Burnett Garfield House - Southborough, Massachusetts

The Burnett-Garfield house is particularly significant to Southborough’s history going back several generations. The house itself was built in 1849, with locally quarried stone and meticulous attention to detail in the Second Empire style. Joseph Burnett, who built the home, was a descendant of one of the town’s first settlers. In addition to building Deerfoot Farm, which was the town’s largest employer for years, Burnett was a successful chemist and entrepreneur. His nationally known company, Burnett’s Extracts, created and sold the first commercially produced liquid vanilla extract. Burnett’s legacy lives on in Southborough, as he founded the St. Mark’s School and St. Marks Episcopal Church, helped to establish the Fay School, and was the principal benefactor of Southborough Town Hall and Library.