Worcester County Wonders: Lunenburg's oldest house stands 300 years
For more than 300 years, Lunenburg’s Cushing House has been a soft-pink landmark, with a red-haired ghost story. Its history has been meticulously maintained and tales passed down for generations. The Georgian Colonial was built in 1724 and remains the oldest standing home in the municipality. The Cushing family lived in the home, which includes a large barn and 3 acres of orchards complete with apple, peach and pear trees, from 1777 to the early 1930s. “There is something almost human about an old house which has been home with its memories of youth and old age, of sorrow and joy, of failure and success as if it were a part of those who were sheltered under its roof. We say goodbye to it as an old friend,” wrote Julia Cushing in 1931 as the property exchanged hands from Cushing to Herbert Reynolds. But before it was a home, the building was used as a meeting house and a tavern, and was host to the signing of incorporation papers for Lunenburg and Fitchburg. According to the current owner of the home, Kent dur Russell, when it was a tavern, it would have been where John Adams stopped for a beer
