Houses – Page 71 – Historic Buildings of Massachusetts

Porter-Phelps-Huntington House (1752)

by Dan/November 20, 2008September 17, 2016/Colonial, Hadley, Houses

Built in 1752, the Porter-Phelps-Huntington House was the first to be constructed in Hadley outside the town’s fortified stockade, on land known as “Forty Acres and its Skirts,” which had earlier been farmed communally. The original owners were Moses Porter and his wife Elizabeth Pitkin Porter. Moses was killed in 1755 in the French and Indian War, at the “Bloody Morning Scout,” the first engagement of the Battle of Lake George. Elizabeth was left alone to raise their daughter, also named Elizabeth, who married Charles Phelps of Northampton in 1770. Phelps greatly expanded the family’s property and enlarged the house, although no significant structural changes have been made since 1799. Phelps was a lawyer as well as a farmer, supported the Revolutionary War and served as a representative to the General Court of Massachusetts. Charles and Elizabeth Phelps’ daughter, Elizabeth Phelps, married Dan Huntington in 1801. Huntington was a minister in Litchfield, CT and his growing family lived there for a time, before settling in the Hadley homestead in 1816. Their son, Frederic Dan Huntington, became a Unitarian minister, but later became an Episcopalian and the first Bishop of Central New York state. In 1855, Bishop Huntington inherited the house and used it as a summer home. The house continued to be owned by the family until a grandson of Bishop Huntington, Dr. James Huntington, who had studied the family’s history and first opened the house to the public in 1949, donated it the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Foundation in 1955. It has been open as a museum ever since.

Levi Gilbert House (1794)

by Dan/October 13, 2008September 17, 2016/Federal, Houses, West Springfield

The Levi Gilbert House was built in West Brookfield around 1794. It is one of the buildings to be moved in the twentieth century to the Eastern Stares Exposition grounds, in West Springfield, to form part of Storrowton Village, a recreation of a nineteenth century village. The Gilbert House displays for visitors the life of an eighteenth century farmer.

Wells-Thorn House (1747)

by Dan/October 7, 2008September 17, 2016/Colonial, Deerfield, Houses

The Wells-Thorn House is one of the museum houses of Historic Deerfield. The oldest section of the house was built between 1717 and 1720 by Ebenezer Wells, a wealthy farmer. He lived in the house with his wife, Abigail Barnard wells, and two slaves, Lucy and Caesar. the building may have also have been used as a tavern from 1744-1749. This earlier section became an ell when a new section, now the main block of the house, was built in the Georgian style either between 1751 and 1757, or perhaps as early as 1747. Ebenezer Wells died in 1758 and the house passed through several different owners, eventually being purchased by Luanna Thorn in 1905. She and her husband, Dr. Edwin Thorn, were involved in the Deerfield Arts and Crafts Revival movement. Luanna ran her Deerfield Handicrafts Shop at the rear of the house. The home was acquired by Historic Deerfield in 1962. Inside, the house represents the decorative arts of different historical periods in each room. It also inspired the construction of a replica, the Benjamin Morrow House. Edit: Current research indicates that the entire house was built in 1755.

Sheldon-Hawks House (1754)

by Dan/October 7, 2008September 17, 2016/Colonial, Deerfield, Houses

The John Sheldon House, also known as the Sheldon-Hawks House, on the Street in Deerfield, was built perhaps as early as 1743, but more likely in the period from 1754-1757. Built by John Sheldon, the grandson of Ensign John Sheldon. it was occupied by three generations of the Sheldons, a farming family. In 1802, a single-story ell was added to the rear. The house was the birthplace of George Sheldon, an early preservationist, who wrote A History of Deerfield and founded the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Society. George Sheldon inherited the house in 1860 and in 1871, his daughter, Susan Arabella, moved in with her husband, Edward A. Hawks. After Edward’s death in 1925, it was inherited by their daughter, Susan Belle Hawks, who ran The Old Homestead Antiques Shop from her home. It was acquired in 1946 by Henry and Helen Flynt, the founders Historic Deerfield, and is open for self-guided tours.

Somerset Club (1819)

by Dan/July 25, 2008July 2, 2009/Boston, Federal, Houses

The home of David Sears, on Beacon Street in Boston, began as a 2-story bowfront house, built in 1816-1819 and designed by Alexander Parris. The left section of the house, featuring a second bowfront, was added by Sears in 1832, and in the 1830s, the house was the most expensive in Boston. The building has been home to the exclusive Somerset Club since 1872, when the third floor was added. Today, the house gives an impression of monumentality, with its large size and granite facade.

John Hicks House (1762)

by Dan/July 25, 2008January 20, 2020/Cambridge, Colonial, Houses

Originally located on Dunster and Winthrop in Cambridge, the 1762 John Hicks House was later moved to its current address on John F. Kennedy Street to become the library of Harvard University‘s Kirkland House. A historic marker in front of the house explains that it was the home of John Hicks, who was killed by British soldiers in 1775. He was killed near the junction of North avenue and Spruce Street by the retreating British on April 19, 1775. The marker also indicates that the house was used by General Putnam as his office during the Revolutionary War. In 1773, the house was purchased by John Foxcroft. A car crashed into the house in 2006.

Nathaniel Hawthorne Birthplace (1730)

by Dan/June 23, 2008June 29, 2013/Colonial, Houses, Salem

The house in which the author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, was born on July 4, 1804 and lived in until he was age 4 is located in Salem. It was originally on Union Street, but in 1958 it was moved to a site adjacent to the House of the Seven Gables, the building that would inspire Hawthorne to write the novel of the same name. The house was built between 1730 and 1745 for Joshua Pickman, a Boston mariner. It was bought by Hawthorne’s grandfather, the famous shipmaster Captain Daniel Hawthorne, in 1772. As part of the House of the Seven Gables Settlement Association property, the house is now a museum open to visitors.