17. An Auction at the Middlesex

The Middlesex Hotel was a center not only for the social life of Concord, but—as a place where auctions were frequently held—also for business, investment, and real estate transactions. The multitalented Sam Staples, who earned a living as an auctioneer as well as a barkeeper, hotel manager, and jailer—presided over many auctions at the Middlesex.

This 1852 broadside announces an upcoming auction of stock and property from the estate of Abel Moore—deputy sheriff of Middlesex County, deputy jailer at the county jail in Concord (near the Middlesex Hotel), and an investor in real estate and business ventures. Moore died in 1848. His estate was administered by Concord lawyer Nathan Brooks. The Concord Free Public Library holds an extensive collection of Nathan Brooks’s professional papers, including significant Abel Moore estate papers.

The auction featured shares of Concord Bank, Fitchburg Railroad, and Concord Mill Dam Company stock, and real estate in Lowell. (The Concord Mill Dam Company was a real estate development corporation formed in the 1820s; it bought up property in the center of Concord, drained the mill pond, tore down some buildings, renovated others, and put up new structures that it offered for sale or rent.) There is some irony in the auctioning of Fitchburg Railroad stock at the Middlesex Hotel, since the long decline of the hotel’s business after 1845 was due in large part to the opening of the Fitchburg line in Concord in 1844.