The ruins of the Marble/Whitney/Parmenter house border ARRT in Maynard, just north of where Acton Road joins Route 27. The Marble family moved there around 1710. They and their descendants lived there for more than 200 years. The house was destroyed by fire in 1924.

As seen from the Trail: bordering the Trail on the west is a drainage ditch and just beyond that a stone retaining wall. Visible about 80' beyond that wall is a second wall which to the north side curves to meet the first wall. Steps cut through the first wall. Beyond the second wall is a post and chain railing bordering two sides of the stone foundation. A placard mounted on a post has a photo of the house from before the fire. In the photo horse barns are visible in the background. The newspaper record of the fire states that 26 horses were saved from the fire.

Looking down into the debris-strewn foundation one sees that the stone walls are capped with a line of much larger stones. The wooden sills of the house would have rested on these. The two chimneys (see placard photo) collapsed during or after the fire, so much of the debris is chimney brick. On the west side of the foundation there is a flight of stone steps that had gone down to the basement. Each step is estimated to weigh more than 600 pounds. From the placard photo, the house was of the Georgian Colonial style, popular from around 1700 through the 1830's. So it is possible that this upper middle class house was built before the railroad was built, which was approximately 1850.

John and Judith Marble came to the colonies from England in 1635. Their son Joseph settled in Andover, then moved to the site in Maynard circa 1710 [but at that time Maynard did not exist, as land north of the Assabet River was part of Stow]. Joseph's great-great-grandaughter Sarah married Daniel Whitney, and their daughter married Joel Parmenter. This is why in various historical maps that home is referred to as either the Marble, Whitney or Parmenter house. Joseph Marble's sister-in-law was Abigail Faulkner, convicted of being a witch in the 1692 witch trials. The Stow/Maynard Whitneys were related to the inventor Eli Whitney and the Whitneys who founded the Whitney museum, in New York. Joel Parmenter's great-grandfather fought in the Revolutionary War and his grandson in World War I.

The Maynard Historical Society is researching the site and the families that lived there, and is hoping to have Maynard declare it a town historical site.