On the night of July 10, 1666, in North Andover, MA, Anne Bradstreet was startled from sleep by her family’s screams of “fire, fire!” While everyone escaped the blaze unharmed, their house and belongings were destroyed. Bradstreet would later lament this fateful night in her poem “Verses upon the Burning of our House” – which gives voice to her grief, catalogs what was lost, and expresses her trust in God’s divine hand guiding all things. Despite the tragedy, she and her husband Simon built a new home in Andover, Massachusetts, where she would live and write poems until her death in 1672. Click here for a 92-minute presentation posted by the Partnership for Historic Bostons on March 11, 2024. Click here for a similar presentation by the Colonial Society of Massachusetts.

Christy L. Pottroff (PhD, Fordham University) is an assistant professor in the English department at Boston College where she teaches early and 19th century American literature. Donald A. Slater (PhD, Brandeis University) is an archaeologist and educator in the department of history and social science at Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts. In partnership with Christy Pottroff of Boston College, he has positively identified the archaeological and structural remains of two 17th century homes owned by Anne Bradstreet and her husband, governor Simon Bradstreet. Emerson “Tad” Baker is a professor of history at Salem State University and has previously served as vice provost and dean of the graduate school. He is the award-winning author or co-author of six books on the history and archaeology of early New England, including A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience.

For centuries historians, archaeologists, and the curious public have sought to locate the remnants of the Bradstreets’ North Andover homes. Using modern methods including dendrochronology and ground penetrating radar, while building on the work of those before them, archaeologist Donald Slater and English professor Christy Pettroff believe they have discovered the remains of both Bradstreet houses – the burned foundation of the home was destroyed by fire, and they found elements of the second replacement house, which still stands on the property today.

This presentation will invite you to think through the presenters’ material findings as well as research-in-progress. They share this ongoing research at a crucial juncture, as the property is slated to be sold this spring. In the hopes of preserving the property for future generations, they have established the 501(c)(3) Bradstreet-Phillips Historic Preservation Trust with the goal of acquiring the property.

Further research into the Bradstreets’ North Andover homes will reveal a multitude of complex histories and stories at the very roots of American culture. Slater and Pettroff’s aim is to ensure the preservation of this site, and to embark upon further archaeological investigation together.