[51] in 1720, the grist-mill is left to his two sons. The mill was undoubtedly built several years previous to 1720, and for some time after that it continued to grind the corn for the farmers for many miles around. In 1747 the old mill, with a quarter of an acre of land, was sold to the Province of Massachusetts Bay for £ 250. After being remodeled it was used for storing the powder of the surrounding towns and of the province. The Powder House commemorates one of the earliest hostile acts of the Revolution. On the morning of September 1, 1774, General Gates sent an expedition to seize the powder at the magazine, and 260 soldiers embarked at Long Wharf in Boston and proceeded up Mystic River, landing at Ten Hills Farm, from where they marched to the Powder House. The 250 half-barrels of powder which the magazine contained were speedily transferred to the boats and removed to Castle William (now Fort Independence), in Boston Harbor. A detachment of troops also visited Cambridge, and carried off two field pieces which they found there. The news of the seizure of the powder spread with great rapidity, and on the following morning thousands of armed men from the surrounding towns assembled on Cambridge Common, ready to oppose the forces of the king. The Powder House was used for storing powder until the erection of a new magazine at Cambridgeport.In 1836 it came into the possession of Nathan Tufts, in whose family it remained until May 28, 1892, at which time it was presented to the city, together with one and one-half acres of surrounding land, to which three acres more were added by purchase. One of the conditions under which the gift was made was that the Powder House be kept perpetually in repair, and that the land surrounding it be made into a public park and forever maintained as such, to be called the Nathan Tufts Park. The conditions have been fully carried out by the city. The bronze tablet on the Powder House, setting forth its history, was placed there by the Massachusetts Society of
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