Colonial American Architecture

**Electronic God-Man** · 05-09-2010, 05:11 AM

Massachusetts

The Fairbanks House

The Fairbanks House is a historic home in Dedham, Massachusetts. Built by Jonathan Fairebanke for his wife Grace (Lee Smith) and their family in about 1637, it is the oldest surviving timber-frame house in North America. The house was occupied and then passed down through eight generations of the family until the early twentieth century. Over the years the original portion was expanded with additions as the needs of the family grew and as fashions of the times dictated.

Jonathan Fairebanke (Fairbank, Fairbanks) came from Sowerby in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, to Boston, Massachusetts, in the year 1633, and in 1636 settled in Dedham, Massachusetts, where he built the noted "Old Fairbanks House" which is still standing as an ancient landmark, the oldest dwelling house in New England that, for the same period of time, has been continuously owned and occupied by the builder and his lineal descendants.

**Electronic God-Man** · 05-09-2010, 05:16 AM

I don't know much about architecture myself and I'm hoping maybe others that do could enlighten me on the subject. We have lots of colonial buildings still standing and I think it would be interesting to see what influences we can ascertain from images of these buildings, especially in light of where the people that built the buildings came from.

I plan to go state by state starting in New England. More to come from Massachusetts...

**Electronic God-Man** · 05-09-2010, 05:26 AM

Hoxie House

Hoxie House (ca. 1637) in Sandwich, Massachusetts is the oldest house on Cape Cod and one the oldest surviving houses in Massachusetts.

The saltbox house was built in the mid-seventeenth century and occupied around 1675 by Rev. John Smith and his family. In the mid-nineteenth century, Abraham Hoxie, a whaling captain, purchased the property. The town on Sandwich acquired the home in the 1950s and restored the building.

**Electronic God-Man** · 05-09-2010, 05:43 AM

Richard Sparrow House

The Richard Sparrow House is a historic house at 42 Summer Street in Plymouth, Massachusetts and the oldest surviving house in Plymouth.

The house was built around 1640 by Richard Sparrow, an English surveyor who arrived in Plymouth in 1636. He was granted a 16-acre (65,000 m2) tract of land in 1636 on which the house was later built.[2] Sparrow moved to Eastham in 1653. The Richard Sparrow House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

1910

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Workroom at Richard Sparrow House

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**Electronic God-Man** · 05-09-2010, 06:01 AM

Wing Fort House

Wing Fort House is a historic house at Spring Hill Road in East Sandwich, Massachusetts.

The house was built in 1641 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

The Wing Fort House is recognized as the oldest home in New England continuously owned by the same family. Stephen Wing either purchased the homestead from the town of Sandwich, or the town granted him the property, around the time of his first marriage in 1646. His descendants continued to live in the home until 1942, when the last resident (Miss Cora M. Wing) sold the home to the Wing Family of America, Inc.

Tradition states the home was at one time a fort to protect the earliest settlers from the Native Americans. The exterior of the "Old Fort" Room (which is the oldest part of the current structure) is composed of a double wall, which may have been filled in at one time. As the Cape Indians were found to be friendly, the town did not need any fort for protection.

Stephen Wing was the brother of my ancestor, John Wing. Their father was from Banbury, Oxford, England and their mother from Wherwell, Hampshire, England.

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**Electronic God-Man** · 05-09-2010, 06:16 AM

The Witch House

The Witch House (also called the Jonathan Corwin House), was the home of Judge Jonathan Corwin and is the only structure still standing in Salem, Massachusetts with direct ties to the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. The house was bought by Judge Corwin, in 1675, when he was 34 years old and he lived there for more than forty years. Corwin is buried in the nearby Broad Street Cemetery. The house remained in the Corwin family until the mid-1800s.

As a local magistrate and civic leader, Corwin was called upon to investigate the claims of diabolical activity when a surge of witchcraft accusations arose in Salem and neighboring communities. He took the place of Judge Nathaniel Saltonstall, who resigned after the execution of Bridget Bishop. Corwin served on the Court of Oyer and Terminer, which ultimately sent nineteen to the gallows. All nineteen refused to admit to witchcraft and maintained their innocence.

The house is an excellent example of 17th-century architecture. To this day historians have not come to a conclusion as to when it was built. Jonathan Corwin's descendants claim the house was built in 1642. Some Victorian scholars alleged that the house was built between 1620–1630, and that Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island resided in the house in the 1630s. However most historians believe the house was built between in the 1660s or 1670s.

Despite rumors to the contary, no interrogations or trials were ever conducted in the Witch House. There are no documents in which an accused is demanded to be brought to Judge Corwin's home, nor is it likely the judge would have used his own home as a place to conduct legal proceedings of this nature. Interrogations were done at either the Old Meetinghouse or Ingersall's Tavern.

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**Electronic God-Man** · 05-09-2010, 06:30 AM

General Israel Putnam House

General Israel Putnam House is the historic Danvers, Massachusetts home recorded in the National Register of Historic Places; interestingly, the historic plaque on the front door names it Thomas Putnam House. The names are indicative of two of the more notable members of the Putnam family: Israel Putnam, the famous general of the American Revolution who was born there and Thomas Putnam, who built the home circa 1648.

The house was built on 100 acres (0.40 km2) of farmland owned by Thomas Putnam, and occupied by the Putnam family for over three centuries. In 1692, Joseph Putnam, the resident of the house at that time, spoke out against the hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials. His son, Major General Israel Putnam, commander of the colonial troops at the Battle of Bunker Hill, was born in the house on January 7, 1718. In 1991 the Putnam Family descendants relinquished its stewardship of the home to the Danvers Historical Society.

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**Electronic God-Man** · 05-09-2010, 06:39 AM

James Blake House

The James Blake House is the oldest house in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is in Edward Everett Square.

The house was built around 1661 by James Blake, an English immigrant. Blake used a Western English style of medieval architecture in constructing the house. The house left the Blake family in 1825 when it was acquired by the Williams family. In 1891 the City of Boston acquired the house. In 1896 the Dorchester Historical Society acquired the property from the City and moved the house less than 500 feet from its original location of Massachusetts Avenue.

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**Electronic God-Man** · 05-09-2010, 06:57 AM

Pickering House

The Pickering House (circa 1651) is a Colonial house, owned and occupied by ten successive generations of the Pickering family including Colonel Timothy Pickering. This house is believed to be the oldest house in the United States continuously occupied by one family. It is located at 18 Broad Street, Salem, Massachusetts and is open to the public under the auspices of the nonprofit Pickering Foundation.

Although the core house is first period, it has evolved considerably over the years. Architectural historian Abbott Lowell Cummings, in his Architecture in Colonial Massachusetts, concludes that the right-hand side of today's house was built for John Pickering, Sr., a carpenter, before his death in 1657 upon land granted to him in 1637. This original house was two stories tall, with a single room on each floor, and an entry bay. The left side was then added circa 1671 by his son, John Pickering II. In 1751, Deacon Timothy Pickering raised a rear lean-to up to a full two stories, which is how the house exists today.

In 1841 the front facade was reworked in the Gothic style, with the facade gables probably dating from this time. Many of the house's external features date from this alteration, including the roof finials, round windows in the gables, cornice brackets, and exterior entry porch. Family records also suggest that a passageway was cut through the chimney stack at this time, and that the exterior chimney was remodeled to today's columnar style at this time. The Gothic-style fence with its cut-outs and obelisk finials was also added in this renovation. In 1904 a two-story ell was added to the rear. In 1948, Boston architect Gordon Robb carried out interior restoration work.

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**Electronic God-Man** · 05-09-2010, 07:28 AM

John Alden House

John Alden House is a historic house museum that was purportedly home to John and Priscilla Alden. It is located at 105 Alden Street in Duxbury, Massachusetts. Scholarship variously dates it as built in 1653, or c. 1700.

Alden was ship's cooper on the Mayflower who arrived in Plymouth in 1620 and later moved to Duxbury. Although not a Pilgrim himself, He was an important figure throughout the period of the Plymouth Colony. This house may have used materials from Alden's earlier house which was nearby.

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