NORTHBOROUGH – These columns about reincarnated antique properties are to recognize owners of historic buildings who appreciate the old architecture and have invested in successful reuse options. With creativity, historic properties can be kept away from the wrecking ball. Today’s property is 30 Main Street; it was originally built as a vacation home and is now a successful French bistro.
This brick building is occasionally referred to as “The Doctors House” because of all the physicians who have lived in it over the years. It was built as a vacation home for Dr. Stephen Ball III and his wife Amanda circa 1830. Dr. Ball III’s practice was based in Boston. He had it built near the home of his grandparents, Dr. and Mrs. Stephen Ball, which later became the home of his parents, Dr. and Mrs. Stephen Ball II, that still remains at 38 Main Street. The property was eventually sold to Dr. Henry Barnes who married Dr. Ball III’s sister Elizabeth. Dr. Barnes had a local medical practice encompassing nearby towns. The first non-physician owners were Orello and Virginia Buckner. Orello was a ceramic engineer who with his associates established Bay State Abrasives in Westborough.
The property returned to a medical professional when Dr. Gregory Pincus and his wife Elizabeth purchased the property in 1954. Dr. Pincus became world renowned as a co-inventor of the birth control pill developed at the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology in Shrewsbury. Several years after Dr. Pincus’s death it was sold to the last physician who lived and had an office there, Dr. Robert T. Bush and his wife Betty, a registered nurse. Dr. Bush was a general medical practitioner for the town of Northborough and the team physician for the Marlborough Shamrocks football team. After Dr. Bush, the home transferred through Mr. and Mrs. Bullis, an office for Vision Appraisal Technologies and the religious bookstore The Olive Branch.
With the closure of The Olive Branch bookstore, the property was vacant for several years, until some magic happened. Northborough citizen Millie Milton was looking for a small facility to open up a coffee and bakery shop. She was particularly interested in finding out about the small old bank building at 28 Main Street. While looking at the bank building she noticed the vacant building next door at 30 Main Street was for sale. As described on the C’est La Vie Bistro website, “It was a Sunday, a regular old mind-your-own-business kind of Sunday, one of those where a person might very inadvertently push open the back door of an old, neglected, vacant building.” The building invited her in for a visit.
What she found was a beautiful building in great shape with good bones. This started her on a mission to expand on the coffee shop and bakery idea to become a French bistro restaurant for breakfast and lunch. She purchased the property in 2012 and started the conversion of a private home into a bistro. Although the building was structurally sound and in very good condition, the challenges for converting it to a restaurant were many. Changes to building codes for restaurants and five different town building inspectors led to many long delays.
Four years after the purchase, the bistro was opened and remains a great addition to Northborough Center. Millie mentioned that her favorite architectural features are the impressive unsupported rounded staircase in the front hall, the many fireplaces, and the detailed woodwork throughout. Asked if she would make the same decision again if given the opportunity, the answer was a resounding yes. Thank you, Millie Milton, for preserving a piece of Northborough history for the community.
