A very small, saltbox style house was built, possibly for use by tenants on the Ward farm. The family lived across the street in a large two-story farmhouse.
Thomas Walter Ward II died heavily in debt, and the Worcester County Institution for Savings foreclosed on the Ward farm. Henry Galbraith Ward, a relative who had summered at the house as a child, bought the 135 acre farm and its buildings for $4500. He neither lived at the house nor planned to...