Andover historian Charlotte Helen Abbot (1844-1921) states in her Dane family genealogy that this farmhouse was built by James Moody Dane in 1805. The classic New England Colonial was built in the Federal period style with center entrance, symmetrical front façade. It may have begun as a half house and later enlarged to the current appearance about 1830. The smaller Cape Cod style addition to the right was once the barn and was converted into additional living space after a fire in the 1940’s. Behind the house is a round fieldstone building now used as a recreation room, but was originally used as cold storage.

James M. Dane was born in 1768, son of Deacon John Dane Jr. James married in Newbury, MA on June 6, 1799 to Rebecca Pillsbury, born 1773 daughter of Joshua & Rebecca (White) Pillsbury. The Dane family trace their line back to Rev. Francis Dane Andover’s second minister from 1647-1696. Rev. Dane’s land holdings were extensive at the time of his death. His real estate was divided between his two sons, Nathaniel getting the North Parish farm and Francis Jr. getting the farm in the west end of town on Argilla Road which would eventually become the West Parish in 1826. James is said to have once lived in the Charles Shattuck house, also the Stevens’ house near the Carruth farm and in 1830 the house at 242 Lowell St. All these properties were located between what is now Argilla and Lovejoy Roads on Lowell St.

The 1830 Moses Dorman map of Andover lists the Widow Abbott at the #254 location. The 1850 Andover Assessors Valuation record lists John Fielding’s house at $350, barn $50 and adjoining 8 acres at $190. John Fielding was born in England in 1785 and his trade being a weaver. John married Esther B. Horton on July 16, 1826 in Seekonk, MA and by 1829 is listed as living in Andover’s North Parish. John’s occupation was recorded as operative in the Andover Vital Records at the birth of his daughter Hannah on Aug. 17, 1844, suggesting that John worked for one of the textile mills in Andover. John’s wife Esther would survive John and inherited the eight acre homestead after John died on March 26, 1871 at age of 85. They had five children, George b. 1836, Victoria, b. 1837, Hannah b. 1844, Rebecca b. 1841, and Willie b. 1856 d. 1857. Esther B. died on November 9, 1886 at age of 84 and is interred in the Fielding family lot in West Parish Cemetery. The Fielding heirs sold the farm to John A. & Annie O’Connell three months later for $900.

John O’Connell was living in Andover at the time he purchased the property. He was bleacher for the Smith & Dove Manufacturing Co. They had four children, David b. 1879, Annie W. b.1881, May W. b. 1884 and Charles H. b. 1886. When the children finished school they were employed at the flax mill. Son Charles became a plumber. The O’Connell family lived here for 12 years before moving closer to the center of town and work.

The farm was purchased by Jeremiah A. Towle in 1899 and changed owners several times before John & Susan Cunningham acquired it in 1906. John was born 1871 and in 1910 was a foreman in a Box Mill. Wife Susan was b. in 1868 in Canada and they had three children two who survived, Phylis G. b 1898 and George M. born in 1900. John would later move to Lawrence, MA and became a foreman at a paper mill.

Brothers Bagdasar & Avedis Ozoonian from Lynn, MA purchased the property on August 9, 1913. Both were born in Armenia and had come to America to escape the genocide of the Armenian families from the Turks. Bagdasar & wife Alton raised poultry, sold milk and farmed the land. Avedis was a driver, wife Prophon helped with the farm. The Ozoonians sold to fellow Armenians Ohan and Anna Loosigian of Watertown, MA on August 16, 1917. They too had escaped from their homeland with daughter Bergerre (Bertha) age 2. They would have two more children, Mary b. 1913 and a son Peter O. b. in Andover in 1921.

Ohan & Annie embraced their new life in America and worked the soil to provide for their children. Their son Peter O. graduated from Punchard High School in 1939. He served with the Army Air Corps in WWII in the Pacific. Peter took a post war job with Watson Chemical Co. in Ballardvale but returned to what he loved best, his farm. Peter married Alice Azozian of Watertown and they also had three children; Lisa, and two sons, Jon and Peter. The Loosigian family owned and worked their 9 acres for 97 years and grew a variety of fruit and vegetables, corn, pumpkins and flowers, Gladiolas being a special favorite. Their popular roadside stand was always busy with customers traveling along the busy Lowell St. Route 133. The farm continued until the death of Peter O. Loosigian on Nov. 16, 2012 at the age of 92. Loosigian gave the name “Strawberry Hill Farm” to their home and with its closure only one farm now remains in Andover.

The Loosigian family sold the property in 2016 and the farm buildings were all razed in 2017 for development of a Senior Living Facility.