Asa Waters Mansion of Grafton

Asa Waters Mansion of Grafton is a wedding venue in Grafton, MA. It hosts weddings, parties, and corporate events in a historic mansion setting, and holds a rating of 4.70 from the customers who have reviewed it.

The mansion was built beginning in 1824 by prosperous gunsmith Asa Waters II and his wife Susan, who set out to build the stateliest residence in the country. It took two full years to amass the necessary materials: hard pine from the southern United States, marble from Italy, mahogany from Central America, bricks from Baltimore, Maryland, and "pumpkin pine" from Maine, all brought from the Boston ports by horse and wagon before there was a Blackstone Canal or railroad to Central Massachusetts. Historians credit Boston-based architects Alexander Parris and Asher Benjamin with the design, and Captain Lewis Bigelow served as master builder. Ground broke in 1826 and the Waters family took up residence in 1829. Mr. Waters commissioned multiple reception spaces suited to entertaining, and the family held a grand Christmas Eve Ball in 1832 to celebrate the housewarming. The home stayed with the Waters family until 1929. Asa Waters II learned gunsmithing in his father's shop and opened the Waters & Co. Armory with his brother Elijah in 1808 along the Blackstone River; after Elijah's death in 1814 he carried the business on, patenting gun manufacturing inventions and partnering with inventor Thomas Blanchard. His son, Asa Holman Waters, was an abolitionist and member of the Free Soil Party, and local lore holds that the mansion may have served as a stop on the Underground Railroad. The Executive Director is Traci Parath.

The mansion sits at 123 Elm St.

Its positive rating reflects the experience of the couples and hosts who have booked it, and the house itself - standing since the 1820s with its imported materials and reception rooms - remains the setting for weddings and events in Grafton.