With Jonathan Hosmer’s marriage to Submit Hunt (1737–1812) in 1760, Hosmer House was built. Here they raised their seven children. Quartus, a “Black man” according to his death record and a non-white free person according to census records, lived in the house from 1790, until his death in 1827.

An addition was added to the house in 1796, when the Hosmer’s surviving son, Simon (1774–1840), married Sally Whitcomb, so that both families could live there. Simon served as deacon and started a music school in Acton. In 1839, the year before his death, he sold the homestead to Rufus Holden who split up the land and sold it.

Francis Tuttle (1791–1877), who purchased the house in 1846, had run the Center Store and served Acton as Town Clerk, Selectman, Justice of the Peace, and State legislator. He and his wife, Harriet Wetherbee (1795-1878), had twelve children. One of their sons, Captain Daniel Tuttle, led Acton’s Company E to the Civil War in April of 1861.

The house was eventually purchased in 1918 by George S. Todd who added electricity and water but made no structural changes.

By 1976, the Hosmer House, known then as the Todd House, had fallen into disrepair. The Acton Historical Society purchased and restored house, creating a museum which they continue to operate.

Architectural features include gunstock posts, the exposed center chimney, a large variety of different fireplace styles, and an unusual set of three shelves set over the fireplace in one room.

Photo courtesy of the Acton Historical Society