Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1949
Today we have a view of the back side of the Pierce House on Oakton Avenue. Dating to 1683, the Pierce House has an added lean-to on the back. We saw a photo of the front a couple of weeks ago.
The house was owned by descendants of the Pierce family and was still used as a residence until the 1960s or 70s, and some Dorchester residents who were friends of the children remember sleeping over. The house is now owned by Historic New England.
The notes on the back of the frame say that the walls of the house were stuffed with seaweed for insulation and to help make it more difficult for Indian arrows to pierce the walls. The threat of Indian attack seems somewhat fantastic today, and by the 1680s Dorchester was no longer the frontier, but the settlers had fought a war with the Indians in the 1670s. The local Massachusetts Indians seem to have always been friendly, but the tribes to the south and west were sometimes more troublesome.
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