Inness--Fitts House and Studio/Barn National Register of Historic Places Listing

Inness needed to escape New York. By 1860, the Boston art market was buying his work, so he moved his family to this Medfield farmstead. The move changed American art history. Inside the drafty barn he converted into a studio, Inness abandoned the strict realism of his contemporaries. Instead, he painted mist. He layered thin glazes of oil paint to capture the damp Medfield air, creating moody, spiritual paintings like The Croft and Medfield. These works defined American Tonalism. But the property has another layer of history.

Actually, the house dates back way before Inness arrived with his brushes. The Fitts family, local blacksmiths and farmers, built up the homestead starting around 1735. They added to it over generations. This created a rambling structure showing how rural New Englanders actually lived and worked. Inside, you find massive oak timber framing. Low ceilings squeeze the rooms, and wide-plank pine floors show years of heavy boot wear. The property tells two stories at once. It is a hardscrabble colonial farm, but also the birthplace of a major shift in American painting.