List of the oldest buildings in Massachusetts
Appearance
This article attempts to list the oldest extant buildings surviving in the state of Massachusetts in the United States of America, including the oldest houses in Massachusetts and any other surviving structures. Some dates are approximate and based upon dendochronology, architectural studies, and historical records. Sites on the list are generally from the First Period of American architecture or earlier. Only houses predominantly built prior to 1700 are suitable for inclusion on this list or the building must be the oldest of its type.
The town of Ipswich has the largest number of First Period houses; at least 57 still exist. Here is more information on Ipswich's First Period houses: http://www.historicipswich.org/1st-period-houses/
Building | Image | Location | First Built | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Fairbanks House | Dedham, Massachusetts | 1637 c. | Oldest wood-frame house in America, dated using dendrochronology, and the oldest house in Massachusetts.[1] | |
Richard Sparrow House | Plymouth, Massachusetts | 1640 | Oldest house in Plymouth. | |
Wing Fort House | East Sandwich, Massachusetts | 1641 | Oldest home in New England continuously owned by the same family.[2] This date needs a reliable source based on physical evidence. | |
Sturgis Library | Barnstable (village), Massachusetts | 1644 | Oldest public library building in the country. This date needs a reliable source based on physical evidence. | |
Hatch Homestead | Marshfield, Massachusetts | 1647 c. | Purportedly the oldest continuously occupied house in Massachusetts. | |
General Israel Putnam House | Danvers, Massachusetts | 1648 | ||
James Noyes House | Newbury, Massachusetts | 1646 | ||
Newman-Fiske-Dodge House | Wenham, Massachusetts | 1658 | ||
Parkman Tavern | Concord, Massachusetts | 1659 | The date for this house needs a reliable source based on physical evidence. | |
James Blake House | Dorchester, Massachusetts | 1661 | Oldest house in Boston (dendrochronology in 2007 determined the actual construction date [3][dorchesterhistoricalsociety.org]) | |
Reverend James Keith Parsonage | West Bridgewater, Massachusetts | 1662 | Old Bridgewater Historical Society, the oldest parsonage and garrison house in the Americas. | |
Pickering House | Salem, Massachusetts | 1664[3] | Oldest house in Salem still being lived in. It is located at 18 Broad Street in the Chestnut Street District. | |
Pickman House | Salem, Massachusetts | 1664 | Located on Charter Street behind the Peabody Essex Museum, the oldest continually operated museum in America. The house abuts the Witch Memorial is also next to the second oldest burying ground in America. | |
Gedney House | Salem, Massachusetts | 1665 | ||
John Partridge House | Millis, Massachusetts | 1659 | ||
Jabez Howland House | Plymouth, Massachusetts | 1667 | Only extant house in Plymouth occupied by Pilgrims. John Howland and his wife, Elizabeth Tilley Howland, who both came over on the Mayflower, spent their winters here with their son, Jabez, one of their 10 children. Also a National Historic Landmark.[4] | |
House of the Seven Gables | Salem, Massachusetts | 1668 | National Historic Landmark, setting of the Nathaniel Hawthorne novel. | |
Swett-Ilsley House | Newbury, Massachusetts | 1670 | ||
Judge Samuel Holten House | Danvers, Massachusetts | 1670 | ||
Chandler-Bigsby-Abbot House | Andover, Massachusetts | 1673 | Oldest house in Andover. (This statement, and 1673 date, need a reliable source.) | |
The Witch House | Salem, Massachusetts | 1675 | Also called the Jonathan Corwin House, this was the home of Judge Jonathan Corwin [4] and is the only structure still standing in Salem, Massachusetts with direct ties to the Salem Witch Trials of 1692.[5] The house is now a museum operated by the City of Salem, and is open seasonally. | |
Hoxie House | Sandwich, Massachusetts | 1675 c. | One of the oldest houses on Cape Cod. | |
Narbonne House | Salem, Massachusetts | 1675 | On the Waterfront in Salem at the Salem Maritime National Historic Site and owned by the National Park Service. | |
Deane Winthrop House | Winthrop, Massachusetts | 1675 | Dated by dendrochronology to 1675,[5] with an addition of 1695. Currently it is owned by the Winthrop Improvement and Historical Association. This building is one of the oldest wood frame houses in the country and it is the oldest continuously lived-in home. Located at 40 Shirley Street, the Deane Winthrop House is a registered National Historic Site. | |
Harlow Old Fort House | Plymouth, Massachusetts | 1677 | House built using timbers from the Pilgrims' 1621 fort. This statement needs a reliable source based on physical evidence. | |
John Whipple House | Ipswich, Massachusetts | 1677 | National Historic Landmark. | |
Peter Tufts House | Medford, Massachusetts | 1677–8 c. | Possibly the oldest brick house in the United States.[6][7] | |
Coffin House | Newbury, Massachusetts | 1678 | One of the oldest extant examples of the principal rafter/common purlin roof. | |
John Balch House | Beverly, Massachusetts | 1679 c. | ||
Paul Revere House | Boston, Massachusetts | 1680 c. | Oldest building in downtown Boston.[8] | |
John Adams Birthplace | Quincy, Massachusetts | 1681 | Oldest existing building within which a future President of the United States was born (John Adams, October 30, 1735) | |
Old Ship Church | Hingham, Massachusetts | 1681 | Oldest church building in Massachusetts; only remaining Puritan 17th century meetinghouse in America; oldest church in continuous ecclesiastical use in America. | |
Ironmaster's House | Saugus, Massachusetts | 1681 | Also known as the Appleton House. | |
Cooper-Frost-Austin House | Cambridge, Massachusetts | 1682 | Oldest house in Cambridge, verified using dendrochronology. | |
Parson Capen House | Topsfield, Massachusetts | 1683 | Oldest house in Topsfield. | |
Pierce House (Dorchester, Massachusetts) | Dorchester, Massachusetts | 1683 | One of the oldest houses in Boston. | |
Old Indian Meeting House | Mashpee, Massachusetts | 1684 | Oldest Native American church building in America. | |
John Ward House | Salem, Massachusetts | 1684 | This house is a National Historic Landmark at 132 Essex Street in Salem, Massachusetts in the Downtown Salem District; it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1968. | |
Quincy Homestead | Quincy, Massachusetts | 1686 | Home to four generations of Quincys, including Dorothy Quincy Hancock. Maintained by Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation as well as the National Society of Colonial Dames in America in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. | |
Jethro Coffin House | Nantucket, Massachusetts | 1686 | Oldest house on Nantucket Island. | |
Boardman House | Saugus, Massachusetts | 1687 | Formerly known as the Scotch Boardman House. Also known as the Bennet-Boardman House. | |
Joseph Willis House | Taunton, Massachusetts | 1688 | Oldest house in Taunton. | |
William Murray House | Salem, Massachusetts | 1688 | A historic house at 39 Essex Street | |
Claflin-Richards House | Wenham, Massachusetts | 1690 | Constructed with ogee braces, an architectural hallmark of 16th- and 17th-century English dwellings. | |
Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm | Newbury, Massachusetts | 1690 or earlier | One of the oldest stone buildings in New England. | |
Old Jail | Barnstable, Massachusetts | 1690 | Oldest wooden prison in America. | |
Kimball Tavern | Haverhill, Massachusetts | 1692 | The Kimball Tavern is among the oldest buildings in Massachusetts, and one of the oldest buildings in the city of Haverhill. A plaque identifies it as the site of the founding of Bradford College in 1802. | |
Stanley Lake House | Topsfield, Massachusetts | 1693 | Stanley Lake House, built in 1693, is a historic house at 95 River Road in Topsfield, Massachusetts. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. | |
Browne House | Watertown, Massachusetts | 1694 | Oldest house in Watertown. | |
Parker Tavern | Reading, Massachusetts | 1694 | The saltbox tavern was built in 1694 by Abraham Bryant, a farmer and blacksmith. During the American Revolution, Ephraim Parker acquired the house and operated a tavern on the premises. Parker allowed Scottish prisoners of war to be housed in the tavern. The town of Reading acquired the building in 1914. In 1923 Reading Antiquarian Society purchased the building from the town for a nominal price and has maintained and operated the museum without public funding. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. It is currently operated by the Reading Antiquarian Society. | |
Hart House | Lynnfield, Massachusetts | 1695 c. | ||
Dwight-Derby House | Medfield, Massachusetts | 1697 | ||
Isaac Winslow House | Marshfield, Massachusetts | 1699 | Residence of a governor of the Plymouth Colony; now a museum. | |
Isaac Goodale House | Built in Salem, Massachusetts; moved to Ipswich, MA in 1928. | 1695 c. | Date from architectural survey, available on Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System website.[10] | |
John Alden House | Duxbury, Massachusetts | ca. 1700 | A National Historic Landmark, this house was dated by dendrochronology to ca. 1700[according to whom?]. | |
Rebecca Nurse Homestead | File:RebeccaNurseHouse.jpg | Danvers, Massachusetts | ca. 1700 | This house was built after Rebecca Nurse died. There is no indication for a 17th century date of construction.[11] |
John Humphreys House | Swampscott, Massachusetts | 1700 c. | ||
Old Powder House | Somerville, Massachusetts | 1704 | Oldest stone building in Massachusetts | |
St. Michael's Church (Marblehead, Massachusetts) | Marblehead, Massachusetts | 1714 | Oldest Episcopal parish church building on its original site in New England. | |
Boston Light | Boston | 1716 / 1783 | First lighthouse established in the USA, 1716. The current tower, built in 1783, is the second oldest existing lighthouse in the USA (after Sandy Hook Light, New Jersey). | |
Josiah Day House | West Springfield | 1754 | Oldest known brick salt-box style home in the United States. |
See also
- List of historic houses in Massachusetts
- Oldest buildings in the United States
- First Period houses in Ipswich http://www.historicipswich.org/1st-period-houses/
References
- ^ Elsie Lathrop "Historic Houses of Early America" (Kessinger, New York: 2006) pg. 218 (accessed on Google Book Search)
- ^ http://wingfamily.org
- ^ "Oxford Dendrochronology".
- ^ [1]
- ^ "Oxford Dendrochronology".
- ^ Coolidge, Ruth Dame. Round About Old Medford, Medford Historical Society, 1934.
- ^ Hooper, John H. “Some Old Medford Houses and Estates” Medford Historic Register. VII:3 (July 1904).
- ^ [2]
- ^ National Park Service description of the John Adams Birthplace, as part of the Adams National Historic Park in Quincy, MA.
- ^ "MACRIS".
- ^ Cummings, Abbott (1979). The Framed Houses of Massachusetts Bay 1625-1725. Belknap. p. 123.