The Knight-Tutt House on Franklin Street in downtown Marblehead, Massachusetts, is a great example of a pre-Revolutionary Georgian home built for the working class. The house, like its neighbor, has a three-bay, side-hall facade with a large, central chimney. The residence was built around 1750 for William Knight (1722-1799), who worked as a shoreman, loading and unloading the many ships that docked in Marblehead harbor. By 1850, the house was jointly owned by an F. Bateman and William Russell Tutt, a shoemaker. The residence remains one of a large number of well-preserved Colonial homes in the town of Marblehead, a testament to preservation planning and its effect on streetscapes and vibrant communities.
John Barnard (1681-1770) was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and received his degrees from Harvard in 1700 and 1703, reading theology under Cotton Mather. After graduating, he was appointed one of the five chaplains for the expedition against Port-Royal, a French-colonized settlement in present-day Nova Scotia. After time in Barbados and England, Barnard was ordained by the Marblehead Congregational church on in July 1716, and served that church for the rest of his life. Upon arriving to Marblehead, he had this Georgian residence built on Franklin Street, completed by 1717. The house is said to be one of the first Georgian facades in the town, showcasing Reverend Barnard’s standing in the community and knowledge of English Georgian residences across the ocean. The early Georgian house exhibits a gambrel roof, nearly symmetrical facade with center hall plan, and high ceilings inside for its time. The house was converted into condominiums in 1988 and has retained its historic appearance, at least at the exterior, ever since.
The old Jonah Warren Homestead of Westborough, Massachusetts, was built in 1727 on the Old Connecticut Path, a former Native American trail, and is among the earliest and best-preserved examples of 18th-century domestic architecture in Westborough. The Colonial-era house was built for Jonah Warren (1700-1780) and his wife Elizabeth Seaverns (1700-1775), who moved from Watertown to Westborough in 1720, the couple would have 13 children. The home remained in the family for generations. Jonah was a tanner by trade, but also sold wooden shingles, cut from nearby cedar swamps. In 1778, the couple’s son, Aaron, owned the house, as he returned home to take care of his aging father. The property was later owned by Aaron’s son, David Warren, and later passed to his only child, a daughter, Mary Waterman Warren (1799-1858), who married Josiah Fay (1797-1869) in 1838. The home was inherited by Hercules Warren Fay, a Harvard-educated reverend and author. The homestead remained in the family until the last of Hercules’ children died in 1957. The Warren Homestead remains as one of the finest and best-preserved Colonial-era residences in Central Massachusetts.
Reverend Ebenezer Parkman (1703-1782) was a graduate of Harvard University and served as the first minister in Westborough, Massachusetts, from 1724 until his death. The town’s first meetinghouse was located on Powder Hill; however, in 1748, the community decided to build a new meetinghouse closer to the town center. In 1750, the town built Reverend Parkman a second parsonage, this large Georgian house, closer to the meetinghouse which would accommodate his growing family. It is said that when built, some members of the church felt the home was too grand and luxurious for the minister and particularly made reference to the numerous windows as glass was an expensive commodity at the time. From his residence and serving as the town’s minister for 58 years, Parkman watched his town grow from an English settlement on the fringe of civilization to a prosperous village in the independent United States. Parkman’s insights into the life of these times are recorded in his daily journal, now housed at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester. It has also been digitized, providing a glimpse into daily life at the time. The house was originally located nearby but relocated in 1867 to its present location on High Street, where it remains in a great state of preservation.
In about 1751, Emerson Orcutt (1713-1777) purchased land in North Abington, Massachusetts, and built a half cape for his family. In 1762, Orcutt sold some of the land to John Ford, who was later a Lieutenant in the Continental Army, and according to local tradition, Ford added the other half of this current Georgian Cape house, giving it the current configuration. Character defining architectural details include an entry surround with fluted pilasters, and dentil cornice band on the main facade, 12-over-12 sash windows, and the central chimney, which would have heated both sides of the house. The property remained in the Ford family for over 100 years, and has since been converted back to a single family residence. Today, the charming pre-Revolutionary cottage is one of the oldest extant houses in Abington.
The Samuel Pellett House in Canterbury, Connecticut, dates to the mid-18th century and is an excellent example of a Colonial-era home in this part of the state. Research in the land records suggests that this house may date from the time of Samuel Pellett’s second marriage in 1752 to Hannah Underwood. The couple planted two sycamore trees in front of the house to signify husband and wife but one was lost in the 1938 hurricane while the other survives to this day. According to historians, Sarah Harris Fayerweather, the first Black student at Prudence Crandall’s school nearby, worked as a servant in this house, then owned by Jedediah Shepard. The Pellett House is an excellent example of a Colonial Georgian home in Connecticut, with clapboard siding, center chimney, five-bay facade and small pane sash windows.
The Edward Waldo House in Scotland, Connecticut, is a vernacular Georgian house with saltbox roof and wings which from its erection about 1715 until 1971 was owned by members of the Waldo family. Edward Waldo (1684-1767) purchased land here along the Shetucket River in 1702 and by 1715, erected this house. The saltbox house which Edward Waldo built was one of the first houses in the town of Scotland and would remain in successive generations of the family for centuries. The house was the birthplace of Samuel Lovett Waldo (1783-1861), a portraitist who was a founder of the National Academy of Design as well as Daniel Waldo, chaplain of Congress, 1856-1858, and was one of seven Revolutionary War veterans who, having survived into the age of photography, were featured in the 1864 book The Last Men of the Revolution. The last Waldo owner, Miss Ruth Waldo died in1975. She insured the preservation of her family homestead by bequeathing the house, its contents, and about 15 acres of land to the Antiquarian & Landmarks Society of Connecticut Inc. and the surrounding acreage to the Connecticut Forest and Park Association, creating an enduring legacy for centuries to come. The house, set amongst a quiet country road, is evocative of early days in Scotland, Connecticut, and is one of the finest-preserved Colonial homes in this part of the state.
Built before the American Revolution, this large Georgian residence is one of the oldest extant houses in the charming town of Cornwall, Connecticut. Located on Popple Swamp Road just outside the central village, the Pierce Homestead dates to circa 1750 (the sign dates the house to 1768, but information from the town history mentions a house there earlier) and is a stellar example of a simple, two-story Georgian house with five-bay facade and 12-over-12 sash windows. This property was purchased by Joshua Pierce in 1748 and included over 300-acres of farmland, the farmhouse was likely built within a matter of years. The house was likely expanded and modernized by his son, Seth Pierce, who inherited the property in the 1790s. The farm remained in the Pierce Family for generations and was lovingly restored in the 20th century. It is a great example of a well-preserved 18th century farmhouse in Litchfield County, Connecticut.
This early Colonial house with unique, rusticated wood coursing carved, treated, and painted to resemble ashlar stone, can be found on Prospect Hill Street in Newport, Rhode Island. This is the Brattle-Thurston House, a circa 1749 Georgian residence of an appropriate gray color, yet when I stopped by in early 2024, had peeling paint. The house was originally part of the Latham Thurston estate, and was later rented or purchased by Robert Brattle (Brattell), who lived here with his wife, children, and an enslaved person according to the 1790 census. The home would later be owned by William Thurston, a hatter and dyer, who likely inherited the residence from his ancestor. Beyond the unique rusticated wood siding, the design features splayed lintels, the main entrance on the side elevation and a later entrance facing the street with segmental pediment above.
This beautiful Georgian house in Newport, with its prominent gambrel roof oriented toward the street, was built by 1760 and owned by Metcalf Bowler (1726-1789), a merchant, politician, and magistrate. Bowler was for many years speaker of the house in the Rhode Island colonial assembly, and it was discovered in the 20th century that he was a paid informant (spy) for the British during the Revolutionary War. The house was owned by Metcalf before he would purchase what is now known as the Vernon House, an even more stately Georgian mansion designed by Peter Harrison. This house was sold, and later owned by Charles Wickham, a Captain in the war, and later to the Burdick and Merrill families.
This pre-Revolutionary double-house is located at 128-130 Prospect Hill Street in the architectural historian paradise that is Newport, Rhode Island. This property was originally platted and purchased in 1752 by Anthony Shaw. By 1760, local papers advertised the property for sale, giving a built-by date. In 1777, the house was owned by Anthony Shaw Jr. and John Thurston. The property was purchased before the Civil War and went into single-ownership, which has remained to this day. The house, while seemingly a single-family, is preserved lovingly by the owners, who even retained the second front door!
In 1754, a 32-year-old brickmaker Jeremiah Page built this large, gambrel-roofed Georgian house in Danvers, Massachusetts, for his young family. Jeremiah and his first wife, Sarah, raised nine children here and dreamed of liberty from England. Following the Tea Act, passed by British Parliament in 1773 that granted the British East India Company Tea a monopoly on tea sales in the American colonies, Page was said to have demanded that “none shall drink tea in my house.” One evening when her husband was out, Sarah Page is said to have invited several women from the neighborhood up to the porch atop the Page House’s gambrel roof to enjoy tea. Larcom quotes Page as telling her friends, “Upon a house is not within it,” thereby finding a loophole around her husband’s directive. This legend was enshrined in the poem “The Gambrel Roof” (1874) by Lucy Larcom, who knew Sarah Page’s granddaughter. Jeremiah Page would fight in the Revolution, serving as a Captain. The Page House remained in the family for two more generations, Sarah Page’s daughter in-law, Mary Page died in 1876 and her will put the property into a trust with the stipulation that once there were no longer any Page descendants to live there, the historic house was to be torn down. After Mary Page’s daughter Anne Lemist Page died in 1913, the trustee planned to demolish it according to her wishes. The Danvers Historical Society sprung into action and sued to oppose the will, fighting to preserve this significant home. They won, and relocated the home a block from Elm Street to its present site on Page Street, where it stands today. The Danvers Historical Society maintain the structure to this day, including the “porch” at the roof where the tea party once took place.
This residence sits on the historic Elm Street in Georgetown, Massachusetts, and is one of the best late-Georgian style dwellings in the town. The house was built in 1797 for Nathaniel Nelson (1767-1853), a banker who worked in Newburyport, just years after his marriage to Sally Chaplin. Nathaniel descended from Thomas Nelson (1615-1648), who was among the twenty families who had come to the New World in the winter of 1638 with the Puritan cleric Ezekiel Rogers (1590-1660). With Rogers most of these families settled at Rowley, incorporated in 1639 with Georgetown later setting off from Rowley, creating their own town in 1838. Nathaniel and many of his family worked as tanners, preparing the skins of animals into leather, and had shops in the area. Mr. Nelson was such an esteemed member of society, that when the War of 1812 broke out, he was asked to store money and gold from Newburyport in his basement, away from the coast, hiding it from the British forces. After successive ownership, the residence was purchased in 1936 by Everett A. and Mary A. Spaulding. A Georgetown native, Everett Augustus Spaulding made colonial revival furniture under the corporate name Spaulding Colonial Reproductions. The residence remains in spectacular condition, with its large central chimney, symmetrical façade, portico, and hipped roof punctuated by pedimented dormers.
Built in 1765 for Rev. Samuel Foxcroft (1734-1807), this grand two and a half story house was the first major frame dwelling in New Gloucester, Maine. Its large scale and such fine mid-18th century architectural features as the triangular doorway pediment and quoins at the corners make this a house befitting the community’s first minister. Born in Boston in 1735, Foxcroft was the son of the Rev. Thomas Foxcroft, pastor of the First Church of Boston from 1717 to 1769. The younger Foxcroft graduated from Harvard in 1754 and answered the call of the New Gloucester Congregationalists ten years later, a brand new town in the wilderness of Maine. He was ordained in the blockhouse, a defensive structure from attacking native peoples, in January of 1765 and continued his ministry in the town until 1793, having the first purpose-built meetinghouse completed in 1773. The last years of his life were spent in poor health and he died at his home in 1807 at the age of 72.
The Preston-King House of New Ipswich, New Hampshire, is a 2 1/2-story wood frame Georgian house and unique for its asymmetrical six-bay facade. John Preston I (1739-1803) built this house in 1764. Preston was a doctor, a profession followed by his son of the same name. As well as being the town’s leading physician, he was a member of the first Board of Selectmen and a member of the Convention for framing the State Constitution, also holding many local offices. Following his death, the house passed to his youngest daughter Anna, and her husband, Seth King, a manufacturer, in 1808. The house has been restored to its Colonial appearance and makes a statement without the frills and detailing of the Victorian style.
Buildings of New England 