to Z of Unitarian Universalism. The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2009.
Judson, Edward. Adoniram Judson: A Biography. Philadelphia, 1894. (archive.org/details/adoniramjudsonbi00juds/page/n11)
Malden Historical Society. Malden. Postcard History Series. Arcadia Publishing, 2015.
The Register of the Malden Historical Society, Malden, Massachusetts. Number 1. 1910-1911. (archive.org/details/registerofmalden01mald/page/n9) For article about Old Parsonage: (archive.org/details/registerofmalden01mald/page/n73)
Russell, Frank. An Early History of Malden. The History Press, 2018.
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