Captain Potter, as the story goes, was friends with George Washington. Better yet, his house was moved from South Main Street at Ward Street about 1928.. and board by board was relocated at the Eastern States Exposition. My dad as a 15 year old observed the dismantling.
I call the famed Potter Mansion "The Mount Vernon of North Brookfield." As a boy, Russ Emerson and others would hide in the remaining cellar hole of granitE and blow a WHISTLE AS SPEEDERS WENT BY. I observed this from my bedroom window at 18 South Main. "Hey "CHAMP" I yelled to Russ. Patrolman Ernie Lange used to catch speeders go by.
Further, each spring my loving mother, Rita Ida Poulin Potvin would send me to the corner of my land next to Charlie Norcross to pick a bouquet of Lily of the Valleys. Norcross owned the lilac trees..both of which were the residual of the potter Mansion gardens. Also, tiger lilies exist 200 years later.
Potter's Mansion had a barn with a clock on it. On sundays it played religious chimes. Captain John Potter had seven trades from being a clock maker to being a blacksmith. His Storrowtown home today is worth visiting at the BIG E. I was there a month ago.
So if ALL HISTORY IS LOCAL.. IT IS HIGH TIME TO POLISH OUR IMAGE OF OUR COMMUNITY. WE HAVE A LOTS OF WORK TO DO.
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