The Mountain House

There is no structure in Melrose with a longer and more complicated history than 28-30 Tappan Street. It dates back at least in part to the 17th century, spent most of its history at another location, and was the birthplace of modern manufacturing in Melrose.

Around 1640, on what became the northwest corner of Vinton and Maple Streets, John Sprague, one of the first white residents of Melrose, built a house. In 1742, the house was inherited by Isaac Green, who demolished the structure but salvaged materials from it to build a new house. In 1806 this house was purchased by Jonathan Barrett, who enlarged it and dubbed it “The Mountain House” in honor of its location at the base of the hill then known as Barrett’s Mount.

At that time, it was common for farmers to take up shoemaking during the long winter months. Barrett was a bit more ambitious. He hired a half-dozen laborers to live and work on site, and built an ell onto his house to serve as a workspace. Small in scale, powered only by human hands, it was Melrose’s first factory, and inaugurated a long shoemaking tradition. As for Barrett, he did not get to enjoy his success, dying in 1821 at age 46. Because he died suddenly, a probate inventory was taken of his belongings, including the shoe factory, which you can read below.

The house remained in the Barrett family for some decades. You can see it labeled on the 1875 map of Melrose. Around 1885, the house was sold and moved to an unknown location. On the 1889 map, you can see that the house has been removed from the corner of Maple and Vinton, but has yet to make the move to the corner of Sanford and Tappan. The 1897 map shows the house at its present location. In its new neighborhood, the house would for some decades become a grocery store operated by Irish immigrant brothers Jeremiah and Dennis Lucey.

It is now a six-unit condominium building, making it the only structure in Melrose that has been a single-family home, a factory, a mixed retail-residential space, and now a multifamily residence. If parts of the building do in fact date to 1640, it is also the most successful recycling project in the city’s history.