This building was constructed in 1847 and has long served as a business location. The 1856 map shows R. Kimball as the owner of this building. Benjamin Kimball was the owner in 1872, but soon thereafter it became Thomas E. Condon’s Grocery.
In the 1910 map, the owner is “Mrs. Condon.” In the 1893 Ipswich Annual Report was T. E. Condon’s grocery, and one of his charges to the town was “food for tramps.” During the Great Depression, this was called the “Free Store.”
Obituary, December 6, 1901
Thomas E. Condon, town treasurer and collector of Ipswich, died a few days ago. Mr. Condon, in his younger days, was a great lover of sports and was manager of the Ipswich baseball team, a crack amateur nine, for some time. It was under his astute management that the late William Vinton, who afterward became a national Leaguer, pitching for the Philadelphias, first began to twirl.
Mr. Condon was born in Ipswich on April 25, 1842, and was educated in the Ipswich Public Schools. At the age of 15 he went to sea, commencing a career of adventure, and before he reached 18 years old, he made a voyage around the world. In 1860, he was in Calcutta, and not liking the captain of the vessel, he enlisted in the English army. In a battle with the Sepoys, he received a severe wound in the throat.
When he recovered from the wound, he fled to this country and enlisted in the United States Navy, serving under Admiral Farragut. After serving nine months in the navy, he enlisted in Company D, 18th Massachusetts Regiment, and was terribly wounded in the shoulder and spine with grapeshot. He never fully recovered from the wounds.
Returning to his native town, he worked for a time as a clerk and then opened a grocery store, which he conducted up to the time of his last illness. He served the town with manageability and efficiency as tax collector and treasurer and was held in high esteem by all who knew him. As a private citizen, he was a man of sterling integrity and always of pleasant and genial disposition. He leaves a wife and two daughters.
Sources:
Historic Ipswich 