AGRIPPA HULL HOUSE

Photos: Daniel Karp

Agrippa Hull was born in 1759 in Northampton, Massachusetts. He moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts when he was 8 years old and as a teenager and a free Black man became the trusted attendant and messenger of General Tadeusz Kosciuszko, a member of George Washington’s staff. Hull participated in nearly all of the major battles of the Revolutionary War and returned to Stockbridge at the age of 24, purchasing land on Cherry Hill Road at the age of 30. This project restores the farmhouse that Hull built on his land, which, according to surviving stone foundations as well as artistic and written records of the property, also included a series of agrarian outbuildings. 

In the restoration of the Agrippa Hull house, a series of later additions were removed, maintaining the original structure - which was laid out in a “hall and parlor” configuration, with cooking and living spaces flanking a central stair - as well as a one later wing and an expanded second floor.

Legibly different wall finishes and colorations are used to demarcate the various eras of the house. The original first floor hall and parlor rooms are wrapped in vertical oxblood red beaded board, varying in width from 9” to 11”. The original kitchen fireplace is preserved. A coordinating bead detail is used around window and door thresholds within this zone. The kitchen is a grouping of working tables and elements with singular and functional identities. Modern appliances are faced with matching beaded board within the cooking area. The doors use period hardware, with box locks and dutch doors at the exterior.

The first floor parlor opens into the addition through a double sided fireplace. Moving into the later space, the wall treatment transitions to a warm textured plaster with golden yellow trim and handmade privacy shutters. The project celebrates historically-specific colors and earthen tones and textures throughout. Within the entire first floor, a consistent window dimension repeats across the two zones. The generous openings frame views of Hull’s fields and the forest beyond.

The second floor sleeping quarters are illuminated by a series of windows added along the eaves in a later expansion to the house by Hull’s wife after his death. Low ceilings create cozy spaces to tuck within the expressive rooflines.

The Agrippa Hull House was restored by Hans and Kate Morris, neighbors of the Hull property on Cherry Hill Road, in partnership with builder Peter Whitehead, to preserve the legacy of this foundational force in the history of Stockbridge.