WRENTHAM'S POWDER HOUSE

In 1766 the town fathers saw a need for a safe receptacle for the ordnance of war, as it was wholly unthinkable that the Center Meeting House fitted that requirement, even though it had done so in the past. So nine years before the outbreak of the revolutionary war, Lt. Joseph Fairbanks and Joseph Shepard were paid for providing 3,000 bricks to construct it. The construction was accomplished in the following year with Capt. James Metcalf, Lt. Joseph Fairbanks and Joseph Shepard, were paid for its construction. That same year Capt. Timothy Metcalf was paid for nailing and painting the door. The safety feature was the lightly constructed conical roof, so should anything set off the powder, the bricks would offer a tube pointing upwards and the lightly constructed roof would allow the force to escape. Old maps show it as being in a field southwest of South and Franklin Streets, but maps didn’t foresee the construction of the railroad that obliterated the landmarks.  It was remem-bered as being east of Depot Street and behind the current (2009) Dunkin Doughnuts shop. JJM