Preserving a historical treasure

[icymist]

FRAMINGHAM — The white house at 657 Salem End Road is showing the signs of its remarkable, 317-years: the white paint on its exterior is peeling, its windows are boarded or broken and the vegetation surrounding it has become overgrown.

But the house — the Sarah Clayes House — is a historical treasure in the eyes of many who know the storied past of its first occupants, and years-long efforts to sort out ownership of the home, buy and restore it, are now gaining new steam.

Last week, about 50 people attended a history roundtable event on the house at the Framingham History Center, and spoke of their fascination with the a piece of Framingham’s earliest history.

Peter and Sarah Clayes came to Framingham following the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692, building the house around 1693. Sarah Clayes, though convicted of witchcraft, avoided being hanged, a fate that befell her sisters, Rebecca Nurse and Mary Easty.

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