John B. Gough House

The John B. Gough House, also known as Hillside, is a National Historic Landmark at 215 Main Street in Boylston, Massachusetts. It is significant as the home of temperance orator John B. Gough, and as an excellent example of Italianate architecture. Gough was born in England and came to the United States as a child. After the death of his mother in 1835, his life descended into alcoholism, until he took a temperance pledge in 1842. In 1846 he married Mary Whitcombe, a Boylston native, and in 1848 built this two story farmhouse, which is where he lived until his death in 1886.

The house is roughly square in plan, with three bays on each side, and is topped by a flat roof with a square belvedere on top. It has wide overhanging eaves studded with brackets, and a wide porch spans the width of the front. Additions have been added onto the rear of the house.

After Gough's death, the house was purchased by William J. Hogg, owner of the Worcester-based Crompton Carpet Company. For much of the 20th century the estate served as the campus of the Shepherd Knapp School, and in the 1980s the property was acquired by Digital Equipment Corporation and used as a training facility. It is now in under the control of the Boylston Historical Society, which is working to restore the property.

The house was declared a National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

A photo of the house appears on page 491 of the 1899 book The Worcester of eighteen hundred and ninety-eight. Fifty years a city. A graphic presentation of its institutions, industries and leaders.