Today 28 Marion Road in Rochester is a vacant lot, but for many years the buildings there were popular gathering spots. In 1710, the lot held a barn and stable for Ruggles Tavern. There were businesses here from then until a fire in July of 2011 destroyed the bakery, café and apartments located there.
In 1976, there was a general store that had been expanded to include a lunch counter and grill and had become known as Alice’s Kitchen. In this new configuration, it was as much a local gathering spot as the revolutionary tavern had been. In 1976, a reporter from the Boston Globe stopped by to do a story about the longevity of a spot where people had congregated for over 250 years to discuss everything from gossip to politics over coffee, lunch, or apple pie. A few of the patrons there that day were regulars: George Church, Eddie Lopes, and Buster Locke.
They regaled the reporter with the story of Bathsheba Ruggles Spooner, the daughter of Timothy Ruggles, Jr., the staunch Tory. Bathsheba had followed her father’s wishes and married Mr. Spooner, also a Tory. While her husband was away, Bathsheba found herself nursing a wounded Continental soldier back to health and the two fell in love and wished to be together. When her husband returned, she conspired with two henchmen to murder him. To hide the body, they put it down a well shaft. True love did not work out, Bathsheba and both co-conspirators were caught and hanged in 1778. Bathsheba was the last woman to be hanged in Massachusetts.
By Connie Eshbach
