Elisha Jones House, 1740

The Elisha Jones House, also known as the "Bullet Hole House"

NPS photo

Quick Facts

Location:

242 Monument Street, Concord MA 01742

Significance:

In 1775, local blacksmith Elisha Jones lived here. When British soldiers retreated from the skirmish at the North Bridge, one soldier fired his musket at Jones standing near his shed. The musket ball missed Jones and struck the house. In 1863, local abolitionist and U.S. Marshall John Shepard Keyes purchased the home. Keyes actively shaped the memory of the North Bridge and assisted in placing the Minute Man monument there in 1875.

OPEN TO PUBLIC:

No

The Elisha Jones or “Bullet Hole” House, 1740

Although referred to as the Elisha Jones house, portions of the historic home on Monument Street could date as far back as the mid-seventeenth century, well before the Jones family put their name to it.

Early History

In 1664, Concord resident John Smedley owned the parcel of ground where the Jones House now stands. There is evidence the Smedley family constructed a home near this location, however it is unclear whether any portion of that original 17th century structure remains within the 18th century home.

Throughout the late 17th and early 18th century the land changed hands several times before the Jones family purchased it in 1724. Over the course of fifty years the Jones family built and maintained a prosperous farm and blacksmith shop on the property. In 1740, Thomas Jones constructed the house on the east side of what is now Monument Street, which stands today. When Thomas Jones died in 1774, the property passed to his son Elisha.

Elisha Jones and the “Bullet Hole House”

Elisha Jones, the fourth son of Thomas and Mary Jones, inherited the land, home, and Blacksmithing business in 1774. While the dark clouds of war gathered on the horizon, the Jones family prospered on the sunny banks of the Concord River. Elisha married Elizabeth Farrar in 1770. Four years later the couple moved into the family house where they would raise their six children.

During the pre-revolutionary period, Elisha was an active member of the colonial militia and eventually became a lieutenant in the Concord Light Infantry Company. According to early histories of Concord, Jones helped to hide provincial military supplies from British forces on April 19, 1775. On that fated April morning the Elisha Jones house also made its way into the annals of history. According to local legend, as the British army made its retreat from the fight at the North Bridge, a soldier fired his musket at Elisha Jones, who stood watching the scene unfold from near his home. The shot missed Jones, but a musket ball left its mark in the facade of the western shed, earning the home its famous nickname, “the bullet hole house.”

It is not known why Elisha did not muster with the town militia that morning, but he did take up arms for the patriot cause later in the war. Records indicate Elisha enlisted for service with Captain Joseph Hosmer’s company in 1776, and again with Hosmer’s Light Infantry Company in 1778. After the war Jones returned to his family and home, living in Concord until his death on April 10, 1810.

Following his father’s death, James Jones took over the beloved home. He continued in Elisha’s footsteps and maintained the family blacksmithing legacy well into the 19th century. When James died in 1838, the majority of the Jones property was sold; however, nephew Nathan Barrett did take over the family farm. By 1863 old age and neglect had ravaged the old house, and despite its history, the Barrett family saw fit to sell the property to U.S. Marshall, John Shepard Keyes.

The Keyes Era:

John Shepard Keyes was born in Concord on September 19, 1821 and grew up in the company of such famous individuals as Henry Thoreau. An ambitious young man Keyes operated a law office at his father’s firm in Concord after graduating Harvard Law school in 1844. Nearly a decade later, in 1853, Keyes was elected sheriff of Middlesex County. He later served as a U.S. Marshal for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 1860-1867.

During his time as a U.S. Marshal, a sectional crisis unfolded and the American Civil War gripped the young nation. A devout republican, Keyes supported the election of Abraham Lincoln and commanded a security detachment tasked with protecting the president at the inauguration in 1860. Keyes’ duties during the Civil War also included, “…investigating all sorts of reports of rebel spies, contraband goods, and letters and communications from southern sympathizers.” In 1863 Keyes escorted the famed Massachusetts’s orator Edward Everett to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. At the dedication of the Gettysburg Soldiers National Cemetery on November 19, 1863 Keyes led Everett to the speaker’s platform and later watched from only yards away as Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address.

Earlier that same year Keyes bought the Elisha Jones House as a birthday gift for his wife Martha, with whom he had six children; four who survived into adulthood. Returning to Concord after the Civil War, Keyes poured his attention into renovating the dilapidated home. During the process, Keyes wrote the first history of the “Bullet hole House”, actively shaping the historical memory of what happened in Concord on April 19, 1775. In his romanticized history of the house, Keyes told of the famed bullet hole and the patriot valor at the North Bridge. Keyes also enthusiastically participated in the nation’s first centennial celebration, serving as the chairman of the Minute Man Monument Committee in 1874. Under his leadership, the committee raised money and commissioned Danial Chester French to sculpt the now iconic Minute Man Statue. On April 19, 1875 Keyes had the pleasure of unveiling the monument to a massive crowd, which included President Ulysses S. Grant. Keyes continued to participate in town politics well into his golden years.

Upon his death in 1910, the Elisha Jones house passed to John Shepard Keyes’ daughters Alicia M. Keyes, and Annie Emerson. Unfortunately, the sisters did not hold onto their father’s beloved house for very long. When Alicia Keyes died in 1924, Annie sold the home to World War I veteran Henry Fray. Mr. Fray lived in the home until 1963 at which time the National Park Service purchased the historic structure.

The National Park Era:

In 1963, the National Park Service purchased the Elisha Jones property and began restoring elements of the structure to its 1775 appearance. Today, the Elisha Jones house still stands just yards from the North Bridge. A small piece of glass also protects the famed bullet hole on the home’s western facade.

Sources:

• James J. Lee III, Historic Structure Report: Elisha Jones House and shed (Lowell, Massachusetts: Historic Architecture Program Northeast Region, National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior, 2007).
• John Shepard Keyes, Autobiography, transcribed from ms. in John Shepard Keyes Papers, William Munroe Special Collections, Concord Free Public Library, Concord, Mass., Concord Free Public Library website, http://www.concordlibrary.org/uploads/scollect/doc/Autobiography_final.pdf
• David B. Little, America’s First Centennial Celebration, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1974.