james blake house tour

James Blake House

Top ways to experience nearby attractions

• JFK/UMass • 9 min walk

Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.

Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.

Also popular with travelers

James Blake House - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

• (0.44 mi) Courtyard by Marriott Boston-South Boston
• (0.49 mi) Holiday Inn Express Boston, an IHG Hotel
• (0.42 mi) Home2 Suites by Hilton Boston South Bay
• (1.82 mi) Clarendon Square
• (0.29 mi) Boston Homestel
• (0.03 mi) 7-Eleven
• (0.10 mi) Singh's Roti Shop
• (0.06 mi) KFC
• (0.15 mi) 224 Boston Street
• (0.13 mi) Great Wok Restaurants

Dorchester Historical Society

The James Blake House

Architecture, restoration, archaeology.

James Blake House 735 Columbia Road (Richardson Park) Dorchester, MA 02125

Boston's oldest house, the James Blake House, sits on

Dorchester's Columbia Road, about 400 yards from

its original location on what is now Massachusetts

Avenue (where the parking lot of the National Grid 

property is located today). The house is one of only a

few examples of West England country framing in the

United States. Most of the early colonial homes in

Dorchester, such as the Pierce House, were built by housewrights from the south and east of England, where brick and plaster building predominated.  However, the Blake House was built in the manner of the homes of western England, which had long used heavy timber-framing methods. The James Blake House is a two-story, central chimney, gable-roof dwelling of timber-frame construction. It is on a rectangular plan, three bays wide and one bay deep and measures 38 by 20 feet. Built in 1661, the house is one of a relatively small number of its type - the post-Medieval, timber-frame house - surviving anywhere in New England.

Architecture

The James Blake House is a two-story, central chimney, gable-roof dwelling of timber-frame construction. It is on a rectangular plan, three bays wide and one bay deep, and measures 38 by 20 feet. Built in about 1650, the house is one of a relatively small number of its type--the post-Medieval, timber-frame house--surviving anywhere in New England. The house is thought to be one of only a few examples of West England country framing in the United States. Most of the early colonial homes in Dorchester, such as the Pierce House (1683), were built by housewrights from the south and east of England, where brick and plaster building predominated. However, the Blake House was built in the manner of the homes of western England, which had long used more and heavier timber in their framing methods.

The Blake House was built near a spring and tributary to Mill Creek, west of the Five Corners and therefore west of the first Meeting House at Pond and Cottage Streets, on land adjoining that of the Clap family. Its original occupants were James Blake and his wife Elizabeth. James was born in Pitminster, England, in 1624, and emigrated with his parents to Dorchester in the 1630s. He married Elizabeth Clap, the daughter of Deacon Edward Clap and niece of Roger Clap, in 1651. James became allied through marriage to the large Clap family whose activities of daily life in the New World were based upon practices brought from their English West Country

background. Their agrarian economy included dairy farming with milk and butter production; growing wheat and corn and establishing grist mills; establishing orchards for apples and cider; and maintaining sheep for wool. The tanning business also depended on the rearing of animals. Many of the implements of everyday life were made of leather including harnesses, straps, belts, shoes, clothing, saddlebags and bookbindings.

The Blake House became the primary focal point of a very comfortable and well-to-do 91-acre estate that included a 10-acre home farm with at least two outbuildings and orchard, yards and garden. Deacon James Blake held public office, becoming a constable, town selectman, and deputy to the General Court as well as a pillar of the First Church, serving as Deacon for 14 years and later Ruling Elder for about the same length of time.

In 1700 the house passed to James and Elizabeth's son John, who in turn bequeathed it to his two sons, John and Josiah, in 1718. The estate was settled by subdivision in 1748, and from that time the east and west halves of the house were occupied by separate families for over a century, one half being sold out of the Blake family in 1772 to a neighboring Clap relation. Over the course of time, the house and surrounding land was used for agriculture, for a spinning and weaving shop, and for a tanning business.

In 1825 Caleb and Eunice (Clapp) Williams purchased the west half of the house from Rachel Blake, the sole surviving heir, and in 1829 they acquired the east half by inheritance. The house remained in the Williams family until 1892 when it was acquired by George and Antonia Quinsler who in 1895 sold it to the City of Boston.

The City government acquired the land to complete a large parcel for the building of municipal greenhouses and to widen Massachusetts Avenue as a complement to Olmsted's Emerald Necklace, which included the creation of Columbia Road as a boulevard from Franklin Park to the South Boston waterfront.

The Dorchester Historical Society became interested in saving the James Blake House when it became clear that the house was to be demolished. The 1895-96 move and restoration of the Blake House was an historically significant project in the Richardson Park section of Dorchester, which was just then becoming rapidly urbanized, with new street widenings, new streetcar lines, the creation of new parks, the building of Columbia Road, and new landmarks including new churches. Patriotic feelings associated with the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago, combined with growing interest in America's history and the development of new architectural styles that were built upon American motifs, resulted in a frenzied interest in the Colonial Revival. The 1890s preservation and restoration of the colonial Blake House was undertaken with great care and devotion and has become historically and architecturally significant in itself, demonstrating the Colonial Revival interpretation of First Period architecture.

The Society convinced the City to grant the Society the house and the right to move it to Richardson Park at its own expense. By January, 1896, the house had been moved to its new location by a local building mover for $295. This seems to be the first recorded instance of a historic private residence being moved from its original site in order to rescue it from demolition. The Blake House is a museum of early American Home construction and is studied by students of architectural history.

Twenty-first Century Restoration

By the year 2000 the oldest existing house in Boston, the James Blake House required major repairs, and the Massachusetts Historical Commission awarded a grant for exterior renovations. The Dorchester Historical Society employed preservation consultant John Goff of Historic Preservation and Design to prepare a Historic Structures Report on the history, architecture and preservation needs of the Blake House, which was built in 1661, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Report is a wonderful tool, bringing the history of the house and its surroundings into one volume and identifying the extensive and essential restoration work required to bring this ancient house into a historically accurate and weather-tight condition. The report was the cornerstone of the grant application to the Massachusetts Historical Commission.

In consultation with John Goff and the Massachusetts Historical Commission the Dorchester Historical Society found Jerry Eide of Hilltown Restoration, to take on the carpentry and masonry portions of the projects. The repair of the leaded-glass was completed by Glenn Shalan from North Adams. The project was completed in June, 2007. The Society received an award from the Massachusetts Historical Commission and the Boston Preservation Alliance for its work on the Blake House.

In 2007, Ellen Berkland, at that time both the city's archaeologist and the caretaker of the Blake House, performed an archaeological dig and found a huge number of artifacts and a truncated shell midden, providing evidence of a Native American presence at the site.  Read about the archaeological excavation at the Blake House  here !

Dendrochronology

The Massachusetts Historical Commission also funded the extraction and testing of cores from beams in the building to determine the age of the house. The results of the test showed that the trees from which the timbers were hewn were felled in the winter of 1660-1661, giving a fairly-certain construction date of 1661.

Ground-Penetrating Radar

In 2007 Allen Gontz of the Department of Environmental, Earth and Ocean Sciences at UMass Boston performed a Ground Penetrating Radar survey of the Blake House property. It was known that a pond once filled the area in front of the Blake House where Columbia Road and Pond Street intersect. The survey found an edge of the early pond in the front yard of the Blake House.

• Senior Living
• Wedding Experts
• Private Schools
• Home Design Experts
• Real Estate Agents
• Mortgage Professionals
• Find a Private School
• 50 Best Restaurants
• Be Well Boston
• Find a Dentist
• Find a Doctor
• Guides & Advice
• Best of Boston Weddings
• Find a Wedding Expert
• Real Weddings
• Bubbly Brunch Event
• Properties & News
• Find a Home Design Expert
• Find a Real Estate Agent
• Find a Mortgage Professional
• Real Estate
• Home Design
• Best of Boston Home
• Arts & Entertainment
• Boston magazine Events
• Latest Winners
• Best of Boston Soirée
• NEWSLETTERS

If you're a human and see this, please ignore it. If you're a scraper, please click the link below :-) Note that clicking the link below will block access to this site for 24 hours.

Seven House Museums to Visit Within City Limits

Here's where to admire architecture and antique furniture.

Sign up for our weekly home and property newsletter, featuring homes for sale, neighborhood happenings, and more.

Photo by Ellen Gerst

This grand Federal-style mansion was designed by renowned architect Charles Bulfinch. Built as the first of three homes for former mayor Harrison Gray Otis in 1796, the house is one of the last remaining structures from what used to be Bowdoin Square. Thanks to Boston’s period of urban renewal in the 1960s, the historical home now straddles Beacon Hill and the West End. Inside, its paint colors and carpet designs are historically accurate—and they’re surprisingly vibrant.

Otis House Museum, 141 Cambridge St., historicnewengland.org .

The Nichols House Museum photo via Wikimedia/ Creative Commons

Nichols House

Beacon Hill’s other Bulfinch-built house museum was once home to suffragist and landscape architect Rose Standish Nichols. Among her many accomplishments, she was a founding member of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom in 1915, which has a mission to unite all women for peace, disarmament, and gender equality.

Nichols inherited the Federal-style home on Mount Vernon Street from her father in 1935, and ruled the roost until her death in 1960. She never married, but often hosted salons at the house, gathering intellectuals to  discuss  and debate progressive ideas over afternoon tea. Nichols intended for the house to be left as a museum after her death, and since then, it’s shown Bostonians what life was like in Beacon Hill at the turn of the century. Tour highlights include furniture handmade by Rose’s sister, Margaret Nichols Shurcliff.

Nichols House Museum, 55 Mount Vernon St.,  nicholshousemuseum.org .

Photo by John Woolf for A Glimpse of the Past at the Gibson House

Gibson House

For a snapshot of life in Victorian Boston, step through the double doors of the Gibson House on Beacon Street. Though you wouldn’t know it from the outside, this brownstone conceals a historical interior that hasn’t been altered since 1954. That’s thanks to Charles Gibson Jr., who in the 1930s decided he should preserve the contents and opulence of his family’s 1860 home. A guided hour tour through the house’s four levels features a one-of-a-kind Victorian ventilator shaft (you have to see it to understand its majesty), “Japanese Leather” wallpaper, a 15-piece bedroom set, and more.

Photo by Ed Lyons on Flickr/Creative Commons

James Blake House

Built in 1661, the James Blake House is the oldest house in all of Boston. It’s tucked between Upham’s Corner and Columbia Point on a sliver of green space, though it’s about 400 yards from its original location on what is currently Massachusetts Avenue. The home’s original owner, a minister named James Blake, settled in Dorchester in the 1630s. He built the house in the Western English style, now a rare sight in New England. The Dorchester Historical Society only offers tours of the house on the third Sunday of each month, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

James Blake House, 735 Columbia Rd., Dorchester, dorchesterhistoricalsociety.org .

Photo by Jules Struck

Prescott House

This impressive Federal-style construction dreamed up by architect Asher Benjamin flaunts unique rounded bay fronts and white columns. It was built overlooking the Common in 1808 for a merchant named James Smith Colburn, and on land once owned by portrait painter John Singleton Copley to boot. In 1845, historian William Hickling Prescott moved into the house, and about a century later, it was purchased by the National Society of Colonial Dames. The home, also known as the Headquarters House, is now open as a house museum on select Wednesdays and Saturdays.

William Hickling Prescott House, 55 Beacon St., Boston, nscdama.org .

Photo by Leslee on Flickr/ Creative Commons

Ayer Mansion

Just down the street from the Prescott House, the Ayer Mansion is the only extant home designed by artist Louis Comfort Tiffany. Perhaps best known for his kaleidoscopic stained glass works, Tiffany worked his magic on not just the windows, but on stone and glass mosaics. The famed Gilded Age artist also clad the home in exterior mosaics—only the Ayer Mansion and his private home feature original Tiffany exterior work. Tours of the 1902 mansion are offered at least one Saturday and one Wednesday per month. Though the museum is house is closed to the public for maintenance during August, a tour schedule is regularly available on ayermansion.org .

Frederick Ayer Mansion, 395 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, ayermansion.org . 

Photo by Tim Sackton on Flickr/ Creative Commons

Shirley Eustis House

William Shirley, the Royal Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony until 1756, spent his summers at “Shirley Place,” which he built in 1751. It also served as the summer home of William Eustis, a post-Revolution Massachusetts governor who took office in 1822. Now called the Shirley-Eustis House, the place is one of the last remaining Royal Colonial Governors’ mansions in the country. Tours of the mansion, the carriage house, and the grounds are offered 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday through Saturday until Labor Day. Offseason tours can arranged by appointment.

Shirley-Eustis House, 33 Shirley St., Roxbury,  shirleyeustishouse.org .

• Architecture

You Can Own a Very Special Barnstable Barn for $1.75 Million

Real Estate Showdown: A Condo in the South End vs. a Weston Single-Family

On the Market: A Nature Lover’s Utopia in Topsfield

You Can Own a Very Special Cape Cod Barn for $1.75 Million

On the market: a nature lover’s utopia in topsfield, massachusetts, on the market: a cinematic estate in stowe with a helicopter pad, real estate showdown: a newton colonial vs. a lexington home, so you want to live in lynnfield, massachusetts, in this section.

About James Blake House

Historic Architecture, Architecture, Interesting Places, Other Buildings And Structures

The James Blake House is the oldest house in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The address is 735 Columbia Road, in Edward Everett Square. This neighborhood of Dorchester is a few blocks from the Dorchester Historical Society which now owns the building. The house is located just a block from Massachusetts Avenue. Tours are given on the third Sunday of the month.

Nearest places in James Blake House

Clapp Houses

Captain Lemuel Clap House

William Clapp House

Dorchester North Burying Ground

Cemeteries, Historical Places, Historic, Burial Places, Interesting Places, Historic Districts

Upham's Corner Market

St. Mary's Episcopal Church (Dorchester, Massachusetts)

Religion, Churches, Interesting Places, Other Churches

Pilgrim Congregational Church (Boston, Massachusetts)

William Monroe Trotter House

Historical Places, Historic, Interesting Places, Historic Districts

Shirley–Eustis House

Benedict Fenwick School

South Boston Boat Clubs Historic District

Historic, Historical Places, Interesting Places, Historic Districts

Governor Shirley Square Historic District

Old Harbor Reservation Parkways

Sarah J. Baker School

Mount Pleasant Historic District (Boston, Massachusetts)

Moreland Street Historic District

Eliot Congregational Church

Roxbury Presbyterian Church

Saint Augustine Chapel and Cemetery

Cemeteries, Religion, Churches, Historic, Burial Places, Interesting Places, Other Churches

Dearborn School

Dorchester Heights

Fields Corner Municipal Building

Congregation Adath Jeshurun

Religion, Churches, Synagogues, Interesting Places, Other Churches

Charles Street African Methodist Episcopal Church

Hibernian Hall (Boston, Massachusetts)

Arlington Street Church

Eliot Burying Ground

Cemeteries, Historic, Burial Places, Interesting Places

Lawrence Model Lodging Houses

Cathedral of St. George Historic District

Religion, Cathedrals, Interesting Places

Copyright © 2024 TourMini. All rights reserved.

• Cookie Policy

Terms and Conditions - Privacy Policy

What's It Like To Live In Boston's Oldest Home?

Set back from Columbia Road in Dorchester, on a small plot of grass in the heart of a bustling neighborhood just outside Edward Everett Square, is one of those old buildings you tend to see around here. It's not unremarkable, but it's not particularly attention-grabbing, either. But this simple, two-story structure, called the James Blake House , is special. It's the single oldest home in the entire city — built in 1661 when Boston was a village of just 3,000 people. But the coolest thing? Somebody lives here.

For three years now, Barbara Kurze has been a live-in caretaker for this historic home. It was purchased by the city in 1891, then saved from demolition by the Dorchester Historical Society, which bought it a few years later and moved it about 400 yards from its original location.

"This is, like, a really cool place — just the history," Kurze told me during a recent visit to Blake House, when I asked her why she decided to become a caretaker here. "I’m not sure I really thought through the move and the living here. That came after the fact."

But live here she does, as caretakers have at the Blake House since the 1910s.

I sat and chatted with Kurze about life in Boston's oldest home in the house’s front room, today called the museum room. Here, there are displays with info about the original owners — England’s James and Elizabeth Blake — and a scale model of the building, one of only a few examples of a post-Medieval timber frame-style house in the country. 

"The amount of handcrafting that went into this house, it was all done by hand," said Kurze. "Some of it took a while, and that was OK. People were willing to wait."

Rounding out the room are a variety of items, not original to the house, but meant to evoke the ambiance of its earliest years — including a conspicuously placed musket that caught my eye.

"Yes, it’s a real musket," said Kurze. "I’m pretty sure it does not work."

What is original is the very essence of the building. The walls have recently undergone extensive analysis and — to everyone’s surprise — only needed the most minor of repairs.

"Most of the 1661 plaster is still with us — the original lath and plaster [which was] a mixture of mud, clay, dried plant matter. Apparently, they burned animal bones to strengthen it," Kurze said. "Even better news: The plaster structure is super, super sound."

And then there are building's venerable bones: Dozens of handsome, sturdy exposed timber beams that have survived more than 350 years.

"When these trees came down, they did analysis, and so we know they were at least 400 years old," said Kurze. 

That's 400 years old in the 1600s. That means the trees used to build this house were growing strong in the area in the 1200s. You know, when Genghis Khan was expanding his Mongol Empire and St. Francis was establishing an Order of Friars near Assisi. 

It’s under these august beams that Kurze lives her day-to-day. When at home, her duties are simply to keep an eye on things, watching for signs of damage or emerging issues.

Aside from the museum room, the place is her home: A curious mix of the modern and the post-medieval. There are current-day creature comforts, like electricity and indoor plumbing. 

"It does seem kind of odd sometimes, and then we have this modern stuff here," remarked Kurze as she showed me her 21st century refrigerator in her 17th century kitchen.

But there are also plenty of quirks. The ceilings are notably low. Kurze can't hang pictures or shelves on the historic walls, she can’t burn candles, and there are no closets. And while there is oil heat for the winter, in the summer, she cools the place just like the Blakes would have.

"If you are one of the caretakers here ... you will never get to have air conditioning," Kurze told me as she threw open a leaded glass, diamond-shaped pane window for some ventilation. "There is no way you are ever going to get an air conditioning unit in this window.

Kurze says she adjusted to her semi-homestead life here pretty quickly. But one thing she never gets used to? Surprise visitors. Despite the fact that she comes and goes, takes out the trash regularly, and the lights are often on at night, plenty assume the place is empty.

"It’s not infrequently that you’ll be looking out a window and somebody is staring back at you," said Kurze, laughing. 

Still, despite the unique challenges of life as a caretaker of a 350-year-old house, or maybe because of them, Kurze is happy here and proud to call Boston’s oldest home her  home.

"It does feel sort of special and I do feel good about looking after the house," she said. "It may not look much, but just the fact that it survived this long and you can still visit it, that’s really cool."

The James Blake House is located at 735 Columbia Rd. in Dorchester. Kurze leads a tour every third Sunday of the month, if you want to get a look inside. I’m always looking for story ideas, so tell me what you’ve been curious about lately! Email me at [email protected] . 

Explore Topics:

More lifestyle.

Mussels Triestina from Felidia Cookbook

Risotto with Mushrooms

Garides Kerkyraikes – Corfiot Shrimp

Grilled Stone Fruit Cobbler with Cinnamon Vanilla Greek Yogurt

Edited by Matthew J. Kiefer

The James Blake House: A Documentary Study

T HE relatively small number of extant seventeenth-century houses in Massachusetts and the even smaller number which predate 1660 make a thorough investigation of each critical to an understanding of seventeenth-century Massachusetts architecture. The 1650 construction date traditionally assigned to the James Blake House in Dorchester, placing it within the first generation of New England houses built by carpenters born and probably trained in England, makes the house particularly worthy of scholarly attention.

This brief review of surviving documents relating to the Blake House examines published sources, public records, photographs, and other relevant documents for information concerning the house’s construction date, its ownership history, and the sequence of physical changes leading up to and including its restoration by the Dorchester Historical Society beginning in 1895. Though it fails to confirm or refute a 1650 construction date, this study positively links the house to the Blake family in the seventeenth century, establishes an unbroken chain of ownership from the Blake family to the Society, and reveals the origins of the house’s 1650 attribution.

the published tradition

The generally accepted 1650 construction date is the product of a published tradition over one hundred and twenty years old. Its first-known mention is in 1857, by Samuel Blake (a descendant of the builder of the house), who cites “tradition . . . and . . . the most careful examination of old documents” as evidence that the house was built by James Blake, but gives no source for his contention that “the house was doubtless built previous to 1650.” 26 A second source of the same year confuses the house with another, also owned by James Blake; hence the 1680 date of this source may be disregarded. 27

Of these two contemporaneous accounts, most subsequent writers have adhered to the former’s 1650 date. Such books as Ebenezer Clap’s 1859 History of the Town of Dorchester, Massachusetts and William Dana Orcutt’s Good Old Dorchester , published in 1893, repeat the 1650 date without either challenge or corroboration. Thus, by the time of acquisition of the house in 1895 by the Dorchester Historical Society, the date had become generally accepted—in spite of the scant evidence supporting it.

An account written for the Society by James H. Stark in 1907 quotes an excerpt from the Dorchester Town Records of 1669, when at a general meeting the town voted to build a new house for the minister “to be such an house as James Blaks house is. . . .” 28 It then describes the house in dimensions which closely correspond to the present-day house, thus providing the first documented evidence of the building’s age.

A final explanation for the 1650 attribution date is offered in a 1960 pamphlet published by the Society on the subject of its three houses, which states that “it was probably in anticipation of a marriage that James Blake built his house.” 29 Though the date of this event is apparently not recorded, it is known that the first child of James and Elizabeth (Clap) Blake was born in 1652.

ownership history

The James Blake House has been owned and maintained for over eighty years by the Dorchester Historical Society which, following authorization from the Board of Aldermen and mayoral approval, acquired the house in late 1895 from the City of Boston and moved it to its present location in Richardson Park. Interestingly, this is the first recorded instance in New England of a historic building being moved in order to prevent its demolition.

The City had acquired the house on its original site—just west of Massachusetts Avenue about four hundred yards to the northwest of its present location (Fig. 17)—from George J. and Antonia Quinsler in September of 1895, for $8000. The conveyance included nearly 11,000 square feet of land, adjacent to other parcels the City was acquiring for clearance to build municipal greenhouses. 30

Antonia Quinsler had gained title to the land in June of 1892 from Josiah F. Williams, 31 who had inherited it upon his mother’s death the previous year. Jane Williams’ inventory lists her estate as consisting of a “House, barn, and about 11,000 feet of land,” valued at $2000. 32 Jane’s husband, Caleb Williams (1802–1842), a tanner, died intestate; however, an 1843 inventory describes his “House and land situate in Dorchester[,] land ten feet wide around the House and right of passage way to the same,” 33 valued at $450.

This extremely small lot was enlarged by his widow the following year through a purchase from the Trustees of the Hawes Fund of a “doughnut-shaped” lot eighty by one hundred feet in extent which surrounded but did not include the houselot itself. 34 This parcel of land had descended to the Hawes Fund through Benjamin Hawes, who had acquired it from his uncle, John Hawes, in 1828. 35

Jane Williams’ 1843 inheritance of the house and 1844 purchase of the surrounding land ended a period of nearly one hundred and thirty years when the east and west halves of the house and the land surrounding its immediate lot had all been under separate ownership. The process of consolidation had actually begun in 1832, when Caleb Williams purchased from his brother Charles, a laborer, for the sum of $150 “one undivided half part of the land under and ten feet around the dwelling house at present occupied by the said Caleb . . . with all the privileges of passing to and from and around said house and barn, as reserved in a certain deed from Ebenezer Blake to Elisha Clap conveying the other land around said house, and which other land is now owned by the heirs of John Hawes.” 36

17. Detail of Edward Everett Square, Dorchester, Mass., showing original and present locations of the Blake house. G. W. Bromley & Co., Atlas of the City of Boston  . . . (Philadelphia, 1918), plates 2 and 4.

John Hawes therefore owned not only the land surrounding the house, ultimately sold to Jane Williams in 1844, but also a part of the house itself. His 1819 will, probated upon his death in 1829, mentions each of these pieces of property separately. Clause number 14 of this will devised to his nephew Benjamin Hawes “the use and improvement of the dwelling house in Dorchester, which I lived in last before I removed from Dorchester to South Boston, with the land adjoining said dwelling house, being about nine or ten acres (excepting such part of the premises, as is herein devised to Eunice Williams). . . .” 37

The following clause of the will states, “I give and devise to Eunice Williams, wife of Caleb Williams, my part of a dwelling house, situate on the land described in the clause last preceding, now occupied partly by the said Caleb Williams, and partly by Elizabeth Fearn and Rachel Blake, together with the land under said house, and a right of passage to the same sufficient for a Cart way as is now used, with the privilege of the well, and a passage ten feet around the house. . . .” 38 Eunice and Caleb Williams were the parents of Caleb Williams, the tanner whose widow, Jane, subsequently bought the first-mentioned parcel from Hawes’ estate.

The portion of the house not bequeathed in the above will, but mentioned as being occupied by Elizabeth Fearn and Rachel Blake in 1819, was purchased by the senior Caleb and his wife, Eunice Williams, in 1825 for the sum of $100 from Rachel Blake. 39 The deed reserves to Rachel Blake the right to occupy the house for the term of her natural life—which, as fate would have it, was approximately one month. Thus at the time of the execution of John Hawes’ will in 1829, the entire house was under the ownership of Caleb and Eunice Williams, who had occupied half of it since at least 1819.

It is at this point that the path of ownership becomes somewhat more labyrinthine. The portion of the house owned by Rachel Blake until 1825 will be traced first, in order to help illuminate the more complicated Hawes side.

Rachel Blake was born in 1741, one of five children of John Blake, cordwainer, and Abigail (Preston) Blake. Upon her father’s death in 1772, the absence of a will caused his estate, which included the subject house and barn, as well as some thirteen acres of surrounding land, to be divided equally among his children. 40 Each of the individual shares of the surrounding land was sold off separately at different times, and by surviving her four siblings Rachel ultimately gained full possession of the house. Elizabeth Fearn, mentioned in Hawes’ will as a co-occupant of the house, was Rachel’s widowed sister and the last of her siblings to pre-decease her, dying in 1817.

John Hawes, the previously established owner of the remaining half of the house in 1819, purchased it in 1784 from the heirs of his wife’s former husband, Elisha Clap, who had died nine years earlier. 41 In 1772, Clap had purchased from Ebenezer Blake, a weaver, for 200 pounds, “my easterly end of a dwelling house and a shop adjoining thereto [,] . . . and my easterly end or half of the barn standing being upon [a piece] of land which peice containeth seven acres one quarter and twenty two rods . . . allowing and reserving out of this piece of land for my uncle Mr. John Blake his heirs and assigns forever Convenient yard room about his part of the house for laying his wood and other necessities and the use of the way from the house to the highway and barn where it is now used. . . .” 42

It should be noted that these rights reserved by Ebenezer Blake for his uncle remained attached to later conveyances of the property (in slightly modified form) until at least 1825, after which they were specified to be a distance of ten feet around the house. This remained the bounds of the houselot until Jane Williams enlarged it in 1844.

The above-quoted deed is also significant for its reference to John Blake as the owner of the remaining half of the house, which establishes a familial link between the two separate ownership shares in the house.

Ebenezer Blake had inherited his half of the house and barn from his father, Josiah, a weaver, who died intestate in 1747, and whose inventory lists his interest in the house and surrounding land as being valued at 700 pounds. 43 Josiah was the brother of John Blake mentioned in the above deed; hence the house was under the split ownership of two brothers prior to 1747.

John and Josiah were the two youngest of seven children of John Blake (1657–1718), who died intestate with an inventory listing his “Dwelling House” as valued at 50 pounds. The administration of his estate divided the house between his two surviving sons, with sisters Hannah and Elizabeth given occupancy rights until their marriage, when the entire estate would revert to the male heirs. 44

John Blake was one of six children of James and Elizabeth Blake. Thought to be the original builder of the house which now stands in Richardson Park, James’ 1700 will devises to his son John “my Dwelling House and Barns, Orchard, Yard, Garden, and ten acres of land adjoining. . . .” 45 This is the earliest-known reference in the deed or probate records which can confidently be linked to the same house.

James Blake was born in Pitminster, England, in 1624, the son of William and Agnes Blake, who, according to tradition, brought their family of five to America on the Mary and John , which landed in Dorchester in 1630. William Blake, who is mentioned in the Dorchester Town Records for the first time in 1637, died there in 1663, his wife in 1678. William Blake’s will, written in 1661, simply divided his estate in half, assigning one part to his five children, and the other to his “beloved wife.” The 1663 inventory of his estate includes only the simple listing: “his house and lands,” valued at 154 pounds and 15 shillings. 46

18. Division map of John Blake and the heirs of Josiah Blake, April 22, 1748, showing the Blake house and barn. Courtesy Dorchester Historical Society.

No further records have yet been discovered to describe this house more precisely, or document its passage to James Blake, one of four possible heirs. Although the Town Records do make occasional refference to lands granted to or owned by William Blake or, after 1657/8, James Blake, their topographical references are no longer decipherable. It is therefore impossible to say whether the present house was built by James, or inherited from his father’s estate, and the earliest documented mention of the present-day house remains the 1669 reference in the Town Records to building a minister’s house “to be such an house as James Blaks house is.” 47

structural history and restoration

A somewhat sketchy structural history of the Blake House has been pieced together from published records, photographs, prints, and other documents. In particular, the records of the Society yield some interesting information about the restoration of the house and the difficulties resulting therefrom.

The precise measurements which follow the aforementioned reference to the house in the Dorchester Town Records confirm that it was originally a simple, four-square structure basically the same in appearance and plan as it is today. The earliest-known graphic representation of the house is a thumbnail sketch in 1748 on a division map of the lands of John Blake and Josiah Blake’s heirs (Fig. 18). This clearly shows not only a two-story ell at the left-hand end of the house, with a pitched roof and separate entrance, but also the suggestion of dormer windows in the front slope of the main house roof. Structural evidence of facade gables, which apparently had survived until 1748, still remain in the attic of the original structure.

Samuel Blake’s account in 1857 contains the next extant representation of the house, a print which shows no facade gables and, in addition to the ell at the left, a story-and-a-half gable-roofed ell at the right end as well which the author claims “has been added within the last quarter of a century.” 48 The outline of the house on an 1874 real estate atlas clearly shows it to have an ell projecting from each end. A series of photographs in the collections of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities and the Dorchester Historical Society, several of which were taken shortly before the relocation of the house, confirm that it retained both of the ells until the time of acquisition by the latter Society (Fig. 19).

19. Blake house before removal to new site. Photo, William H. Halliday Collection, before 1896, courtesy Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.

20. Blake house after removal to new site and restoration. Photo, William H. Halliday Collection, c. 1896, courtesy Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.

The Dorchester Historical Society, which had been incorporated in 1891 and held its first meeting in 1893, undertook the preservation of the Blake House as the first major project of a fledgling organization. Introduced to the plight of the house in June of 1895 by a letter from Doctor Clarence Blake (presumably a descendant of the builder) who offered $500 toward the cost of moving it to a safe location, the Society had within four months secured an agreement with the City of Boston granting the Society the house and the right to move it to nearby Richardson Park at its own expense. 49

A major subscription drive (destined to be long-lived) was begun to raise funds for the undertaking. By January of 1896 the house had been moved and re-silled—with both ells having been removed in the process—by a local building mover for $295. The move was accomplished, according to Dr. Blake’s recollection twenty years later, by dismantling the chimney and jacking up the house onto a horse winch. 50

Although the name of the moving company and some of the craftsmen involved in the subsequent restoration are identified in the Society’s records, the director of the restoration is unclear. Dr. Blake mentions the assistance of a Mr. Hodgson, “a well known Dorchester architect. . . .” This seems to have been Charles Hodgson, an active member of the Society, who lived near Richardson Park between 1895 and 1907, after which he moved to New Rochelle, New York.

Dr. Blake gives some indication of the actual restoration process in the following passage:

We then tried to have the material in the house duplicated as near as possible to the original material and it was necessary to even send to Holland for the glass in the windows because there was none of its kind in this country. The windows were of the lattice type and on close examination it will even be found that the shingles in the roof are fastened by the original nails which will give you a fine idea of how well built the houses were in those days. The same hinges are even on the doors. 51

Because of continuing difficulties in raising funds to pay off debts incurred during the moving and gradual restoration, the Society voted in September of 1898 to float a $1000 bond issue to cover its $800 debt and advance the restoration. However, the Society’s continued difficulty in paying off its debts suggests that the bond issue was a less than raging success. Not until 1907 do the records indicate the Society’s indebtedness to have been discharged.

The actual physical changes to the house resulting from this restoration effort can be partially deduced from contemporary accounts and photographs. In addition to removing both side ells, then-existing double-hung sash windows were replaced with diamond-leaded casements (which may have been shortened slightly); wood shingles replaced clapboards; and a panelled door was removed in favor of a batten door “in the ancient pattern.” The house was placed on a stone foundation, with the front sill raised about one foot above grade in the front.

Structural evidence indicates that then-existing door openings between the house and ell on the present left end of the house, probably enlargements themselves of original windows, were re-converted to windows after the ell was removed. Finally, it should be noted that the pre-restoration chimney, which was apparently later than the house itself, may have remained partially intact during the moving process. Arrived at the new site, this masonry feature underwent repairs, including a new foundation, at which time also recessed arches were added to the front and back of a newly created chimney top.

Although the exterior restoration had been accomplished fairly quickly, restoration of the interior of the house proceeded gradually, beginning with the two ground-floor rooms. It was not until 1910 that the two upstairs chambers were completed and opened to the public. All that can be said of the details of the interior restoration process, based on documentary evidence, is that it included the stripping, staining, and polishing of exposed oak framing; the replacement of most of the structure’s sills and the bottoms of the posts with new oak which was stained and chamfered to match the original timbers; and the “restoration” of the “antique fireplaces.”

Any further determination of exactly how much of the present-day fabric of the house is original and how much the result of this early and well-intentioned restoration effort must be based on careful physical analysis. It is hoped that the claim of a Boston Herald reporter in 1911 that “every piece of old material that could be kept is still in use” will prove true. 52

1. This paper is in large part a distillation of two research reports prepared for the Paul Revere Memorial Association which remain in manuscript form: “History of the Property of Paul Revere Memorial Association,” by William Lebovich, 1973; and “The Early History of the Paul Revere House, North Square, Boston,” by this author, 1974. Both reports are heavily documented; copies of both are available for reference at the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. Material drawn from these reports will not be specifically footnoted here; footnotes will be limited to the identification of the sources of direct quotations and the documentation of material not included in either of the earlier reports. Readers interested in a structural analysis of the Revere House (as opposed to the documentary study summarized here) are referred to two reports prepared for the Paul Revere Memorial Association by Frederic C. Detwiller, Architectural Historian, Consulting Services Group, SPNEA: “Paul Revere Association Properties, 19–31 North Square, Boston, Massachusetts, Architectural-Historical Analysis,” Feb. 1976; and “Paul Revere House, Structure Report,” 2 vols., July 1976. Copies of both are available for study at SPNEA.

2. Joseph Everett Chandler, the architect who restored the house in 1907–1908, speculated on purely physical evidence that the house was built sometime between 1650 and 1680. See his “Notes on the Paul Revere House,” in the Handbook of the Paul Revere Memorial Association (Boston, 1950), p. 18. Later historians, benefiting from documentary research, have usually placed the date between 1676 and 1681. Among the most authoritative of these: Hugh Morrison, Early American Architecture (New York, 1952), pp. 59–62, says c. 1676; while Esther Forbes, Paul Revere and the World He Lived In (Boston, 1942), p. 169, Harold Comer Read, “A Brief History of the Paul Revere Memorial Association and the Paul Revere House,” in the Handbook of the Paul Revere Memorial Association (Boston, 1950), p. 5, and Walter M. Whitehill, Boston: A Topographical History , 2nd ed. (Cambridge, Mass., 1968), p. 15, all say about 1680. Another recognized authority, Fiske Kimball, does not include the Revere House in his Domestic Architecture of the American Colonies and the Early Republic , reprint ed. (New York, 1966), presumably because it failed to meet his rigorous standards for documentation.

3. Forbes and Morrison both suggest John Jeffs as the original owner; Chandler, Read, and Whitehill hazard no guesses.

4. Chandler, in his “Notes,” suggests that the ell predates the main house; Morrison, in Early American Architecture , assumes the ell to have been a later addition; and the staff of SPNEA, in the two reports for the Paul Revere Memorial Association mentioned in note 1, assumed the main house and ell to have been built in one campaign. This was also the consensus reached by the approximately twenty members of the New England Chapter, Society of Architectural Historians, who examined the Revere House during a special meeting held there on Dec. 3, 1974.

5. What information was turned up on the question of original form supports the single-build theory (see note 21 and the section of text to which it pertains for a discussion of this material). A final answer to this question, however, will probably have to await either the discovery of some conclusive structural evidence in the house itself, or the development of a satisfactory dendrochronological sequence for New England, by which means the timbers in the two sections of the house can be accurately dated.

6. Suffolk County Deeds, xiii , 86, Nov. 2, 1681, Turell and Walker to Howard.

7. Increase Mather Family Records, in the John Cotton Bible, Special Collections (Massachusetts Historical Society).

8. Increase Mather Family Records.

9. Increase Mather, “Diary, 1675–6,” Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings , 2nd ser., xiii (1900), 373–374.

10. Increase Mather Family Records.

11. Suffolk County Probate Records, New Series, ii , 352, Dec. 12, 1678, will of Nathaniel Blague.

12. “Records of the Second Church,” ms, iii (Massachusetts Historical Society).

13. “Records of the Second Church,” ms, iv.

14. “Records of the Second Church,” ms, iii .

15. Chandler Robbins, A History of the Second Church, or Old North, in Boston  . . . (Boston, 1852), and Increase Mather, “Autobiography,” American Antiquarian Society, Proceedings , lxxi , pt. ii (1962), 300–301, 310.

16. Elna Jean Mayo, Mayo Genealogy  . . . (Pueblo[?], Colo., 1963), pp. 2–3.

17. The contract for a house of comparable size built for John Williams in the North End in 1678/79 (published in the “Records of the Suffolk County Court, 1671–1680,” pt. ii , Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Collections , xxx [1933], 1125–1126) was taken at £130 “current mony of New England.” Assuming the construction cost of the Revere House to have been roughly similar, that leaves perhaps £ 150– £ 170 of Howard’s £ 300 purchase price to be accounted for by the value of the land and/or the profit of the church. It does not seem that the land alone could have been worth much more than £ 100– £ 125. Consider that the Revere House lot, as Howard purchased it in 1681, contained roughly 3000 sq. feet, with 30 feet of frontage on North Square. In comparison: in 1683, Howard purchased an adjoining interior lot containing about 4000 sq. feet with no buildings upon it, for £65 (Suffolk County Deeds, xiii , 84, July 19, 1683, Martin heirs to Howard); and, in 1689, Howard purchased the parcel next north of the Revere House, containing some 2000 sq. feet with a 20-foot frontage, and with a dwelling house with leanto standing upon it , for £ 110 “current money of New England” (Suffolk County Deeds, xxviii , 182, May 22, 1689, Paine and Woodbry to Howard). The inference I am drawing is that land values on the west side of North Square were not particularly high in the 1680’s; the Second Church seems to have gotten a pretty good price for its house and lot.

18. There is a very slight possibility that this man was lodging with Increase Mather; more probably, he was renting the house next north to Mather’s. See pages 29–33 of my report to the Paul Revere Memorial Association for a thorough discussion of this point.

19. Boston Record Commissioners, First Report: Boston Tax Lists etc., 1674–1694 , 2nd ed. (Boston, 1881), pp. 91–133, gives the complete 1687 tax schedules for all eight Shawmut precincts and the two outlying precincts at Muddy River and Rumney Marsh (now Brookline and Chelsea, but then parts of Boston).

20. I included the figures from Muddy River and Rumney Marsh in my calculation of the town-wide average tax figure, but I purposely left out the Precinct 6 figures, as there seems to have been some confusion in those records. (The figures in the “Acres” and the “Houseing, Mills and Wharfs” columns appear to have been reversed in some sections of Precinct 6.) The deletion of the Precinct 6 figures lowered the total number of individuals taxed for buildings by perhaps 150–170, and similarly lowered the total of those taxed 20d. or more by about 20. If these dubious Precinct 6 figures had been included, they would have had a negligible effect on the 7d. average tax-assessed figure, and would have raised the percentage of individuals taxed 20d. or more by about one percentage point.

21. As a check against the possibility that Howard might have bought a rather modest house from the Second Church and then radically enlarged or improved it between 1681 and 1687, an attempt was made to determine which of the thirty-two other individuals assessed for exactly 20d. under the “Houseing, Mills and Wharfs” head in 1687 could be satisfactorily demonstrated to have owned just one dwelling house in the late seventeenth century. An attempt was then made to establish the price that each of these individuals had paid for that specific house and lot. I am reasonably confident that this procedure has succeeded in two instances—those of William Coleman in Precinct 1, and Isaac Walker in Precinct 3. Coleman purchased his house and land for £ 260 “current money of New England” in 1679 (Suffolk County Deeds, xii , 24, Sept. 29, 1679, Thacher heirs to Coleman), and Walker paid £ 300 “lawful money of New England” for his in 1675 (Suffolk County Deeds, ix , 187, May 5, 1675, Edwards to Walker). These prices are right in line with the £ 300 “current money of New England” paid by Howard, and suggest that, in 1687, Howard’s house remained largely as constructed by the Second Church.

22. Fiske Kimball, Domestic Architecture of the American Colonies and of the Early Republic (New York, 1922), pp. 283–284.

23. Ibid., p. 39.

24. John H. Hooper, “The Royall House and Farm,” The Medford Historical Register , iii (1900), 143.

25. Middlesex County Probate Records, 1st ser., docket no. 19545.

26. Samuel Blake, The Blake Family: A Genealogical History of William Blake of Dorchester and His Descendants  . . . (Boston, 1857), pp. 15–16.

27. Thomas C. Simonds, History of South Boston (Boston, 1857), pp. 31, 264.

28. James H. Stark, The History of the Old Blake House (Boston: Dorchester Historical Society, 1907).

29. Mrs. George A. French, The Dorchester Historical Society and Its Three Houses (Boston: Dorchester Historical Society, 1960), p. 18.

30. Suffolk County Deeds, vol. 2305, p. 30.

31. Ibid., vol. 2066, p. 303.

32. Suffolk County Probate Records, vol. 650, p. 210.

33. Norfolk County Probate Records, docket no. 20436, inventory dated Feb. 4, 1843.

34. Norfolk County Deeds, vol. 151, p. 113.

35. Ibid., lxxxvi , 167, and lxxxvii , 235.

36. Ibid., xciii , 199.

37. Suffolk County Probate Records, vol. 127, p. 339.

39. Norfolk County Deeds, xcvii , 198.

40. Suffolk County Probate Records, lxxii , 33, and lxxiv , 16.

41. Suffolk County Deeds, vol. 143, p. 53.

42. Ibid., vol. 121, p. 143.

43. Suffolk County Probate Records, xli , 451.

44. Ibid., xxi , 555.

45. Ibid., xiv , 192.

46. Samuel Blake, The Blake Family , pp. 12–13.

47. Fourth Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, 1880, Dorchester Town Records , 2nd ed. (Boston, 1883), p. 162.

48. Samuel Blake, The Blake Family , pp. 15–16.

49. Minutes of the Dorchester Historical Society, ms, i , 44–45, 50–51.

50. “Dorchester’s Settlement Appropriately Celebrated,” Dorchester Beacon , undated clipping (June 1916?) in the collections of the Dorchester Historical Society.

52. “Blake House Is Restored,” Boston Herald , Boston, Mass., July 3, 1911.

53. Mr. Peabody’s paper, as presented here, was prepared for publication before his untimely death on March 22, 1977.

54. The Colonial records of Trinity Church are being published at the present time by The Colonial Society of Massachusetts in its regular series of publications. The page proofs of the records are at the printers, and it is, therefore, impossible to give page and volume references to the selections quoted from these records.

55. A summary account in the Church Records entitled “The Cost of the Building of Trinity Church” contains the following entries for 1741:

56. New England Historical and Genealogical Register , xxiv , 55.

57. Charles Shaw, A Topographical and Historical Description of Boston (Boston, 1817), p. 265.

58. “Boston Prints and Printmakers, 1670–1775,” Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Publications , 46 (1973), 43–44.

59. Ibid., pp. 46–49.

60. Samuel G. Drake, The History and Antiquities of the City of Boston (Boston, 1854), opposite p. 654.

61. Phillips Brooks, Trinity Church in The City of Boston 1733–1933 [Historical Sermon] (Boston, 1933), p. 32.

62. Marshall Davidson, American Heritage History of Colonial Antiques (New York, 1967), p. 153. Here the information on the Hancock House is entitled “Lost Landmarks.”

63. Franklin Webster Smith, Designs, Plans and Suggestions for the Aggrandizement of Washington (Washington, 1900, Senate Document No. 209), pp. 37–39. Here Smith, in advocating retention of the White House as the executive mansion, uses the obvious earlier example of the Hancock House demolition.

64. Walter Kendall Watkins, “The Hancock House and Its Builder,” Old-Time New England , xvii (1926–1927), 3–19. Among these are the following: staircase in Greeley Curtis House, Manchester-by-the-Sea; balusters, one from stair and one from roof, two carved capitals in Essex Institute, Salem; larger carved pilaster cap from “Loer Rume” at National Museum, Independence Hall, Philadelphia; modillion from cornice at Massachusetts Historical Society; pendant from staircase, pilaster caps, and additional modillions at SPNEA; front door at the Bostonian Society; balcony at John Hancock Insurance Company, Boston; carved corbel at Martine Cottage, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, home of R. Clipston Sturgis; stone steps at Pinebank, Jamaica Plain, a house designed by John Sturgis in 1869. Many other elements survive as well.

65. For example, architectural measured drawings were the subject of a symposium on November 16, 1973, celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), which was established in 1933 using measured drawings as a prime documentary tool.

66. Arthur Gilman, “The Hancock House and Its Founder,” Atlantic Monthly , xi (1863), 692–707. One of the most important architects in Boston, Gilman (1821–1882) had designed the Arlington Street Church in Boston (1859) and laid out the plan for the Back Bay. With his partner J. F. Gridley Bryant he had just designed the Boston City Hall (1862). He left Boston for New York and Washington in 1867.

67. Ibid., pp. 692, 694, 706. This sort of poetic approach to old architecture is not without parallel. See, for example, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables (1851), Chapter I.

68. Gilman, “The Hancock House and Its Founder.” Descriptions of the house used in this article are based on Gilman unless otherwise noted.

69. Watkins, “The Hancock House and Its Builder,” p. 19. Here it is specified that the east wing, or ballroom, was removed to Allen Street in Boston’s West End by 1818. Its exact date of construction is not documented but may well have been shortly after John Hancock inherited the house from his uncle (who died in 1764) just prior to the Revolution. Figure 1 showing the house without wings is a lithograph published in 1848 after a drawing of the house by A. J. Davis, the New York architect, who may have executed it as early as 1827–1828 on his well-known sketching trip to Boston.

70. “Surely I Did Not Run Away with the Property of the College,” Harvard Bulletin , x (June 1973), 72.

71. John Sturgis was in partnership with Bryant and Gilman in Boston 1861–1866. He was also designing independently during this period.

72. Charles Brigham to John Hubbard Sturgis, Letters to England, April 5, 1869, and April 18, 1870, Sturgis Papers, The Boston Athenæum. The Hancock staircase was stored in the shop of one Poland, a Boston mason who did considerable other work for Sturgis and his partner Charles Brigham (1841–1925). One of these jobs was “Pinebank” in Jamaica Plain (1869), where the stone steps from the Hancock House are now located. This suggests Sturgis may also have purchased the steps. The Post Office building referred to here (destroyed in the fire of 1872) was designed by Arthur B. Mullett, then architect of government building. Arthur Gilman collaborated with Mullett on the design of the State War and Navy Building in Washington 1871–1875.

73. John Sturgis was visiting with his father Russell Sturgis of Boston, who had settled permanently in London as senior partner of Baring’s Bank. The enterprising Brigham was from Watertown, Massachusetts, where he continued to live all his life. Capital for the architectural partnership, which lasted 1866–1886, was provided by Sturgis.

74. For information on Van Brunt, a pupil of Richard Morris Hunt, see William A. Coles, ed., Architecture and Society, The Selected Essays of Henry Van Brunt (Cambridge, 1969).

75. Bainbridge Bunting, “The Greeley Curtis House,” in Architecture of H. H. Richardson and His Contemporaries in Boston and Vicinity (Philadelphia, 1972), pp. 46–47.

76. See Sturgis Papers. Brigham’s letters make clear that Henry Van Brunt’s academic orientation annoyed him.

77. Adolf Placzek, Librarian, Avery Architectural Library, Paper delivered at HABS Symposium on Architectural Measured Drawings (Washington, D.C., November 1973).

78. Vincent Scully, The Shingle Style (New Haven, 1955), pp. 19–33.

79. James K. Colling Sketchbooks (London, RIBA Drawings Collection). Also see James K. Colling to Russell Sturgis, London, March 6, 1867 (Sturgis Papers). Here Colling discusses making measured drawings of Russell Sturgis’ home Mount Felix in Surrey (1838) by Sir Charles Barry at John Sturgis’ request.

80. See, for example: Edmund Sharpe, The Rise and Progress of Decorated Window Tracery (London, 1849) or The Seven Periods of Gothic Architecture (London, 1851); Samuel Carter Hall, The Baronial Halls and Picturesque Edifices of England, 2 vols. (London, 1848).

81. Asa Briggs, William Morris: Selected Writings and Designs (Baltimore, 1962), pp. 13–26. Concern for architectural preservation in England was well advanced by 1877, and Morris, artist, designer, Pre-Raphaelite, poet, and novelist, first formalized the movement.

82. Margaret Henderson Floyd, “A Terra Cotta Cornerstone for Copley Square: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1870–1876, by Sturgis and Brigham,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians , xxxii (1973), 83–103. Here is further information on Sturgis’ training and on J. K. Colling.

83. Edward W. Hooper was Treasurer of Harvard College and brother-in-law of Henry Adams. Arthur Astor Carey was a grandson of John Jacob Astor and an instructor of English at Harvard. Both men were on the Committee for the Foundation of the Museum of Fine Arts, Copley Square, for which Sturgis was architect. The Cambridge Historical Commission has kindly shared its research with the author on these points.

84. Scully, The Shingle Style , passim. Here the nineteenth-century evolution of the living hall with both staircase and fireplace is extensively documented and the early Colonial Revival discussed.

85. Sturgis used a terra cotta parapet in a similar design on his Charles Joy house, 86 Marlborough Street, Boston (1872), and also on Pinebank, Jamaica Plain (1869).

86. Wheaton A. Holden, “The Peabody Touch: Peabody and Stearns of Boston, 1870–1917,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians , xxxii (1973), 114–131.

87. American Architect and Building News , ii (1877), 133–134. Scully, The Shingle Style , p. 42. Peabody’s comment was made famous within the context of Scully’s landmark volume, where it is reproduced under discussion of the Colonial Revival.

88. Report of the Massachusetts Board of World’s Fair Managers, World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893 (Boston, 1894), pp. 31–33.

89. Fiske Kimball, Domestic Architecture of the American Colonies and of the Early Republic (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1922), p. 35.

90. Boston Sunday Herald , July 31, 1949, p. 12.

91. George F. Willison, Saints and Strangers (New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1945), p. 425.

92. Kimball, Domestic Architecture , p. 14.

93. Frank A. Demers, “Progress Report No. 1, Chronological Identification of 17th Century New England Oak Timbers through Tree-Ring Analysis” (August 21, 1968), ms , Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.

94. Historic Houses in Andover, Massachusetts , Compiled for the Tercentenary Celebration, 1946, house no. 23– ii .

95. Essex County Deeds (North District), Lawrence, Mass., vol. 572, p. 242.

96. Ibid., vol. 1244, p. 313.

97. Alice G. Lapham, The Old Planters of Beverly in Massachusetts  . . . (Cambridge, Mass.: The Riverside Press, 1930), p. 12.

98. Essex County Registered Land, Doc. no. 4235 (Certif. of Title, no. 2070).

99. Ibid., Doc. no. 26323 (Certif. of Title, no. 9473).

100. Sidney Perley, “Beverly in 1700, No. 1,” Essex Institute Historical Collections , lv (1919), 88.

102. Beverly Town Records, ms , City Clerk, Beverly, Mass., ii (1685–1711), 68.

103. Notes on the Hale House, Beverly, 1903, by Robert Hale Bancroft and Ellen Bancroft, Archives, Hale House Committee, Beverly.

104. Essex County Deeds, vol. 3117, p. 137.

105. Suffolk County Deeds, iv , 313; M. Halsey Thomas, ed., The Diary of Samuel Sewall, 1674–1729 (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, c 1973), i , 28.

106. A Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, Containing the Statistics of the United States’ Direct Tax of 1798, as assessed on Boston  . . . (Boston, Mass., 1890), pp. 188 (Gibbs Atkins) and 199 (Eliza Phillis).

107. Samuel Adams Drake, Old Landmarks and Historic Personages of Boston (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1906), opp. p. 158.

108. Boston Building Department Records, City Hall, Boston, Mass., Permit no. 127 (J. G. Carlson).

109. Suffolk County Probate Records, vii , 115.

110. Suffolk County Deeds, vol. 178, p. 220.

111. Caleb H. Snow, A History of Boston  . . . (Boston, 1825), p. 244. See also, Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, A Topographical and Historical Description of Boston (Boston, Mass., 1871), pp. 649–662.

112. Suffolk County Deeds, xvii , 341.

113. Ibid., xxi , 270; The Boston Globe , Oct. 28, 1931.

114. Suffolk County Deeds, xx , 544; xxiv , 109.

115. Ibid., xxxii , 46; xxviii , 102.

116. M. Halsey Thomas, ed., The Diary of Samuel Sewall, 1674–1729 (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, c 1973), i , 28.

117. Suffolk County Deeds, xiii , 86.

118. Ibid., vol. 116, p. 128.

119. Ibid., vol. 196, p. 291.

120. A Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, Containing the Statistics of the United States’ Direct Tax of 1798, as assessed on Boston  . . . (Boston, Mass., 1890), p. 201.

121. Suffolk County Deeds, vol. 3221, p. 172. See also, Handbook of the Paul Revere Memorial Association (Boston, Mass.: Printed for the Assoc., 1954), pp. 17–25.

122. Thomas Hutchinson, The History of the Colony of Massachusetts-Bay  . . . (Boston, Mass., 1764–1828), i , 349n.

123. Boston city directories.

124. Daily Evening Traveller (Boston, Mass.), July 10, 11, 1860. See also Abbott Lowell Cummings, “The Old Feather Store in Boston,” Old-Time New England , ser. no. 172 (Apr.–June 1958), pp. 85–104.

125. Middlesex County Deeds, ii , 152.

126. The Register Book of the Lands and Houses in the “New Towne”  . . . (Cambridge Mass., 1896), p. 167.

127. Middlesex County Probate Records, first ser., docket no. 5172.

128. Middlesex County Deeds, vol. 3694, pp. 333, 335 and 338.

129. See “The Repairs on the Cooper-Austin House,” Old-Time New England , ser. no. 8 (Feb. 1913), pp. 12–18.

130. Middlesex County Registered Land (North District), Lowell, Mass., Land Registration Book, lxiv , 215 (Certif. of Title, no. 12308).

131. “Some Reminiscences of Elizabeth (Prince) Peabody,” The Historical Collections of the Danvers Historical Society , xxv (1937), 37–38.

132. Essex County Deeds, vol. 6173, p. 29.

133. Sidney Perley, “Center of Salem Village in 1700,” The Historical Collections of the Danvers Historical Society , vii (1919), 46.

134. Ibid., p. 47.

135. Essex County Deeds, vol. 1915, p. 180.

136. Ibid., vol. 2779, p. 410.

137. Sidney Perley, “The Plains: Part of Salem in 1700,” The Historical Collections of the Danvers Historical Society , vii (1919), 120.

138. Sidney Perley, “The Plains: Part of Salem in 1700,” The Historical Collections of the Danvers Historical Society , vii (1919), 113.

140. Don Gleason Hill, ed., The Early Records of the Town of Dedham, Massachusetts, 1636–1659  . . . (Dedham, Mass., 1892), p. 28; A Plan of Dedham Village, Mass., 1636–1876 , published by the Dedham Historical Society (Dedham, Mass., 1883), pp. 3, 4 and 13.

141. Suffolk County Probate Records, v , 112.

142. Suffolk County Deeds, vol. 103, p. 8, and vol. 104, p. 73.

143. Norfolk County Deeds, vol. 975, pp. 602 ff.

144. Alvin Lincoln Jones, Under Colonial Roofs (Boston, Mass., c 1894), p. 234.

145. Fourth Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, 1880, Dorchester Town Records , 2nd ed. (Boston, Mass., 1883), p. 162.

146. Plot dated Apr. 22, 1748, ms , Collections, Dorchester Historical Society.

147. Samuel Blake, Blake Family  . . . (Boston, Mass., 1857), pp. 15–16.

148. Fourth Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, 1880, Dorchester Town Records , 2nd ed. (Boston, Mass., 1883), p. 58.

149. Suffolk County Probate Records, xxxvii , 162.

150. Ibid., lxvii , 176 and 174.

151. Suffolk County Deeds, vol. 8205, p. 204.

152. Essex County Deeds, vol. 3577, p. 74.

153. Ibid., vol. 4235, p. 230.

154. Ibid., vol. 5972, p. 412.

155. George Francis Dow, ed., The Probate Records of Essex County, Massachusetts (Salem, Mass.: The Essex Institute, 1916–1920), iii , 63.

156. Essex County Deeds, vol. 5290, p. 327.

157. Ibid., vol. 6128, p. 363.

158. Essex County Deeds, i (Ipswich), 240.

159. Ibid., v (Ipswich), 596.

160. Ipswich Town Records, ms , Town Hall, Ipswich, Mass., iii (1696–1720), 221.

161. Essex County Deeds, xxxiii , 64.

162. Essex County Probate Records, vol. 350, p. 156.

163. John J. Babson, History of the Town of Gloucester  . . . (Gloucester, Mass., 1860), p. 230.

164. Essex County Deeds, lxxix , 199.

165. Ibid., vol. 3714, p. 16.

166. Essex County Probate Records, docket no. 3747. (See will of Nathaniel Brown; deed referred to therein not on file.)

167. Essex County Deeds, iii (Ipswich), 68–69.

168. Ibid., iv (Ipswich), 373–374.

169. William Sumner Appleton, “Annual Reports of the Corresponding Secretary . . .,” Old-Time New England , ser. no. 18 (Nov. 1918), p. 29.

170. Notes by William Sumner Appleton on the Brown House, Hamilton, Mass., Sept. 25, 1916, Corr. Files, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.

171. Essex County Deeds, iv (Ipswich), 533.

172. Essex County Probate Records, vol. 304, pp. 10 and 14.

173. Essex County Deeds, vol. 2150, p. 327.

174. Suffolk County Probate Records, viii , 24.

175. For correct identification of site with present house see Suffolk County Deeds, xv , 198, and vol. 148, p. 47, and Suffolk County Probate Records, xxv , 450.

176. Plymouth County Deeds, vol. 1429, p. 18.

177. Suffolk County Deeds, x , 83.

178. Suffolk County Probate Records, xiv , 294.

179. Ibid., lxxxiii , 630–632.

180. Ibid., docket no. 21875.

181. C. Edward Egan, Jr., ed., “The Hobart Journal,” New England Historical and Genealogical Register , 121 (1967), 18.

182. Suffolk County Deeds, ii , 161.

183. Ibid., xxi , 341.

184. The title as recorded by Thomas F. Waters, Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Ipswich, Mass.: The Ipswich Historical Society, 1905–1917), i , 358 (Philip Call lot), is incomplete.

185. Essex County Probate Records, docket no. 4528.

186. Essex County Deeds, xxvi , 176.

187. Ibid., xlii , 79.

188. Ibid., vol. 163, p. 117.

189. Essex County Registered Land, Certif. of Title, no. 36484.

190. Essex County Deeds, ii (Ipswich), 128.

191. Essex County Probate Records, vol. 303, pp. 84–85 and 154.

192. [Thomas F. Waters], “Thomas Dudley and Simon and Ann Bradstreet,” Publications of the Ipswich Historical Society , xii (1903), 15.

193. Essex County Deeds, vol. 4298, p. 52.

194. Essex County Deeds, xv , 115.

195. Ibid., vol. 137, p. 212.

196. Thomas F. Waters, “A History of the Old Argilla Road . . . ,” Publications of the Ipswich Historical Society , ix (1900), 17.

197. Essex County Deeds, xi , 216.

198. The Celebration of the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary . . . of the Town of Ipswich  . . . (Boston, 1884), next to frontispiece.

199. Notes by William Sumner Appleton on the Thomas Burnham house, Ipswich, Mass., Sept. 17, 1914, Corr. Files, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.

200. Essex County Deeds, vol. 1678, p. 438; see also vol. 1682, p. 515.

201. Ye Olde Burnham House . . . kept by Martha Lucy Murrary (promotional pamphlet, no publisher, no date), unpaged; see also, Thomas F. Waters, “The Old Bay Road . . .,” Publications of the Ipswich Historical Society , xv (1907), 2n.

203. Ralph Ladd to author, Feb. 27, 1954, Corr. Files, American Wing, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

204. Essex County Deeds, vol. 2466, p. 256.

205. Secretary’s Files, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

206. Essex County Deeds, xi , 92.

207. Ibid., xxiii , 76; xli , 265, and lxxix , 185.

208. Essex County Probate Records, vol. 331, p. 136.

209. Essex County Deeds, lxxxv , 229.

210. Thomas F. Waters, Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Ipswich, Mass.: The Ipswich Historical Society, 1905–1917), i , 482.

211. Essex County Deeds, vol. 5307, p. 173.

212. Thomas F. Waters, Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Ipswich, Mass.: The Ipswich Historical Society, 1905–1917), i , 481.

213. Essex County Deeds, i (Ipswich), 169.

214. Ibid., iv (Ipswich), 501.

215. Essex County Probate Records, docket no. 14024.

216. Essex County Deeds, vol. 1682, pp. 241–242.

217. Ibid., vol. 2857, p. 369.

218. Essex County Deeds, v , 338.

219. Ibid., xliv , 218.

220. Ibid., vol. 4974, p. 196.

221. George A. Schofield, ed., The Ancient Records of the Town of Ipswich . . . (Ipswich, Mass., 1899), unpaged.

223. George Francis Dow, ed., Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts (Salem, Mass.: The Essex Institute, 1911–1975), i , 308.

224. Essex County Deeds, xi , 147.

225. Ibid., xxi , 188.

226. Ibid., vol. 5451, p. 705.

227. The title of this house is confused by Thomas F. Waters, Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Ipswich, Mass.: The Ipswich Historical Society, 1905–1917), i , 358 (Cartwright lot).

228. Essex County Probate Records, docket no. 17017.

229. [Thomas F. Waters], “Thomas Dudley and Simon and Ann Bradstreet,” Publications of the Ipswich Historical Society , xii (1903), 5 and 8.

230. Essex County Deeds, xxiv , 236.

231. [Waters], op. cit. , p. 10.

232. Essex County Deeds, vol. 5156, p. 235.

233. Incorrectly identified by Thomas F. Waters as having been built by Job Harris before 1751; Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Ipswich, Mass.: The Ipswich Historical Society, 1905–1917), i , 355.

234. Essex County Deeds, iv (Ipswich), 74.

235. Ibid., v (Ipswich), 492.

236. Essex County Probate Records, docket no. 26839.

237. Essex County Deeds, v (Ipswich), 590.

238. Ibid., xvii , 21.

239. Ibid., vol. 2334, p. 585.

240. Essex County Deeds, xvii , 108.

241. Ibid., xxxv , 104–105. See also, Thomas F. Waters, Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Ipswich, Mass.: The Ipswich Historical Society, 1905–1917), i , 389–390.

242. Essex County Deeds, vol. 5384, p. 592.

243. Essex County Deeds, vol. 809, p. 196.

244. Thomas F. Waters, “Jeffrey’s Neck and the way leading thereto . . . ,” Publications of the Ipswich Historical Society , xviii (1912), 4–5, 8–11.

245. See Russell H. Kettell, “The Reconstruction of the Captain Matthew Perkins House . . . ,” Scrapbook, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.

247. Daniel S. Wendel, in conversation with the author.

248. Essex County Deeds, lxxi , 131.

249. Ibid., lxxii , 269.

250. Thomas F. Waters, Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Ipswich, Mass.: The Ipswich Historical Society, 1905–1917), i , 448.

251. Essex County Deeds, vol. 2583, p. 304.

252. Thomas F. Waters, “The John Whipple House in Ipswich, Mass . . . ,” Publications of the Ipswich Historical Society , xx (1915), 1–2.

253. Essex County Deeds, i (Ipswich), 89.

254. Essex County Probate Records, vol. 304, p. 10.

255. Ibid., vol. 313, p. 458.

256. Essex County Deeds, vol. 1549, p. 6, and vol. 1561, p. 534.

257. Essex County Deeds, iii (Ipswich), 285.

258. Ibid., v (Ipswich), 182.

259. Ibid., ix , 287.

260. Ibid., xv , 109.

261. Essex County Probate Records, vol. 315, p. 307.

262. Essex County Deeds, vol. 2793, p. 246.

263. Harriette M. Forbes, “Some Seventeenth-Century Houses of Middlesex County, Massachusetts,” Old-Time New England , ser. no. 95 (Jan. 1939), pp. 97–99.

264. Middlesex County Deeds, vol. 12800, p. 721.

265. Essex County Deeds, ii , 92.

266. Essex County Deeds, ix , 3.

267. Essex County Probate Records, vol. 319, p. 31.

268. Sidney Perley, “Marblehead in the Year 1700, No. 5,” Essex Institute Historical Collections , xlvii (1911), 68.

269. Essex County Deeds, vol. 2461, p. 585.

270. “Re: House 15 Glover Street, Marblehead,” undated notes by William Sumner Appleton, Corr. Files, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.

271. Essex County Deeds, xxii , 210.

272. Norfolk County Deeds, vol. 1604, p. 301.

273. John H. Hooper, “Some Old Medford Houses . . . ,” Medford Historical Register , vii (1904), 49.

274. Joshua Coffin, A Sketch of the History of Newbury [Massachusetts] . . . (Boston, Mass., 1845), p. 391.

275. See James W. Spring, “The Coffin House in Newbury, Massachusetts . . . ,” Old-Time New England , ser. no. 57 (July 1929), pp. 16–18.

276. Ms Collections, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.

277. Essex County Deeds, vol. 2798, p. 446.

278. Essex County Deeds, vol. 4094, p. 504.

279. Joshua Coffin, A Sketch of the History of Newbury [Massachusetts] . . . (Boston, Mass., 1845), p. 375.

280. Essex County Deeds, iii (Ipswich), 215, and x , 17.

281. See ibid., xviii , 48; xxxi , 61; and xxxviii , 18; and Essex County Probate Records, docket no. 19766 (inventory).

282. Essex County Deeds, xcv , 192.

283. Ibid., vol. 104, p. 10.

284. William Sumner Appleton, “The Ilsley House,” Old-Time New England , ser. no. 4 (Aug. 1911), p. 10.

285. John J. Currier, “OuId Newbury”  . . . (Boston, Mass., 1896), pp. 196–197.

286. Essex County Deeds vol. 194, p. 233.

287. Ibid., vol. 2088, pp. 301 and 306.

288. William Sumner Appleton, “Annual Report of the Corresponding Secretary,” Old-Time New England , ser. no. 14 (May 1916), pp. 5–9.

289. John J. Currier, History of Newburyport, Mass., 1764–1909 (Newburyport, Mass.: Printed for the Author, 1909), ii , 54.

290. Essex County Deeds, xiv , 108.

291. Essex County Probate Records, vol. 316, p. 289.

292. Essex County Deeds, xiv , 107. See also, John J. Currier, “Ould Newbury”  . . . (Boston, Mass., 1896), pp. 119 and 142.

293. Essex County Deeds, vol. 167, p. 306.

294. “The Benaiah Titcomb House,” Old-Time New England , ser. no. 4 (Aug. 1911), pp. 15–18; William Sumner Appleton, “Annual Report of the Corresponding Secretary,” Old-Time New England , ser. no. 7 (July 1912), p. 16, and “Annual Reports of the Corresponding Secretary . . . ,” Old-Time New England , ser. no. 18 (Nov. 1918), p. 29.

295. Essex County Deeds, xxix , 94.

296. Essex County Probate Records, docket no. 1788.

297. Essex County Deeds (North District), Lawrence, Mass., vol. 742, p. 359.

298. See Abbott Lowell Cummings, “The Parson Barnard House,” Old-Time New England , ser. no. 166 (Oct.–Dec. 1956), pp. 29–40.

299. See Quincy Patriot Ledger , Oct. 22, 1959, p. 14.

300. M. Halsey Thomas, ed., The Diary of Samuel Sewall, 1674–1729 (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, c 1973), i , 101.

301. John Marshall, Diary, ms , The Massachusetts Historical Society.

302. Middlesex County Deeds, xii , 162.

303. The Parker Tavern  . . . , pamphlet, printed by the Reading Antiquarian Society, 1930, pp. 9–10.

304. Middlesex County Deeds, xxiii , 259.

305. See the Reading Chronicle , June 27, 1930.

306. Allen Chamberlain and Thomas Williams, The Old Castle  . . . (Pigeon Cove, Mass.: Village Improvement Soc., 1939), p. 8.

307. Ibid., p. 9.

308. Essex County Deeds, vol. 2663, p. 125.

309. Essex County Deeds, ii , 83.

310. Sidney Perley, “Salem in 1700, No. 16,” The Essex Antiquarian , vii (1904), 114–116.

311. Essex County Deeds, iv , 103.

312. Corwin Family mss , American Antiquarian Society.

313. See Sidney Perley, “Where Roger Williams lived in Salem,” Essex Institute Historical Collections , lii (1916), 97–111.

314. Essex County Probate Records, docket no. 6946.

315. William P. Upham, “An Account of the Dwelling-Houses of Francis Higginson, Samuel Skelton, Roger Williams, and Hugh Peters,” Essex Institute Historical Collections , viii (1866), 258.

316. Collections, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.

317. Essex County Deeds, vol. 537, p. 45.

318. Ibid., vol. 3400, p. 437.

319. Ibid., vol. 3585, p. 340.

320. Suffolk County Deeds, i , 56.

321. Essex County Deeds, i , 31.

322. Ibid., xxxi , 95.

323. Essex County Probate Records, docket no. 24147.

324. Essex County Deeds, vol. 104, p. 164, and vol. 105, pp. 36 and 57.

325. Sidney Perley, “Salem in 1700, No. 21,” The Essex Antiquarian , ix (1905), 168.

326. The Diary of William Bentley, D.D.  . . . (Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1962), i , 248.

328. Ibid., ii , 25–26.

329. Sidney Perley, “Salem in 1700, No. 21,” The Essex Antiquarian , ix (1905), 169.

330. Essex County Deeds, ii , 96–97.

331. Essex County Probate Records, vol. 302, pp. 125–126.

332. Ibid., vol. 312, p. 9.

333. Essex County Deeds, vol. 4943, p. 46.

334. Ibid., vol. 5431, p. 291.

335. Essex County Deeds, xxxiii , 245.

336. Essex County Probate Records, vol. 357, p. 366.

337. Essex County Deeds, xiii , 54. See also, The Essex Antiquarian , ii (1898), 173.

338. Essex County Deeds, iii , 55.

339. Ibid., iv , 152.

340. Essex County Probate Records, docket no. 14656.

341. Essex County Deeds, xciv , 248; xcvi , 22; and vol. 103, p. 236.

342. Ibid., vol. 137, p. 177.

343. Ibid., vol. 5221, p. 117.

344. Essex County Deeds, vi , 76.

345. Ibid., p. 82.

346. Sidney Perley, The History of Salem, Massachusetts (Salem, Mass.: Sidney Perley, 1924–1928), iii , 65–66.

347. Sidney Perley, “Part of Salem in 1700, No. 5,” The Essex Antiquarian , iv (1900), 169.

348. Essex County Deeds, ii , 75.

349. Pickering Family papers, Pickering House, Salem.

350. Essex County Probate Records, vol. 303, p. 208.

351. Pickering Family papers.

353. Essex County Deeds, i , 35.

354. Ibid., ii , 55.

355. Essex County Probate Records, docket no. 22069.

356. Ibid., vol. 302, p. 27.

357. Essex County Deeds, xviii , 162.

358. Ibid., vol. 5215, p. 421.

359. Ibid., vol. 5649, p. 629.

360. Sidney Perley, “Part of Salem in 1700, No. 3,” The Essex Antiquarian , iv (1900), 22 (Capt. Manasseh Marston House).

361. Essex County Deeds, iii , 49. See also, Sidney Perley, “Salem in 1700, No. 23,” The Essex Antiquarian , x (1906), 62–65.

362. Essex County Probate Records, vol. 303, pp. 98–99.

363. Ibid., docket no. 28367.

364. Ibid., vol. 328, pp. 326–339.

365. The Diary of William Bentley, D.D.  . . . (Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1962), ii , 463.

366. Essex County Deeds, vol. 1109, p. 288.

367. Ibid., vol. 1927, p. 225. See also, Caroline O. Emmerton, The Chronicles of Three Old Houses (Boston, Mass.: Thomas Todd Co., Printers, 1935), pp. 7–39.

368. Essex County Deeds, vol. 3098, p. 361.

369. Essex County Deeds, vii , 14. See also, Barbara M. and Gerald W. R. Ward, “The John Ward House . . . ,” Essex Institute Historical Collections , 110 (1974), 3–32.

370. Essex County Probate Records, vol. 319, pp. 489–490.

371. Suffolk County Deeds, i , 69–71.

372. Essex County Deeds, xi , 240–241; George Francis Dow, ed., Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts (Salem, Mass.: The Essex Institute, 1911–1975), ii , 89, and viii , 201.

373. Massachusetts State Archives, 59/188.

374. Essex County Deeds, iv (Ipswich), 452.

375. Ibid., vi , 98.

376. Ibid., ix , 5.

377. Essex County Probate Records, docket no. 27301.

378. Essex County Deeds, vol. 118, p. 258.

379. Ibid., vol. 157, p. 117.

380. Ibid., vol. 2287, p. 364.

381. Ibid., vol. 3394, p. 535, and vol. 3382, p. 583.

382. Ibid., vol. 5693, p. 519.

383. A Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, Containing the Boston Records from 1660 to 1701 (Boston, Mass., 1881), p. 120. See also, Abbott Lowell Cummings, “The ‘Scotch’-Boardman House . . . Part I,” Old-Time New England , ser. no. 151 (Jan.–Mar. 1953), pp. 57–73.

384. Suffolk County Deeds, xxiv , 21.

385. Suffolk County Probate Records, xi , 190.

386. Suffolk County Deeds, xxiv , 142–143.

387. Essex County Probate Records, vol. 368, p. 110; Suffolk County Deeds, vol. 218, p. 72.

388. Essex County Deeds, vol. 2258, p. 37.

389. See Abbott Lowell Cummings, “The ‘Scotch’-Boardman House . . . Part II,” Old-Time New England , ser. no. 152 (Apr.–June 1953), pp. 91–102.

390. Middlesex County Deeds, vol. 9868, p. 367.

391. Essex County Deeds, xix , 148.

392. Ibid., xix , 18.

393. Notes by William Sumner Appleton on the Blaney House, Swampscott, Apr. 21, 1914, Corr. Files, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.

394. George Francis Dow, ed., Town Records of Topsfield, Massachusetts (Topsfield, Mass.: The Topsfield Historical Society, 1917–1920), i , 44.

395. Donald Macdonald-Millar to Bertram K. Little, Dec. 6, 1958, Corr. Files, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.

396. The Diary of William Bentley, D.D . . . . .(Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1962), iv , 287.

397. Essex County Registered Land, Doc. no. 2266 (Certif. of Title, no. 1203).

398. John H. Towne, “Topsfield Houses and Buildings,” The Historical Collections of the Topsfield Historical Society , viii (1902), 22.

399. Essex County Deeds, xv , 257.

400. Essex County Probate Records, docket no. 10156.

401. Essex County Deeds, xxxii , 289.

402. Ibid., vol. 2375, p. 370.

403. William Sumner Appleton, “Annual Report of the Corresponding Secretary,” Old-Time New England , ser. no. 21 (July 1920), 21–22.

404. Essex County Deeds, liv , 13, and lxi , 269.

405. Ibid., xxxiii , 139.

406. Ibid., lxiii , 262.

407. Ibid., vol. 122, p. 13.

408. Ibid., vol. 2609, p. 133.

409. Middlesex County Probate Records, first ser., docket no. 2941.

410. Watertown Records  . . . , Prepared for publication by the Historical Society (Watertown, Mass., 1894–1900), ii , 141. See also, Catharine W. Pierce, “The Brownes of Watertown and the date of the Abraham Browne House,” Old-Time New England , ser. no. 98 (Oct. 1939), pp. 67–72.

411. Middlesex County Deeds, xxix , 194.

412. Ibid., vol. 4259, p. 594.

413. Wenham Town Records (Published by the Wenham [Mass.] Historical Society, 1930–1940), i , 39.

414. Essex County Deeds, xli , 184.

415. Wenham Town Records , i , 157.

416. Essex County Deeds, vol. 125, p. 202.

417. Ibid., vol. 2501, p. 501.

418. See William Sumner Appleton, “A Description of Robert McClaflin’s House,” Old-Time New England , ser. no. 44 (Apr. 1926), pp. 157–167.

419. Essex County Deeds, xi , 205.

420. Wenham Town Records (Published by the Wenham [Mass.] Historical Society, 1930–1940), i , 178.

421. Essex County Deeds, liv , 102.

422. Ibid., vol. 178, p. 242.

423. Frank Chouteau Brown, “The Interior Details and Furnishings of the William Haskell Dwelling . . . ,” Pencil Points , xx (1939), 113–128.

424. Essex County Deeds, vol. 3098, pp. 389–391.

425. Second Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, 1877 (Boston, Mass., 1877), p. 30.

426. Ibid., p. 168.

427. Suffolk County Deeds, xxxiv , 245.

428. Mellen Chamberlain, A Documentary History of Chelsea  . . . (Boston, Mass.: Printed for the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1908), i , 193, and plan opposite.

429. Suffolk County Deeds, vol. 841, p. 87.

430. Ibid., vol. 3182, p. 590.

431. Essex County Deeds, ii , 75.

432. Harrison Ellery and Charles P. Bowditch, The Pickering Genealogy  . . . (Cambridge, Mass., 1897), i , 22.

433. Essex County Deeds, vol. 144, p. 149.

434. George Francis Dow, ed., “Salem Commoners Records, 1713–1739,” Essex Institute Historical Collections , xxxvi , 176.

435. Collections, The Essex Institute.

436. Pickering Family papers, Pickering House, Salem.

437. George R. Curwen to Henry FitzGilbert Waters, Oct. 26–Nov. 19, 1885, Waters Family papers: Henry FitzGilbert Waters (1833–1913), Corr. Box 2, Folder 3, The Essex Institute.

438. Gloucester Commoners’ Books, ms , City Clerk, Gloucester, Mass., Bk. ii .

439. Essex Quarterly Court Files, Office of the Clerk of the Superior Court for Essex County, Salem, Mass., v , 51.

440. Edward Everett Hale, Jr., ed., Note-Book kept by Thomas Lechford, Esq., Lawyer, in Boston, Massachusetts Bay, from June 27, 1638, to July 29, 1641 (Cambridge, Mass., 1885), pp. 302–303.

441. Minutes of the Council of Massachusetts Bay reveal that license was granted to Thomas Banister on Mar. 20, 1701, “to erect a building of timber and brick” at the south end of Boston. Cecil Headlam, ed., Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, America and West Indies, 1701 (London: Published by His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1910), p. 138.

442. Charles F. Montgomery, “Thomas Banister on the New Sash Windows, Boston, 1701,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians , xxiv (1965), 170.

443. Suffolk County Court Records, Office of the Clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court for Suffolk County, Boston, Mass., docket no. 1916.

444. Edward Everett Hale, Jr., ed., Note-Book kept by Thomas Lechford, Esq., Lawyer, in Boston, Massachusetts Bay, from June 27, 1638, to July 29, 1641 (Cambridge, Mass., 1885), pp. 51–57.

445. A Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, Containing the Records of Boston Selectmen, 1701 to 1715 (Boston, Mass., 1884), pp. 11–12, 17, 23, 28 and 79.

446. Lane Family papers, privately owned.

447. Suffolk County Court Records, Office of the Clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court for Suffolk County, Boston, Mass., docket no. 1833.

448. Unrecorded deeds, etc., 1721–1840, Peabody-Osgood Family papers, The Essex Institute.

449. Sidney Perley, ed., “Boxford Town Records, 1685–1706,” The Historical Collections of the Topsfield Historical Society , v (1899), 101.

450. Essex Quarterly Court Files, Office of the Clerk of the Superior Court for Essex County, Salem, Mass., xxiv , 115.

451. A Report of the Record Commissioners Containing Charlestown Land Records, 1638–1802 , 2nd ed. (Boston, Mass., 1883), pp. 171–172.

452. Ibid., pp. 174–175.

453. A Report of the Record Commissioners Containing Charlestown Land Records, 1638–1802 , 2nd ed. (Boston, Mass., 1883), pp. 172–173.

454. Charles B. Rice, Proceedings at the Celebration of the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the First Parish at Salem Village, now Danvers, October 8, 1872  . . . (Boston, Mass., 1874), p. 21.

455. Don Gleason Hill, ed., The Early Records of the Town of Dedham, Massachusetts, 1659–1673  . . . (Dedham, Mass., 1894), pp. 165–166.

456. Essex Quarterly Court Files, Office of the Clerk of the Superior Court for Essex County, Salem, Mass., xli , 10.

457. Essex Quarterly Court Files, Office of the Clerk of the Superior Court for Essex County, Salem, Mass., vi , 70–71.

458. Winthrop Papers (Boston, Mass.: The Massachusetts Historical Society, 1929–1947), iv , 11–12. See also Thomas F. Waters, “A History of the Old Argilla Road in Ipswich, Massachusetts,” Publications of the Ipswich Historical Society , ix (1900), 23–29.

459. Franklin P. Rice, ed., First Records of Marlborough, Massachusetts (Worcester, Mass.: Published by Franklin P. Rice, 1909), pp. 12–13.

460. Middlesex County Probate Records, first ser., docket no. 7724.

461. Corwin Family mss , American Antiquarian Society.

462. Jonathan Corwin, Account Book, ms , vol. for 1656–1679, American Antiquarian Society.

463. Jonathan Corwin, Account Book, ms , vol. for 1656–1679, American Antiquarian Society.

464. Essex Quarterly Court Files, Office of the Clerk of the Superior Court for Essex County, Salem, Mass., vi , 85–87.

465. Henry W. Belknap, Trades and Tradesmen of Essex County, Massachusetts  . . . (Salem, Mass.: The Essex Institute, 1929), p. 56.

466. Robert W. Lovett, ed., Documents from the Harvard University Archives, 1638–1750 (Boston, Mass.: Published by The Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 1975), p. 22.

467. “Towne Family Papers,” The Historical Collections of the Topsfield Historical Society , xviii (1913), 4–5.

You are here

James blake house.

• Location: Boston Massachusetts Regional Essays: Metropolitan Boston Boston's Neighborhoods Dorchester Architect: Charles Hodgdon John Goff Types: attics (interior spaces) Styles: no metadata available Materials: wattle (building materials) daub

What's Nearby

Keith N. Morgan, " James Blake House ", [ Boston , Massachusetts ], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MA-01-DR8 . Last accessed: April 9, 2024.

Permissions and Terms of Use

Print Source

Buildings of Massachusetts: Metropolitan Boston , Keith N. Morgan, with Richard M. Candee, Naomi Miller, Roger G. Reed, and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009, 257-258.

The James Blake House, formerly located on Cottage Street, is one of only three known mid-seventeenth-century buildings to survive in Dorchester into the early twentieth century. On the basis of dendrochronological evidence, the house, with its elaborately chafered frame, dates to 1661. At two-and-a-half stories in height and with two rooms per floor and a central chimney, the building was one of the larger houses of its time. The roof frame of principal rafters at the bays with common rafters tenoned into purlins is the type of frame used in the handful of surviving houses in the Boston area from before the mid-1670s. Originally, facade gables lighted the attic. The house retains rare examples of wattle and daub wall fill. The Dorchester Historical Society acquired the house and razed early-eighteenth-and nineteenth-century additions when they moved it to Edward Everett Square in 1896. Over the next decade it was partially restored by Charles Hodgdon, a well-known Dorchester architect. The recent restoration has maintained the form and material established by Hodgdon.

Writing Credits

• Location: Boston, Massachusetts Regional Overviews: Boston's Neighborhoods , Dorchester Architect: John Goff Types: attics (interior spaces) Styles: no metadata available Materials: wattle (building materials) daub

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

James Blake House

Introduction.

Text-to-speech Audio

James Blake House, circa 1920 (Courtesy of the Dorchester Historical Society)

Cooking area of the James Blake House, posted to their Facebook page courtesy of Stacy Denekamp

Sign at the front of the James Blake House, posted to their Facebook page courtesy of Stacy Denekamp

Interior of the James Blake House, posted to their Facebook page courtesy of Stacy Denekamp

Backstory and Context

James Blake built this home for his family in the mid-seventeenth century.  There is no written record of the home being built, but scientific tests date its construction to approximately 1660-1661.  He had emigrated to the new world from England in the 1630s with his parents.  James married Elizabeth Clap the daughter of Deacon Edward Clap, in 1651. James Blake also served as a Deacon, as well as a Town Selectman, Deputy to the General Court, and a Constable.  Blake transferred ownership of the home to his son in 1700, who divided it among his own two sons in 1718.  The house remained in the family until a later generation sold the first half out of the family in 1772 and a subsequent Blake sold his half (to the owner of the first half) in 1825.  For 165 years, at least half of the house was continuously owned by a member of the original family.  In 1895, the house was sold to the City of Boston, which intended to tear down the structure to build greenhouses on the property. 

The home is a two-story structure, 3 bays wide and 1 bay deep, made of timber.  It has a gabled-roof and a central chimney.  The Blake House is one of the few remaining examples of West England country framing left in the United States.  Today, there is a museum on the first floor and living quarters on the second floor for its resident caretaker, an archaeologist who also leads the tours one day each month.    

Preserving the Blake House became the first major project of the Dorchester Historical Society, which had been formed in 1891.  In January 1896, the Society paid $295 to have the home moved from its former location to the spot where it stands now, just 400 yards away.  It was placed in the center of a city-owned park, now known as “Richardson Park.”  This appears to be the first instance in which a building was moved from one location to another to avoid destruction, thereby making it possible to preserve it for its historic value. 

Starting in October 2007, the land was opened to amateur archaeologists on Fridays for a public dig.  It was believed that the area in front of the Blake House was once the shoreline of a Great Pond.  It was filled in on either side of what is now Pond Street.  Archaeologists have found many artifacts in the fill, including toys, buttons, bottles and bones. 

Additional Information

• Dorchester Historical Society: The James Blake House
• James Blake House: Boston Landmarks Commission Study Report

The Oldest House in Boston is in Dorchester – a History Lesson on the Blake House

They don’t make ’em like they used to.

The James Blake House is nestled in Richardson Park on Columbia Road – near the Giant Pear – just a quick 400 yards from its original location back in 1661 – which is now a parking lot for National Grid on Mass. Ave. This is the first recorded instance in New England of a historic building being moved to a new location in order to prevent its demolition.

The city acquired the home from George J. and Antonia Quinsler in September of 1895, for $8000. ( Image what it would sell for today? ) The sale included nearly 11,000 square feet of land, next to other parcels of land the city was acquiring to make way for municipal greenhouses.

Drawing of home from its original location.

Originally the home of James and Elizabeth Blake who were English immigrants, the property was passed down to their family until it was acquired by the city of Boston in 1895.  It was then sold to the Dorchester Historical Society in 1896.

Background of the Blakes

James Blake was born in England near Pitminster, in 1624.  He emigrated with his family to Dorchester in the 1630s. Deacon James Blake became a constable, town selectman, and deputy to the General Court. James Blake and Elizabeth Clap (the daughter of Deacon Edward Clap and niece of Roger Clap) were married in 1651 and decided to build a house. It was handed down to their children and then their grandchildren. The rest is history.

You can read the history of the owners of this house here if you’re a real history buff.

Architecture

Many of the early colonial homes of this time were built by builders (or housewrights) from the south and east of England which were mostly brick and plaster buildings. But the Blake House was built like homes of western England, which used heavy timber in their framing methods. According to the Dorchester Historical Society, the Blake House is a two-story, central chimney, gable-roof dwelling of timber-frame construction. It measures 38 by 20 feet.

Architectural Digest did a feature on designer Sarah Cole and her experience helping a caretaker decorate a historic home.  You can check it out here including some gorgeous photos!

Currently, the house operates as a museum with a live-in caretaker which is a tradition dating back to 1910.

You can learn more about this home by visiting the Dorchester Historical Society.   Consider making a donation to this important neighborhood organization!

Maureen Dahill is the editor of Caught in Southie and a lifelong resident of South Boston sometimes mistaken for a yuppie. Co-host of Caught Up, storyteller, lover of red wine and binge watching TV series. Mrs. Peter G. Follow her @MaureenCaught.

23 Comments

From 1950 to 1955, as a teenager from Walpole, Ma., I spent summer vacation weeks with my cousins, the Sullivan’s of Humphreys Street. Our favorite hangout was “The Blakie”. I met many city friends there and made wonderful memories.

Nice article. Thanks for this

Great article!

Raised in Southie doesn’t mean you’re original, unless you’ve lived through the Whitey days, and your parents and family were in Southie for generations. That’s an original, not a kid born in late 90’s 2000s to yuppie parents…that’s a yuppie raised in Southie not an original.

Gatekeep much?

Raised during the Whitey days don’t make you an original either. If anything, we try to forget he ever lived there and hope the memory of him and his evil dies from now till eternity.

History of Boston is very interesting and fascinating.

Interesting article. Thanks for sharing. I will visit the “The Blakie” sometime. I like and understand John’s points in his comment. I came to Massachusetts in the early 1970’s and had lived the decades through television and newspapers when Southie was the headline news.

Nice article. So many of these 17th century homes were destroyed. Hard to find them with two full stories and an attic. Looks like the additions were removed when it was relocated. I wonder if it was moved intact or disassembled?

My aunt on my mother’s side lived with her husband there in the 60’s and they brought their first son home to the Blake house. When they moved out my uncle on my father’s side moved in with his wife and family. My grandparents on my fathers side moved in after that and stayed into the early 70’s. They all attended Stoughton Street Baptist church and I-remember my youth group going there for a picnic snd running around the yard. We had many family gatherings there snd enjoyed sledding down the hill beside the Blake House. We also had many sleep overs when my grandparents lived there so great memories of this historical home.

Nancy’s daughter, right? Your Aunt, Janice, and I are still friends from the Edw Everett, kindergarten. Or as OFD’s say, kidneygarden.

Dorchester in the past might be beautiful, but Dorchester nowadays is pretty much a ghetto. Once you turn an area into the ghetto, it’s difficult to turn it back.

What you trying to say?

Lordt yall are some ignorant folk here..smh lol Dorchester is my home, no matter what! Ghetto or not you’re not welcomed anyway.

This building is in great danger. I drive by frequently. The exterior needs serious TLC.

Have not heard or even thought of klndeygarden in years.

Born , bred ,schooled, played whiffle ball- PIMPLE Ball -Russell Schoolyard football – street hockey – and some made up sport called ( Stone Ball) for obvious reasons on the “ Blakey” – kissed my first girlfriends — currently live and have always lived in Dorchester – worked my whole life – opened up a business and gave my soul to the best of the best parish’s as an alter boy for 5 years at St . Margaret’s – Fr Dunn ( Dorchester historian in his own rite ) Fr. Walsh / jolly and funny – Fr Varysilus ( I’m sure I spelled it incorrectly ) – What had not been mentioned in the above article at this time was this story Fr Dunn told me after A mass I had served – the story goes that ( Mr. Blake was a statesman for Boston , Mass – he was invited to speak as the opening politician before the then current president at the time “ Abraham Lincoln – He began speaking in front of a large crowd for almost two hour, being a well spoken man he mustered as many dictionary words he could to a rather thunderous applause upon completion – Lincoln then was asked to further comment on the situation- then as we all know what will go down in history as one of the greatest speeches ever given , Lincoln pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket and delivered as we all know now as “ The Gettysburg Address “. The Crowd completely stunned for the moment then burst into an applause heard in Boston – On a train home to Boston days later ,statesman Robert Blake was asked by a reporter what he thought of the president’s speech – he responded as such. – a” President Lincoln said to the country. In 90 seconds what I could not in almost two hours – are you not glad he is our president and not I – Nice to know we have the right person for the job / well done ! My youngest daughter just moved out of the house to my brother in laws three decker on Columbia Rd directly across from the Blakey – First story I told her when we moved her in -I love Dorchester – both my parents immigrated from Ireland here and raised the normal ( 7-8-9 child ) family at the time. – I couldn’t leave even if I wanted ( which I don’t ) Makes me sad when driving by my old stomping grounds on almost a daily basis – to remember all the good times I had – that we all had – how we all looked out for o e another / No , it wasn’t perfect- who wants perfect – there was much blood spilled on the sidewalks , on the street tar , the baseball fields, , the schoolyards – as the years go by I’ve never run into an old pal , neighbor, family member , old friend who whose first words to me are (. So good to see you – remember when we. ???? growing up – next time ur in the area – stop and look around – I’m sure a good memory will come back to you if you from the area – something I can’t explain – only something you had the pleasure of experiencing. – cheers. DORCHESTER ☘️

This house is similar to my ancestral home, The Bird Sawyer house that was located on Humphrey’s Street, built in the 1630’s and used by Washington as his headquarters during the securing of Dorchester Heights during the Revolutionary War. Unfortunately, that house was empty during the 1920’s/30’s and neighbors would take the wood from the house to burn during the Depression (and rightly so!). Before it was torn down in the 1940’s, an Historical Society went in and took measurements of every inch of that house, every piece of wood, every hinge and drew up blueprints which we were able to obtain a copy of from the Library of Congress. The Blake House is such a great representation of the homes at that time and I hope they maintain it!

I lived in the triple decker behind the Blake House, 211 E. Cottage St. in 1952, I was born at Carney Hospital in Southie and lived in the projects but my grandmother lived there on E Cottage. I remember sledding down the hill by the Blake House thinking it was a mountain until i went back and saw it was a no even a hill. I would snoop around the Blake house all the time. Great memories.

About 5 years ago I got a friend of mine who will drive in the Boston area to go with me on a day when it was open. When we got there they had place a sign on the door that it would be closed that day. We then went to see the two Clapp houses. She died a few years ago so I guess that I have missed my chance to see more than the outside of the building. I’ll drive from Texas to MA but I sure won’t drive in Boston traffic.

Grew up on Norfolk St. In Dorchester. #342. One mile down from Codman Sq. Just below St. Matthews. A three decker that’s no longer there. It was a nice place back in the Sixties.

I was the caretaker of the Blake House from 1976. There were some difficult youths in the area at the time and angel dust was the drug of choice. My predecessors left suddenly after some frightening incidents including the regular stoning of the Columbia Point T buses, and the Historical Society asked me and my wife if we’d move in for a few weeks while they considered moving the house over to their Boston Street property. I was asked because I was a probation officer at the Dorchester Court. After a few interactions with the kids, they decided to find another location and we wound up staying for 5 years. We loved living in the house. I was studying colonial history at UMass Boston at the time, so it was perfect. When visitors would come., we’d take them over to the Dorchester North Burial Ground and show them the Blake graves. There is a great deal of history in the Edward Everett Square area which John McColgan’s Pear Square initiative strives to celebrate. It’s time for the City to pay attention to this historic district.

Leave A Comment Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Turkey Tips to Keep You Safe During Mating Season

Easter in the Neighborhood Roundup 2024

Orchid Plant Sale + Orchid-Gami at Franklin Park Zoo on Saturday

Subscribe to the caught in dot newsletter.

Don’t miss out! Get Caught in Dot delivered to your mailbox!

• Name This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
• Comments This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Your information is confidential. View our Privacy Policy.

About |  Contact   |   Advertise with Us

© 2021 Caught In Dot, All Rights Reserved | Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions  

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR

Enjoy l uxury,  exclusivity and discretion

NOW TREAT YOURSELF!

Get 25% Off & Free Shipping On Your First Order. Enter Code WELL25SPE

Find anything you save across the site in your account

This New Bed for Boston’s Oldest Home Was Three Years in the Making—And Was Totally Worth It

By Caroline Eubanks

Built in the mid-1600s, James Blake House is the oldest residence of its kind in Boston and one of the country’s few remaining examples of West England country framing. Originally the home of English immigrants James and Elizabeth Blake, the property was passed down to family members until being acquired by the city in 1895 and sold to the Dorchester Historical Society the following year.

Since 2015, the two-story gable-roof home has been managed by a live-in caretaker, Barbara Kurze, who is charged with leading tours of the downstairs museum and keeping up maintenance of the house. There is just one problem, though: With no closets or overhead lights, and few outlets, the interiors weren’t made for a modern resident. Kurze had been sleeping on a twin-size bed—the only option that could fit up the narrow stairs—before seeking out the assistance of interior designer Sarah Cole.

A vignette in the James Blake House, which dates to 1661

Furnishings in the home

“Through a renovation of our own home in dealing with the historic society in Newton, I met [Kurze],” she says. “She originally contacted me to help her get organized and furnish and decorate the home. There’s no kitchen cabinets, or counters. She has a fridge and a table.”

They also worked with the historical society to fund necessary updates, specifically painting and repairing plaster. But in February 2019, Kurze was ready to tackle her bedroom. However, for a 300-year-old home like the James Blake House, doing so isn’t as easy as going to the store and picking one out.

To create the bed, woodworker Lee McColgan researched the furniture of William Searle and Thomas Dennis, two Ipswich-based furniture makers.

“I threw out a whole bunch of ideas at first. ‘Do you want a contrast? Do you want to go übermodern or do you want to do something kind of traditional?’ I did show her some pictures of antique beds from the 1600s,” Cole recalls. The client loved the idea of making the piece feel period-appropriate. “We looked at some antiques from England, but they’re pretty expensive, as you can imagine (not even counting [that you have] to ship it across an ocean. And then you run into the fact that they’re usually not sized for a standard mattress—so there were just a lot of hurdles to get over.”

Instead, Cole enlisted the help of Pembroke, Massachusetts–based woodworker Lee McColgan, a jack-of-all-trades who does everything from window restoration to joinery. Cole researched the intricate designs and landed on the work of two Colonial-era Ipswich, Massachusetts–based furniture makers, William Searle and Thomas Dennis. (Today, Searle and Dennis’s furniture resides within museum collections, including New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. )

Sarah Cole and Lee McColgan carry the bed up a narrow staircase.

“Barbara drove the design. We did several iterations and she just kept saying, ‘I want more carvings. I want more,’” Cole says. “She really loved the carvings. And we sat down and picked out…a tulip pattern in the center she liked. And the lunettes along the top. They’re all very traditional and of the period.”

Flash Sale: Join AD PRO for only $20 $12 per month

McColgan used two 100-year-old oak trees that fell down during a storm to create the bed. The detailed carvings required extra care, and the bed was made almost entirely without power tools. It ended up taking three years to complete. (One of the many challenges was how to bring the bed up those narrow, winding stairs—McColgan brought it up piece by piece, finally assembling it in the bedroom.)

Kurze now has a functional bed that is an homage to the craftsmen of the home’s heyday. But for Cole, it’s much more.

“To do this project and just be a part of the city, even if it’s a small contribution, is really special,” she says. “I never felt so at home as when I came here, and the city has welcomed me. And so, to be involved and make a small mark on it, it’s been an honor, honestly.”

By Alia Akkam

Architecture

Dorchester buildings date from the 17th through 21st centuries. Dorchester’s oldest existing house is also Boston’s oldest, the James Blake House, near Edward Everett Square. Built in 1661, it is an example of Post-Medieval construction typical of the West Country of England. Dorchester’s buildings exhibit the style that was current at the time of their construction, including Georgian, Federal, Greek Revival to the Victorian styles and three-deckers.

This section includes official Boston Landmarks, Pending Landmarks and properties whose petitions for Landmark status have been denied

Monuments sometimes honor individuals or groups. Others commemorate events, and some are purely public art.

Bridges may cross bodies of water or roadways.

National Register

National Register properties and districts have received recognition by Boston as well as the Massachusetts Historical Commission.

Individual properties are described here as time permits.  This section should grow.

Neighborhoods

Neighborhoods and communities abound in Dorchester.  Some cover a large territory, and some include only a few hundred properties.  Different people may define the boundaries differently.

Dorchester’s architecture is justly famous. All Saints Church designed by Ralph Adams Cram in 1892 was the model for American parish church architecture for the next 50 years. St. Peter’s Church is a magnificent example of 19th-century American Gothic Revival. The former Girls’ Latin School built as Dorchester High School in 1899 in the Renaissance Revival style has been converted into the Latin Academy apartments.

The first settlers of the town are represented by two surviving 17th-century houses, the Blake House, ca. 1648, in Richardson Park on Columbia Road, owned by the Dorchester Historical Society and the Pierce House, ca. 1683, on Oakton Avenue, owned by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. A third 17th-century house, the Capen House was moved to Milton in the early 20th century, then taken apart and put in storage in the early 21st century.

Illustrations exist of at least eight 17th-century houses that once stood in Dorchester, three of which have survived into the 21st century. The Pierce House stands where it always has on Oakton Avenue; the Blake House has been moved a few hundred yards east to its present position in Richardson Park on Columbia Road; and the Barnard Capen house, formerly situated on Washington Street, now stands in Milton. The other five 17th-century houses of which we have illustrations are the Bird-Sawyer House, the Minot House, the Rev. John Danforth House, the Humphreys House and the Bridgham House.

Examples of 18th-century homes and Federal era and Greek Revival buildings are scattered throughout Dorchester. Dorchester is especially famous for neighborhoods with architecturally designed homes from the second half of the 19th century. Its architects include Edwin J. Lewis, Jr., John A. Fox and Luther Briggs, Jr. among many others. The three-family home of the late 19th to early 20th centuries exists in Dorchester in every imaginable design, ranging from the Peabody at Ashmont Street and Dorchester Avenue, a building designed as a series of attached brick 3 family homes, to the freestanding three-decker. A walking tour of nearly any neighborhood will reveal a variety of building elements with appealing designs: original decorative shingles, stained glass, columns, and brackets.

Architects represented in Dorchester include: Harrison H. Atwood; Asher Benjamin; Luther Briggs, Jr.; Charles Bulfinch; George Clough; Ralph Adams Cram and his firm Cram, Wentworth and Goodhue; John A. Fox; A. Warren Gould; Hartwell, Richardson and Driver, Patrick Keeley; Keeley and Houghton; Edwin J. Lewis, Jr.; Maginnis and Walsh; Charles Austin Wood.

As early as 1654 Dorchester’s buildings were described by Johnson in his Wonder-Working Providence : “Her houses for dwellings are about one hundred and forty, orchards and gardens full of fruit-trees, plenty of corn-land, although much of it hath been long in tillage, yet hath it ordinarily good crops. The number of trees are near upon 1,500. Cows and other cattle of that kind about 450.”

• facebook-rs

James Blake Returns With New Album ‘Playing Robots Into Heaven’

By Daniel Kreps

Daniel Kreps

James Blake returned in a big way Wednesday as the singer simultaneously announced a new tour, new song and new album, titled Playing Robots Into Heaven .

Playing Robots Into Heaven , like its predecessor Friends That Break Your Heart , finds Blake reconnecting with his electronic music roots, similar to his acclaimed early EPs.

Ahead of the LP’s Sept. 8 release, Blake has shared the Oliver Hudson-directed video for the first single “Big Hammer,” a predominantly instrumental track with sampled vocals but none from Blake himself:

A month after the album’s release, Blake will embark on a brief North American tour that stretches from Queens to Los Angeles over the course of two weeks.

Musk Admits He Doesn't Fact-Check Himself and Has Two Burner Accounts on Twitter

The wait is over: billie eilish announces new album 'hit me hard and soft', taylor swift teases 'the tortured poets department' during solar eclipse, dream theater on emotional mike portnoy reunion, first 40th anniversary tour dates.

Playing Robots Into Heaven Track List 1. “Asking to Break” 2. “Loading” 3. “Tell Me” 4. “Fall Back” 5. “He’s Been Wonderful” 6. “Big Hammer” 7. “I Want You to Know” 8. “Night Sky” 9. “Fire the Editor” 10. “If You Can Hear Me” 11. “Playing Robots Into Heaven”

James Blake Tour Dates Oct. 3 – Atlanta, GA @ Coca Cola Roxy Oct. 5 – Queens, NY @ Knockdown Center Oct. 9 – Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall at Fenway Oct. 10 – Montreal, QC @ L’Olympia Oct. 12 – Toronto, ON @ Rebel Oct. 14 – Chicago, IL @ Aragon Ballroom Oct. 16 – San Francisco, CA @ The Masonic Theater Oct. 19 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Jimmy Fallon Performs 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' With Heart During Solar Eclipse

• Every Now and Then
• By Larisha Paul

J. Cole’s ‘7 Minute Drill’ Wasn’t the ‘Goofiest’ Thing on His New Album

• By Mankaprr Conteh

'I Feel So Much More Myself Than I've Ever Felt:' Helado Negro Finds Freedom on 'Phasor'

• deep listening
• By Julyssa Lopez

Taylor Swift Teases 'The Tortured Poets Department' During Solar Eclipse

• Total Eclipse
• By Kalia Richardson

Maggie Rose Cements Her Country-Soul Reinvention on 'No One Gets Out Alive'

• ALBUM REVIEW
• By Joseph Hudak

Most Popular

Joaquin phoenix, elliott gould, chloe fineman and more jewish creatives support jonathan glazer's oscars speech in open letter (exclusive), where to stream 'quiet on set: the dark side of kids tv' online, sources claim john travolta is ‘totally smitten’ with this co-star, christian combs, diddy's son, accused of sexually assaulting and drugging woman in looming lawsuit, you might also like, miptv sees 40% participation drop during final year in cannes as fest details plans for london move, l’occitane suspends trading in shares in advance of takeover announcement, the best medicine balls, according to fitness trainers, for ‘ripley,’ murder is easy — but the aftermath is a different story, uconn hoops spending pays off with second straight ncaa title.

Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.

Verify it's you

Please log in.

Moscow Metro Underground Small-Group Tour - With Reviews & Ratings

Moscow metro underground small-group tour.

• See more images

Tour Information

Key Details

• Mobile Voucher Accepted
• Free Cancellation
• Duration: 3 Hrs
• Language: English
• Departure Time : 10:00 AM
• Departure Details : Karl Marks Monument on Revolution Square, metro stop: Square of Revolution
• Return Details : Metro Smolenskaya
• If you cancel at least 4 day(s) in advance of the scheduled departure, there is no cancellation fee.
• If you cancel within 3 day(s) of the scheduled departure, there is a 100 percent cancellation fee.
• Tours booked using discount coupon codes will be non refundable.

Go beneath the streets on this tour of the spectacular, mind-bending Moscow Metro! Be awed by architecture and spot the Propaganda , then hear soviet stories from a local in the know. Finish it all up above ground, looking up to Stalins skyscrapers, and get the inside scoop on whats gone on behind those walls.

Know More about this tour

We begin our Moscow tour beneath the city, exploring the underground palace of the Moscow Metro. From the Square of Revolution station, famous for its huge statues of soviet people (an armed soldier, a farmer with a rooster, a warrior, and more), we’ll move onto some of the most significant stations, where impressive mosaics, columns, and chandeliers will boggle your eyes! Moreover, these stations reveal a big part of soviet reality — the walls depict plenty of Propaganda , with party leaders looking down from images on the walls. Your local guide will share personal stories of his/her family from USSR times, giving you insight into Russia’s complicated past and present. Then we’re coming back up to street level, where we’ll take a break and refuel with some Russian fast food: traditional pancakes, called bliny. And then, stomachs satiated, we are ready to move forward! We’ll take the eco-friendly electric trolleybus, with a route along the Moscow Garden Ring. Used mainly by Russian babushkas(grannies) during the day, the trolleybus hits peak hours in the mornings and evenings, when many locals use it going to and from their days. Our first stop will be the Aviator’s House, one of Stalin’s Seven Sisters, followed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs — and you’ll hear the legends of what has gone on inside the walls. Throughout your Moscow tour, you’ll learn curious facts from soviet history while seeing how Russia exists now, 25 years after the USSR.

Local English-speaking guide

Pancake snack and drink

Additional food and drinks

Tickets for public transport

Souvenirs and items of a personal nature

Tips and gratuities for the guide

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking

Dress standard: Please wear comfortable shoes for walking. For your Urban Adventure you will be in a small group of a maximum of 12 people

Traveler Reviews

This tour exceeded our expectations. Nikolai (Nick), our tour guide, was very knowledgeable, thorough, and has a great personality. He didn't take shortcuts and really covered everything that was on the agenda in great detail. We saw beautiful metro stations and learned the history behind them, including many of the murals and designs.

We did the tour with Anna her knowledge and understanding of the History surrounding the metro brought the tour alive. Well done Anna!

This tour was amazing!

Anna was a great tour guide. She gave us heaps of interesting information, was very friendly, and very kindly showed us how to get to our next tour.

Amazing beauty and history.

An excellent tour helped by an absolutely amazing guide. Anna gave a great insight into the history of the metro helped by additional material she had prepared.

great tour and guide - thanks again

great will do it again, Miriam ke was very good as a guide she has lived here all here life so knew every interesting detail.a good day

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

James Blake’s music subscription model is a fantasy that disadvantages fans and musicians

With unrealistic costs, the inability to share music and the pressure of consumer expectations, the producer’s collaboration with Vault doesn’t add up

A s a recording artist and designer, I’ve spent years thinking about digital music platforms and how they could be better for artists and fans. The current all-you-can-eat subscription model of Spotify , Apple Music and co is disenfranchising artists – the outcome a diminishing of value for music-makers and subconsciously for fans, turning music into a commodity that seems free, even worthless.

If music doesn’t cost enough, surely the answer is to pay more. That doesn’t mean you should pay more to Spotify – the model of chucking all the income in a big pot and dividing it proportionally between the most popular artists feels, to many, like a stitch-up by the major labels. Direct support of artists is definitely the way forward. But what is the best way to support them? Some will say buy merch and tour tickets, both potential loss-makers, while MP3 download figures are ever dwindling. Others, such as James Blake , have suggested individual subscription models.

Earlier this month, the British producer went viral with his complaints about the unfairness of the low payouts of mainstream music platforms and their effect on artists’ ability to support themselves. Last week, he announced that he was participating in the launch of Vault, an artist-to-fan streaming platform based around musicians sharing unreleased tracks for $5 a month. “It’s music direct from me to you, where no one can gatekeep what I release to you, or delay my releases,” he said. “And it’s got a chat section for everyone to discuss the music.” It’s a model familiar to Patreon and even OnlyFans – but while it may work for podcasters and other episodic content creators, I believe it’s not the best route for musicians, and ultimately bad for fans, too.

The reason that per-artist subscriptions don’t make sense for fans is basic maths: multiply the number of artists you really care about by the subscription fees and the costs soon seem unrealistic, resulting in fans investing in one artist at the expense of another. And once listeners are locked in, there is a level of guilt associated with cancelling: the general subscription model is described as a “dark pattern” that makes emotional hostages of fans who want to break free of the monthly commitment.

Moreover, when musicians move to subscription models, they have a certain obligation to create content that has already been paid for: dance, monkey, dance! My music doesn’t exist because it was paid for, and even if no one ever paid me I’d still try to make as much as I could. Motivation to create is no bad thing, but the pressure to meet deadlines and consumer expectations is often creatively counterproductive – not to mention suspiciously similar to Spotify, which incentivises artists to maintain a constant drip-feed of releases in order to stay buoyant in playlists and editorial content. Any subscription model also locks music behind a paywall: it’s a sad, cynical world in which you discover something you love but can’t share.

There is a better way for listeners to directly invest in an artist’s work and gain access to exclusive fan communities without walling off access to that music. The term “blockchain” has dropped out of the public consciousness since the calming of the NFT frenzy of the early 2020s. But the technology – essentially data hosting by verified authors – offers a simple solution for fans wanting to demonstrate their investment in a musician’s work. I have been working on a platform called Supercollector, where the model is $10 a track. While that may sound expensive, it essentially sells fans a one-off verification that could allow them to participate in any wider ecosystem I might create, like entry to a web community along the lines of Blake’s “chat section”. It also affirms the desires of hardcore fans to be seen as “first” to support an artist, with publicly verified dated collections and an open record of the fact that they spent money on the music. While the artist doesn’t earn as regularly as they would with a monthly subscription, it instils a behaviour of valuing music, rather than renting access to a churn of content produced to obligation.

It is one of many possible solutions – along with buying tickets and merch or using Bandcamp Fridays , when the audio distribution platform waives its fees and you buy direct from artists – though the specific platforms and products are secondary to the value of music itself. Regardless of my misgivings about Blake’s idea, he has at least opened up the conversation. Rather than take the fight to cloistered subscription cells, it’s one that requires solidarity between musicians – and fans.

after newsletter promotion

• James Blake
• Music streaming

Most viewed

• Preplanned tours
• Daytrips out of Moscow
• Themed tours
• Customized tours
• St. Petersburg

Moscow Metro

The Moscow Metro Tour is included in most guided tours’ itineraries. Opened in 1935, under Stalin’s regime, the metro was not only meant to solve transport problems, but also was hailed as “a people’s palace”. Every station you will see during your Moscow metro tour looks like a palace room. There are bright paintings, mosaics, stained glass, bronze statues… Our Moscow metro tour includes the most impressive stations best architects and designers worked at - Ploshchad Revolutsii, Mayakovskaya, Komsomolskaya, Kievskaya, Novoslobodskaya and some others.

What is the kremlin in russia?

The guide will not only help you navigate the metro, but will also provide you with fascinating background tales for the images you see and a history of each station.

And there some stories to be told during the Moscow metro tour! The deepest station - Park Pobedy - is 84 metres under the ground with the world longest escalator of 140 meters. Parts of the so-called Metro-2, a secret strategic system of underground tunnels, was used for its construction.

During the Second World War the metro itself became a strategic asset: it was turned into the city's biggest bomb-shelter and one of the stations even became a library. 217 children were born here in 1941-1942! The metro is the most effective means of transport in the capital.

There are almost 200 stations 196 at the moment and trains run every 90 seconds! The guide of your Moscow metro tour can explain to you how to buy tickets and find your way if you plan to get around by yourself.