The Darling Family and Mendon as a Summer Resort

    Mendon's natural beauty, clean air, and pristine water have been treasured throughout
    the town's history, but it was during the post Civil War industrial period that one of the
    town's prominent families utilized these natural resources for economic benefit.
    Industrial discharges and emissions had scarred neighboring towns with hazardous
    environmental conditions, but agricultural Mendon remained environmentally pure.
    Outsiders saw Mendon as an escape from smoke stacks and polluted rivers, and  
    members of the Darling family turned their properties into summer resorts.

    Homer Darling was a very successful dairy farmer, but it was his role as an innkeeper
    that enhanced his income and attracted wealthy New York vacationers. In 1866, he and
    his father, Newbury Darling, purchased the beautiful federal farmhouse at 73 North
    Avenue. It had once been owned by Benjamin Davenport. They converted the large
    horse barn behind the house to summer bedrooms and constructed a large piazza so
    that guests in their rocking chairs could enjoy the scenic view of the verdant eastern
    slope leading to Muddy Brook.

    The summer guests were wealthy family associates of the Darling family's watch case
    business in New York. They were very pleased to escape from the city to enjoy the
    splendor of Mendon's country, rural surroundings. They came in their own coaches with
    private drivers, so that they could be escorted around town to enjoy the heralded air,
    and of course, "Nature's beauty spot," Lake Nipmuc.

    Homer's success as an innkeeper apparently served as an inspiration to his brother,
    Albert, who in 1885 purchased the former Jonathan Russell house and converted it to a
    summer boarding house. His renovations included adding a wrap-around porch, giving
    the historic home a completely new look. Its location at the corner of Hastings Street
    and Emerson Street was along a well-travelled stage coach route. The Darling house
    was always full with summer vacationers.

    Though Mendon's economy was based on farming in the years after the Civil War,
    members of the Darling family capitalized on Mendon's reputation for having clean,
    invigorating air and pure water. Vacationers seeking an escape from the industrial world
    and city life found Mendon to be a special place, something that the Darlings knew all
    along.

    The Kirkpatrick family currently resides at Homer's former house, and a metal building
    housing a magnetic paint business has replaced the Russell-Darling house.

    Richard Grady
    August 12, 2012

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Home of Benjamin Davenport  -- Early  1800’s;  purchased by
Homer Darling in 1866

Home of Col. Calvin Smith –1765; Seth Hastings in 1805; Jonathan
Russell in 1818; and Albert N. Darling in 1885.

Russell-Darling house site in 2011.