On the Market
The neighborhood kids once thought of it as a haunted house. Today, it’s a well maintained 19th-century time capsule.
The Abby Bradley Estate used to be a creepy, boarded-up house.
Current owner James Wechsler’s coworker told him he used to sneak into the house as a kid when it was abandoned. Kids like him, he said, would play in the home but try not to move anything. They were sure it was haunted.
Built in 1860, it was originally the home of Abby Bradley, part of Hingham’s storied Bradley family, who owned Bradley & Hubbard Manufacturing Company in the 1800s.
The Bradley family was a “major presence” in Hingham, said Wallis Bowyer, one of the Coldwell Banker Realty agents who has the listing. Today, there are three streets and neighborhoods in Hingham named for the family: Bradley Hill, Bradley Woods, and Bradley Park.
James and Eva Wechlser settled at the Hingham house in 1980, which they bought for $130,000, according to Zillow. They raised three children in their 46 years at the home and put it on the market this August for $2,849,000.
“We really enjoyed living in it,” said James Wechsler, 83. “We did redecorate things, but we never did anything to alter the things that [Abby] had done. We wanted to keep it as true to the original house as we could.”
Located at the end of a cul-de-sac at 60 Bradley Hill Road, much of the six-bedroom, five-bathroom house remains a time capsule of its original era. There are seven fireplaces, original wood paneling, and handcrafted molding. The house has all its original windows, many of which are bowed, or rounded — a rarity with today’s craftsmanship.
The staircase, with its hardwood banisters and vintage spindles is “very grand feeling,” Bowyer said. “It goes up and then it goes around and it heads to the third floor. And when you look down from the third floor, you can see all the way down to the first. It’s incredible.”
Bowyer points out an especially notable room in the 5,770-square-foot Victorian: the intricate sunroom. “I don’t even know who I would pay to do this for me in present day,” she recalled a builder once commenting. Abby Bradley hired a French artisan who spent 18 months hand-carving the sunroom — incredibly expensive details to recreate today, Wechsler said.
“No one would do this nowadays, but in those days, that’s what they did,” James Wechsler said. “So [Abby] spared no expense to fix the place up.”
The house also has some quirks that could have contributed to the neighborhood kids thinking it was haunted. For one, there’s a secret door — possibly the old servants’ quarters, Bowyer said — that can be pressed to reveal a passageway to the basement and the backside of the house.
Walking down to a circa-1860 basement can, admittedly, be a little scary, Bowyer said, but this one has high ceilings and is actually “clean as a whistle.”
The Wechslers put on an addition for the kitchenand modernized the home a bit.
James Weschler, a self-proclaimed history buff, spent his retired years researching the home’s centuries-old inhabitants and uncharacteristic features. When ripping off a piece of interior wallpaper, he found an inscription dated 1898.
The house sites on 1.3 acres. Previous owners filled a sizable pool outside the home, so Bowyer noted there is a large amount of yard space.
“When you look at that wraparound … porch, it goes around two sides and it looks over the whole property, which is stunning,” she noted.
Additionally, the sale comes with a buildable lot at 109 Thaxter Street.
“The whole house, it’s truly architecturally amazing,” Bowyer said.
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