A mason named John Borden started building this stone villa around 1856. Local lore says he could not afford to finish the building, and he sold the project to Lucius Pond in 1861. Pond was a local industrialist who helped invent the Ellsworth repeating rifle.
Look closely at the construction. The first two stories are stone, but a cornice and roof skirt separate them from a third floor made of wood and clapboards. It was built in the Second Empire style and once featured a mansard roof. It is one of a small number of stone villas to survive in the neighborhood.
Life for Pond took a turn for the worse in 1875. Rumors started that his local bank was insolvent, so he tried to make a break for it. He didn't make it very far before being caught in San Francisco while trying to gain passage on a ship to Australia. He was convicted of forging bank notes and spent seven years in prison.
Today, the house stands on a steep lot on Laurel Street. It survived the demolition of its neighbors and the legal collapse of its owner's empire. It was officially recognized on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Written by Kyle McLonely
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