The Fiske House in Central Square, Chelmsford, MA, was built in 1798 by Simeon Spalding. The present house occupies the site of an earlier building owned an occupied by major John Minot, when the homestead contained but four acres, including the public square in front of the present house. In 1784, John Minot deeded about one-half an acre with the buildings thereon, just south of the present house, to his son-in-law, William Bridge (son of the Rev. Ebenezer Bridge, fourth minister of the town), who had married his daughter Rachel. The old well may be seen on the lower Terrace.

A barn once stood where the road now runs between this lot and the square, and remained some time after the road was laid out in 1829, so that it was necessary to drive around or through it, in going that way. In 1784 Minot also sold his own place to Elijah Proctor. The next year, Proctor sold to Simeon Spalding, who added six acres to the farm and in 1798 built the dignified Colonial home. But in 1807 he was obliged to mortgage the place, and in 1812 sold it to Azariah Spaulding and Joseph Bailey. In 1818, Simeon Spaulding re-purchased the place and kept it until 1830, when he sold to Mathias Spalding. Within three years it was owned by William Fletcher, John Foster and Joel Adams, whose grandson, Captain C. E. A. Bartlett was born there. In five years the house had another owner, Thomas Moore, and it became a tavern, known as the LaFayette House, where in the spring of 1839, Mr. and Mrs. John Minot Fiske of Boston and their three sons came in search of a country home, thinking to buy the old house which had belonged to Parson Bridge, Mr. Fiske's great-grandfather. But his wife took a fancy for the tavern, which was bought by Mr. Fiske in April, 1839. The tasteful and delicate looking through well made fence in front of the house, the late John Minot Fiske told the writer, was built in that year. The lower northwest room contained the bar.

In 1997, Hall & Finnegan, PC now Deschenes & Farrell, P.C. moved into the prestigious Fiske House at Central Square in Chelmsford, MA, and in 2006 the firm became Deschenes & Farrell, P.C.

(Content courtesy of the Chelmsford Historical Society)