Maple Avenue

Set on a small rectangular lot that slopes west toward the Durham meadows, the Andrew Jackson Robinson House is surrounded by a number of eighteenth,
nineteenth and twentieth-century domestic buildings.

• Record ID: 141
• Address: Maple Avenue
• Current Owner: Driscoll, Donald and Mary
• Name of Building:
• Historic Name: Andrew Jackson Robinson House
• Download PDF of Original Record

Notable Features

The facade exhibits slight cornice returns and a simple Greek Revival-style doorway featuring square recessed pilasters supporting a broad entablature. The doorway is
covered by a hip-roofed entrance portico supported by two turned columns and sawn brackets. Late nineteenth-century two-over-two windows have replaced the original
sash. Additions include a single story, shed-roofed ell to the southwest elevation.
Outbuildings on the property include a large garage and small wooden shed.

Historical or Architectural Importance

Erected in 1836, this two-over-three-bay, It story, side-hall-plan, simple Greek Revival-style house faces east onto Maple Avenue. Resting on a sandstone foundation, the asbestos-sided, post-and-beam frame is topped by an asphalt-shingled, gable-to-street roof.
In 1836 Andrew J. Robinson received 40 rods of land on Back Lane from his father’s estate, “as his share in said dowers land without any reference in the value thereof in consequence of the buildings or improvements that said Andrew may build or make thereon” (DLR 18:485). Durham’s Grand List shows that within a year of receiving the land Robinson had erected a dwelling house worth six hundred dollars. Little historical information is available concerning Andrew Jackson Robinson, but we do know he was the son of Moses and Electa Robinson and served as a Grand Juror in Durham for many years. In 1873 the property was sold to Henry A. Fechter ( b. 1844) of Southbridge, Massachusetts. Fechter, married to Alice G. Edgerton,was a “merchant” by trade and resided in the house until 1883. The next owners were Charles H. Parsons ( b. 1846), a farmer, and his wife, Alice L. (Gay) Parsons. The Parsons, who had one daughter, Mattie Jane, owned the house until the turn of the century.
The Andrew Jackson Robinson House,which is architecturally similar to other early nineteenth-century domestic dwellings in the immediate area (see Elias Camp House and Joel Blatchley House), is historically significant for its association with the Robinson family, one of Durham’s founding families.