Standing at the crossroads of the small town of Plainfield, MA is the historic Shaw-Hudson House.
Built in 1833 for Dr. Samuel Shaw and his family, the home now offers a window into living in rural Western Massachusetts at that time. Dr. Shaw was Plainfield’s eminent town physician in the early 1800s. He began his apprenticeship in the bordering town of Cummington with fellow physician Peter Bryant, who was the father of well-known 19th-century journalist and poet William Cullen Bryant. Dr. Shaw inherited both Bryant’s practice and early medical books.
Dr. Shaw practiced medicine in Plainfield from 1824 to 1880. The doctor’s office and much of the house remains intact, a time capsule of the mid to late 19th century. The house itself contains art, family furnishings, and Dr. Shaw’s entire medical office, dating to the late 18th century. Furniture, pictures, books, photographs, kitchenware, quilts, clothing and related items of everyday life in early Plainfield, all have been lovingly preserved by Dr. Shaw’s granddaughter, Clara Shaw Hudson, the last family member to live in the house, and whose memoirs give us insights into the fascinating life of a country doctor in Plainfield.
This tour was assembled in 2021. It was a project of Plainfield History and funded by a generous grant from Mass Humanities.
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