Saddler Reuben Brown's house of 1725 faces you here in Concord, Massachusetts. The building you face was built in 1725 by the town saddler, Reuben Brown, though a strong local tradition also ties the place to Peter Bulkeley — a date of 1667 is even attributed to him, the year of his marriage to Rebecca Wheeler. Evidence is unclear whether the Bulkeleys built the house some 300 years ago, but historians conclude that the house was either completely updated or built by Reuben Brown in 1725.
Most of what you now see are features typical of houses built in the period from 1700 to 1730, which is why Brown receives most of the credit. Brown, as a saddler, built the house to include a harness shop and a barn, and he was an original patriot who helped equip the Concord Minutemen who fought in the Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775. Remember the morning of April 19, 1775, when the town was awakened by the town bell and a discharged gun that warned the townspeople the redcoats were coming.
Notice the harness shop and barn Brown built here, steps from where the alarm bell woke the town.