D-4-20
Town Pound
There have been two town pounds on this location. Nelson’s first pound was built at the same time as the meetinghouse (1773) and almost directly across the road from it. This suggests they were of similar importance in the early function of the community. It was a twenty-foot-square stonewall six feet high with a door and an iron lock. By 1783 this first pound proved to be too small, and a larger replacement, thirty by thirty, was built. The walls were also stone, six feet high, three feet thick on the bottom and one and a half feet thick at the top with another foot of boards extending above the stone. This pound had a four-foot wide gate and a door with iron hinges with a lock and key. David Beard, the lowest bidder, built it for 11 pounds. It still stands today in the woods on the east side of Lead Mine Road. It was replaced in 1795 by a new pound at D-3-2.
