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NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) RECEIVE OMB No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service MAY - 3 2008 569 National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NATIONAL REGISTER, HISTORY & EDUCATION his form is for use in nominating or requesting determinations for individual preperties and distriots.See instructions in How to Complete the Nationa Register of Historic Places Registration Form (National Register Bulletin 16A). Complete each item by marking "x" in the appropriate box or by entering the information requested. If any item does not apply to the property being documented, enter "N/A" for "not applicable." For functions, architectural classification, materials, and areas of significance, enter only categories and subcategories from the instructions. Place additional entries and narrative items on continuation sheets (NPS Form 10-900a).
Use a typewriter, word processor, or computer, to complete all items. 1. Name of Property historic name BENJAMIN CARYL HOUSE other names/site number 2. Location street & number 107 DEDHAM STREEI _ not for publication city or town DOVER vicinity stateMASSACHUSETTS code_MA countyNORFOLK code_021 _ zip code 02030 3. State/Federal Agency Certification As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1986, as amended, I hereby certify that this& nomination - request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60. In my opinion, the propert 7 meets - does not meet the National Reaister Criteria. I recommend that this property be considered significan - nationally - statewide f locally.
(- See continuation sheet for additional comments.) uditz6.Madononch Signature of certifying official/Title Judith BMcDonough, Executive Director 428/2000 Massachusetts Historical Commission, State Historic Preservation Officer State or Federal agency and bureau In my opinion, the property meets does not meet the National Register criteria. (O See continuation sheet for additional Comments.) Signature of certifying official/Title Date State or Federal agency and bureau 4. Nafional Park Service Certification I, hereby certify that this property is: t entered in the National Register - See continuation sheet. - determined eligible for the National Register - See continuation sheet. - determined not eligible for the National Register - removed from the National Register - other (explain): Date of Action Eloon1H. Reall 6200 Benjamin Caryl House Name of Property 5.
Classification Ownership of Property (Check as many boxes as apply) -private X public-local _ public-State _ public-Federal (Check only one box) Xbuilding(s) _ district _ site _ structure - object Norfolk, MA County and State Number of Resources within Property (Do not include previously listed resources in the count.) Contributing Noncontributing 2 _building _sites _ structures objects Total 2 Number of contributing resources previously listed in the National Register Name of related multiple property listing (Enter "N/A" if property is not part of a multiple property listing.) N/A 6. Function or Use Historic Functions (Enter categories from instructions) RESIDENCE: single-family dwelling Current Functions (Enter categories from instructions) CULTURE: museum 7.
Description Architectural Classification (Enter categories from instructions) Colonial Materials (Enter categories from instructions) foundation_stone walls clapboard roof other cedar shingle Narrative Description (Describe the historic and current condition of the property on one or more continuation sheets.) poesfom 10-9004 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number - 7 Page - OMB Approvel Na 1024-0018 Caryl House Dover (Norfolk Co.), Mass. The Caryl House is located at 107 Dedham Street in the Town of Dover, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, set within Caryl Park, a town recreation area which now occupies the property's former farmland.
Traditionally dated to 1777, the house takes the regionally- significant center-chimney form, and although small modern additions have been made to the rear of the building, it is exceptionally well preserved. The house was built for the town's first settled minister, Rev. Benjamin Caryl (1732-1811), and descended through three generations of his descendants before it was sold out of the family in 1898. That owner, George Ellis Chickering, bequeathed the house and land to the town in 1920. Since that time the house has been held by the town and operated by the Dover Historical Society as a historic house museum. The Caryl House is located along one of the town's primary roadways, sited to the west of Noanet Brook and to the east of the town center, which still includes only a handful of public buildings and residences.
The area around the Caryl House remains rural in character, with few houses along Dedham Street. The Caryl House itself is surrounded by the open space of the town's Caryl Park, bequeathed at the same time as the house. Including the eighty-two acres which constituted the Caryl farm, Caryl Park includes a leaf composting facility, tennis courts, softball and soccer fields, a tot lot, and a network of trails. The house sits on the south side of the street facing to the north, set back from the road with a picket fence extending from each front corner of the house to mark its door yard. A gravel drive is located to the right or west of the house, leading to a small parking area. The house's only separate outbuilding is located further to the west at the end of a right-angled spur of the drive, a small gable-roofed single-bay garage.
Roofed in asphalt shingles and covered in dark clapboards, the garage has a double- leafed door at the gable end and double-hung sash along the long walls. At the rear of the house is a demonstration kitchen garden installed in 1992. It is surrounded with a high solid fence extending from the outer rear corner of the house and turning a right angle to join the house's rear ell. A path extends from the drive to the gate near the fence's corner. Inside raised rectangular beds yield dye, medicinal, and culinary herbs. The yard has pear, apple, and shade trees and ornamental bushes. The Caryl House's two-story main block has a gable roof, a central chimney on the ridge, and a symmetrical five-bay facade, a fine example of New England's best- known house type. The side elevations are also symmetrically fenestrated, with a window in each pile of each story, as well as centered in the gable.
The rear elevation is more sparsely fenestrated, with a central rear door covered by a simple shed-roofed hood, two windows to its left lighting the first floor, and a single small window in the second story. The roof is wood shingled and the clapboarded walls are trimmed with plain corner boards and a molded cornice enriched by modillion blocks. Ornament is (continued) pos5om 10-200- United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet OMB Aaprovel Na 1024-0018 Section number - 1 Page . 2 Caryl House Dover (Norfolk Co.), Mass.
concentrated around the center paneled door, with fluted pilasters flanking the five lights of the transom in the entablature and supporting a pediment with matching modillion blocks The 6/9 double-hung sash windows on the front of the house have thick molded lintels while those on the side elevations are simpler, with molded surrounds. The house sits on a fieldstone foundation and the cellar sits under the western section of the main block. A complex four-part ell extends from the left rear of the house. A shed- roofed section is set closest to the house extending the plane of the main block's side elevation and located behind the southeast section of the main block; this former shed encloses the docents' office.
Set at right angles to this section is a salt-box shaped section which faces into the rear yard and extends beyond the plane of the side elevation of the main block; it is lit with a pair of nine-pane sash and a simply trimmed door, providing entry into the caretaker's apartment which occupies the rest of the ell. The third section is a story-and -a-half gable block set with its ridge parallel to the smaller sections next to it; it is fenestrated with 6/6 double-hung sash on the long walls and the gable ends. A small shed-roofed segment extends the garden-facing wall plane an additional bay and, because the yard slopes down to the rear, this section has a lower level opening to ground level on the rear; a shed-roofed oil tank shed has been added at this level. These ells were added in 1933 and 1942 to provide caretaker housing and modern conveniences; the oil tank was added in 1994.
Center-chimney houses became popular early in the 18th century among households seeking a full complement of hall, parlor, and kitchen in their first-floor plan, and the Caryl House follows the classic center-chimney form. A lobby entry, a hall or dining room, and a parlor occupy the front pile of the building and a kitchen and flanking corner chambers occupy the rear pile. The exceptionally wide entry has plain plastered walls and the three-run stair has vase-shaped balusters and square newel posts. The most elaborately decorated room is the parlor on the west side, with the fully-paneled fireplace wall and adjacent inner wall providing the focus for ornament. The fireplace opening has a bolection molding surround and is flanked by fluted pilasters which reach the room's cornice.
Within that frame, a wide shallow panel runs just above the molding, under a single large central and two flanking narrower panels. The remaining paneling is laid out with a shallow panel at the top of the wall and two equal-sized long panels below, broken at the level of a dado. In the northwest corner of the room, opposite the entry and fireplace, there is evidence that a corner cupboard had been added after the house's initial finish, but it has been removed. The ceiling and the other three walls are plastered and boxed corner posts are exposed in each corner. The room on the opposite side of the entry has a simpler fireplace wall, with a bolection molding around the opening and cupboards on either side and above it.
The small upper cupboard and the (continued) pesfam 10s00a United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet OMB Approvel Na. 1024-0018 Section number - 1 Page _ 3 Caryl House Dover (Norfolk Co.), Mass. left cupboard have simple board surrounds and doors. The right cupboard, by contrast, is a more elaborate design, an 18th-century beaufait designed to display household goods and treasures. Its lower section has double-leafed paneled doors while the upper section is open shelving, half-round in shape with shelves cut to line the curve and provide a central round display. Otherwise the wall and ceiling treatments match the other front room. The rear pile of the first story includes a central kitchen, stairs to the cellar and the second story, a small service room in the west corner, and a small chamber in the east corner.
In the center of the kitchen is a large fireplace with an oven adjacent to the left. The walls are covered in vertical feather-edged paneling and the ceiling is open to reveal the framing of the girts and joists for the floor above. This appears to have been so designed, a pattern increasingly associated with kitchen and service room finish in early New England buildings. The stair, which has been altered, runs from the rear of the house up to the second story, and the rebuilt stairs to the cellar are located below it. The small service room, which may have been a dairy, has vertical feather-edged paneling on the walls and exposed unboxed posts and joisted ceiling, with evidence of earlier shelving. The small east chamber, perhaps a study, was an addition to the plan, closed off not long after the house was built.
It has its own corner chimney and its flew runs up through the second story and is then cantilevered to the main chimney in the attic. This chamber is also finished in vertical boards, but these are rabetted on the fireplace wall and exterior walls and feather-edged on the partition wall. The second story has the same plan as the original first-floor plan, with large finished chambers on either side of the stair hall in the front pile and a largely unfinished room and a small corner room in the rear pile. The east front room has plastered walls with exposed boxed corner posts and a fireplace recessed into the wall within angled reveals. The fireplace is trimmed in plain boards with a molded edge and a bolection molding runs across the top of the fireplace opening between the reveals.
The west front room is similarly trimmed, with the addition of a cupboard flanking the fireplace to the left and a small cupboard in the board-covered wall above it. The large rear room is the most distinctive, because neither its ceiling nor its interior wall have been finished. This room has not been provided with its own fireplace, but the chimney and the backs of the walls of the front rooms are exposed within the rear room. A small room occupies the west corner of the rear pile, set off by the vertical feather-edged paneling found on the first floor, and with an open joisted ceiling as well. The frame and construction details of the Caryl House conform to 18th century practice in general but exhibit some distinctive features as well.
The studded timber frame is two stories in height and two piles in depth, and includes an (continued) posfom 10-900a United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet OMB Aaprovel Na. 1024-0018 Section number _ 7 Page - 4 Caryl House Dover (Norfolk Co.), Mass. exceptionally wide central chimney bay and flanking room bays. The corner posts are exposed but usually boxed in each room; there are no posts in the lateral walls dividing the front from the rear pile. Its other framing members, its girts, braces, and studs, are primarily concealed behind plaster. Its joists, however, are visible in the rear piles of rooms, revealing a particularly heavy framing method.
On the first floor, joists designed to be exposed are square in section, while those perhaps designed to have been covered by a plaster ceiling are deeper, creating a plane flush with the deep girts. On the second floor, closely-set joists alternate between large joists dove-tailed into the plates and smaller ones butt-cogged into the plates; the dove-tailed joists are positioned over the posts and under rafters to complete the roof truss. The exposed rear walls of the front rooms, visible from the rear room, show intriguing evidence of remodeling in the house, with evidence that the sawn lath had previously been installed elsewhere, then turned over and reinstalled here. The interior of this space is framed with several re-used members, perhaps from an earlier building on the parcel. The roof is a symmetrical gable, framed exclusively of rafters.
It has been reinforced with modern purlins and post supports to correct its sway. The flew from the added chamber fireplace runs across a section of the garret, supported by two chimney piers to join the main chimney. The house appears to have experienced only minimal redecoration and remodeling during its long history, so much of the original fabric has remained in place. Abbott Cummings, writing in 1959, noted that the house had come down in "wonderfully untouched condition." Several major repair and restoration campaigns have been identified, but their cumulative effects appear to have been minimal and generally sensitive. Some key alterations have been mentioned and closer physical analysis, including paint and plaster analysis and controlled exposure of key building features, would provide additional information on the exact sequence of alterations and repairs.
During the 1950s the front rooms were repaired, plastered, papered, and painted, and the north side of the exterior was re-clapboarded. In 1960 the first floor was sured, the cellar stair reconstructed, the roof truss support constructed, and the exterior repaired, and a set of measured drawings prepared by Hugo Olson. In 1975 additional exterior repairs were completed, and in 1981/82 restoration work was supervised by Gertrude D. Black. The house is now furnished to represent a late 18th and early 19th century period of occupation. Archaeological Description While no prehistoric sites are present on the property or in the general area (within one mile), it is possible that sites are present. The house is located in a well drained, leve! to moderately sloping area.
However, the nearest wetlands are over 1000 feet away, an important locational factor that reduces the prehistoric sensitivity of this locale. Given the (continued) prsfom 10s004 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet OMB Approvel Na. 1024-0018 Section number - Page _5 Caryl House Dover (Norfolk Co.), Mass. overall environment, known regional settlement information, the above factors, the size of the property (approximately one-half acre) and impacts from historic development of the parcel, a low potential exists for the recovery of prehistoric resources. A high potential exists for the recovery of historic archaeological resources on the Caryl House property.
Additional historical research combined with archaeological survey and testing can help determine the locations of known and potential structures associated with the two farms purchased by Benjamin Caryl for his farm. This information can be used to establish the spatial relationship between the existing house and structures already present during Caryl's three purchases for the farm. Structural evidence may survive from a house, outbuildings and other improvements reportedly constructed by Eleazer Ellis Jr. (ca.1728) on the 40 acre farm purchased from John Griggs in 1764. Structural evidence from agricultural related outbuildings might also survive on portions of the Wright Farm also purchased by Caryl in 1772. Similar archaeological evidence might also survive on a third parcel of land purchased by Caryl in 1788. The latter parcel joined lands acquired in the previous two purchases.
Structural evidence may also survive from barns and other outbuildings associated with the Caryl House traditionally dated to 1777. Previously, members of the Caryl family presumably lived in the Ellis House purchased with the Griggs property. Archaeological evidence of occupational related features (trash pits, privies, wells) should also survive on the property. Various types of occupational related features may be duplicated on the property as a result of the purchase of different farms, different families/residents through time and functional use. (end) Benjamin Caryl House Name of Property 8. Statement of Significance