Nomination for Brooks, Jonathan, House

From the form

The catalogue entry the section above was filed under.

Form No. 10-300 (Rev. 10-74) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF 140142851 NATIONAL PARK SERVICE DATA SHEET FOR NPS USE ONLY RECEIVEDJUN 4 1975 NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY -- NOMINATION FORM DATE ENTERED JUN 4 6 1378 SEE INSTRUCTIONS IN HOW TO COMPLETE NATIONAL REGISTER FORMS TYPE ALL ENTRIES -- COMPLETE APPLICABLE SECTIONS 1 NAME HISTORIC Jonathan Brooks House AND/OR COMMON same LOCATION STREET & NUMBER 2 Woburn Street - NOT FOR PUBLICATION CITY.

TOWN CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT Medford - VICINITY OF 7th STATE CODE COUNTY Massachusetts 025 Middlesex 3 CLASSIFICATION CODE 017 CATEGORY -DISTRICT X BUILDING(S) _STRUCTURE SITE _OBJECT OWNERSHIP _PUBLIC X PRIVATE _BOTH PUBLIC ACQUISITION _IN PROCESS _BEING CONSIDERED STATUS X OCCUPIED _UNOCCUPIED WORK IN PROGRESS ACCESSIBLE - YES: RESTRICTED - YES: UNRESTRICTED XNO PRESENT USE ARICULTURE -MUSEUM -COMMERCIAL -PARK _EDUCATIONAL XPRIVATE RESIDENCE -ENTERTAINMENT _RELIGIOUS GOVERNMENT _SCIENTIFIC _INDUSTRIAL -TRANSPORTATION MILITARY _OTHER: 4 OWNER OF PROPERTY EleaNOI I. Brooks STREET & NUMBER 2 woburn Street CITY. TOWN Medford - VICINITY OF 5 LOCATION OF LEGAL DESCRIPTION COURTHOUSE. REGISTRY OF DEEDS, ETC.

Middlesex County Registry of Deeds STREET & NUMBER STATE Massachusetts 02155 208 Cambridge Street CITY, TOWN STATE Massachusetts Cambridge 6 REPRESENTATION IN EXISTING SURVEYS TITLE Inventory of the Historic Assets of the Commonwealth; HABS DATE 1974 DEPOSITORY FOR SURVEY RECORDS CITY. TOWN XFEDERAL XSTATE _COUNTY _LOCAL Massachusetts Historical Commission; National Park Service Boston, Massachusetts STATE Washington, D.C. 7 DESCRIPTION CONDITION XEXCELLENT _GOOD -FAIR _DETERIORATED _RUINS CHECK ONE _UNALTERED X ALTERED CHECK ONE XORIGINAL SITE _MOVED DATE. UNEXPOSED DESCRIBE THE PRESENT AND ORIGINAL (IF KNOWN) PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

Description of the property

The Jonathan Brooks House is located at the junction of High Street and Woburn Street, facing Judkins Square. Built c. 1781-91, it is one of the oldest houses in the area and was part of the eighteenth and nineteenth century rural area which grew up west of the larger settlement at Medford Square. The house, a 2½ story structure with a gambrel roof, is covered with gold/brown wooden shingles on the facade and north and west elevations, (originally added in the mid-nineteenth century) and with aluminum siding of the same color on the south elevation. The steeply pitched gambrel roof is covered with asphalt shingles and has three shed do rmers symmetrically placed on the roof facade. The house rests on a stone and brick foundation, covered with stucco. The facade is five bays wide, with regular fenestration and 6/6 windows behind modern storm windows.

A one bay enclosed central entrance porch has a gable facing the street. The front door is flanked by pilasters and topped by four modern bull's eye lights. The interior of the house retains many of its original features, including the raised panel walls in two of the second floor bedrooms and in the first floor room in the southwest ell. There are many original six panel doors, some brass hardward, and the original window seats in the northeast parlor. The house has two ells; a 1½ story structure set on a foundation of stuccoed stone to the southwest, and a 1 story shed attached at a forty-five degree angle to the northwest corner of the main structure. The structure and details indicate that it may have served as a passage to a connecting barn or other out building, since demolished.

Alterations to the house in the early nineteenth century include a number of panel doors in the southeast parlor, the rebuilding of two kitchen fireplaces in the ells, and the addition of two Federal mantels in the front parlors. Both mantels are decorated with stucco garland and swags and reeded moldings. There is some evidence that the south wall of the house was the facade of a l or 1½ story central chimney cottage built in the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century. The framing of the south side, the evidence of an early large kitchen fireplace in the southwest ell and the excessive width of the south chimney, with its stone base half supported by brick piers, give credence to this theory. The brick piers probably replaced half of the stone base when the present house was constructed, to match the other chimney set on a brick arch.

The south elevation is now covered with aluminium to protect the original fabric underneath, which was being destroyed by pollution caused by its close proximity to the street.

From the form

The catalogue entry the section above was filed under.

SIGNIFICANCE PERIOD -PREHISTORIC -1400-1499 -1500-1599 * _1600-1699 X 1700-1799 X 1800-1899 -1900- ARCHEOLUGY-PREHISTORIC _ARCHEOLOGY-HISTORIC -AGRICULTURE XARCHITECTURE ART _COMMERCE _COMMUNICATIONS AREAS OF SIGNIFICANCE .-- CHECK AND JUSTIFY BELOW COMMUNITY PLANNING _LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE _CONSERVATION LAW _ECONOMICS _LITERATURE _EDUCATION _MILITARY LENGINEERING MUSIC X.EXPLORATION/SETTLEMENT _PHILOSOPHY X INDUSTRY _POLITICS/GOVERNMENT LINVENTION _RELIGION _SCIENCE _SCULPTURE _SOCIAL/HUMANITARIAN _THEATER _TRANSPORTATION _OTHER (SPECIFY) SPECIFIC DATES 1781-1791 BUILDER

Statement of significance

/ARCHITECT STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE The Jonathan Brooks House is significant as one of the few remaining eighteenth century houses in Medford, and for its long association with the Brooks family, who dominated Medford history throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The house was somewhat altered in the mid-nineteenth century but retains most of its original fabric, both exterior and interior, though the former is now covered. Various local sources assign dates as early as 1692 to the oldest part of the house, though this has not been verified. It is known that in 1768 when Jonathan Bradshaw, Jr., sold the property to Jonathan Patten, a "Frame covered with Boards" built by Bradshaw, stood on the property. This frame stood on the site of the south side and southwest ell of the present house. In 1781 Patten sold the property to Thomas Brooks III.

Between 1781 and 1791 Thomas Brooks III sold the property to Thomas Brooks, Jr., who in turn, sold it to his son, Jonathan, in 1791. The 1791 deed specifically mentions a house and barn on the land, suggesting that the - house, as it now stands, was built between 1781 and 1791, onto the existing cottage. Jonathan Brooks was a member of the wealthy Brooks family, who owned most of West Medford in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Jonathan owned a tanning yard near High and Canal Streets until his marriage in 1791 to Elizabeth Albree. After his marriage he moved his tannery to Whitman Road, where his wife's brothers, John and Samuel Albree, had run a tanning yard since the 1780's. Brooks kept his business at this location until 1837 when he sold both his house and the "Tanyard Place" to his son Charles.

Jonathan continued to live in the house until his death in 1847, even though it belonged to his son. Because of the house's location and its associations with the Brooks family, and especially with Charles Brooks, a local historian and educational reformer, the Jonathan Brooks House is a well known landmark in Medford. In the mid-nineteenth century, it was illustrated in the History of Medford, published in 1855 and again in 1886. The house is still owned and occupied by members of the Brooks family and has not passed out of the family since it was purchased by Thomas Brooks III in 1781.

The rest of the file

Bibliography, boundary description, and the people who prepared and reviewed the nomination.

MAJOR BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES Brooks, Charles, and Usher, James., History of the Town of Medford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Boston, 1886 Midalesex County Registry of Deeds, Cambridge, MA Interview: Mrs.

Eleanor Brooks, May 1975, Medford, Massachusetts 10 GEOGRAPHICAL DATA ACREAGE OF NOMINATED PROPERTY 7,370 square feet UTM REFERENCES A[1,9] ZONE 3/2,512,6,0 EASTING 14,619,815,8,01 NORTHING CLL LILu VERBAL BOUNDARY DESCRIPTION EASTIN( Lil,Lu NORTHING PLELLILLULILILIL LIST ALL STATES AND COUNTIES FOR PROPERTIES OVERLAPPING STATE OR COUNTY BOUNDARIES STATE CODE COUNTY CODE STATE CODE COUNTY CODE 11 FORM PREPARED BY NAME / TITLE ORGANIZATION Christine Boulding, Assistant Survey Director, and Brian Pfeiffer, Medford DATE Historical Commission Massachusetts Historical Commission STREET & NUMBER TELEPHONE 40 Beacon Street 617-727-8470 CITY OR TOWN STATE Boston Massachusetts 02108 12 STATE HISTORIC PRESERVATION OFFICER CERTIFICATION THE EVALUATED SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS PROPERTY WITHIN THE STATE IS: NATIONAL - STATE _ LOCAL As the designated State Historic Preservation Officer for the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (Public Law 89-665), I hereby nominate this property for inclusion in the National Register and certify that it has been evaluated according to the criteria and procedures set forthby the National Park Service.

STATE HISTORIC PRESERVATION OFFICER SIGNATURE Ojabech R.Amcedon TITLE Mass. State Historic Preservation Officer DATE 5/28/75 FOR NPS USE ONLY I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS PROPERTY IS INCLUDED IN THE NATIONAL REGISTER ax worte ATTEST: DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF ARCHEOLOGYANO HIT TORI PESERATIONT DATE 6/6/20 DATE JUN 2 5 1975 KEEPER OF THE NATIONAL REGISTER GPO 888-445 House state mass. procert Brooks, O ortn mimber 6: 4.25-1642 TECHNICAL Photos _/ Maps A number of changes but Middlesez CONTROL 6.5.75 HISTORIAN accept o.Ruuce 6/02/75 ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIAN Accept Jevorch. 6-13-15 ARCHEOLOGIST OTHER HAER Aue has been alteied Inventory Review REVIEW UNIT CHIEF Acerss Côle 6|25/15 BRANCH CHIEF National Register Write-up Federal Register Entry 8-5-75 Send-back Re-submit Entered United States Department of the Interior National Park Service WASO No.

7 KEEPER Wh 25 1975 JUN 2 6 1975 INT:2106-74 Form No. 10-301a (Pev. 10-74) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES PROPERTY PHOTOGRAPH FORM FOR NPS USE ONLY RECEIVED JUN 4 1975 DATE ENTERED JUN 2 6 1975 SEE INSTRUCTIONS IN HOW TO COMPLETE NATIONAL REGISTER FORMS TYPE ALL ENTRIES ENCLOSE WITH PHOTOGRAPH 2 NAME HISTORIC Jonathan Brooks House AND/OR COMMON same LOCATION CITY, TOWN Medford PHOTO REFERENCE PHOTO CREDIT Brian Pfeiffer NEGATIVE FILED AT _VICINITY OF Medford Historical Commission IDENTIFICATION DESCRIBE VIEW, DIRECTION, ETC. IF DISTRICT, GIVE BUILDING NAME & STREET east facade of Jonathan Brooks House COUNTY Middlesex STATE MA DATE OF PHOTO 1975 PHOTO NO. 1 MROPERTY OF THE NATIONAL REGISTER Form No. 10-301 (Rev.

10-74) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES PROPERTY MAP FORM FOR NPS USE ONLY 1975- DATE ENTERED SEE INSTRUCTIONS IN HOW TO COMPLETE NATIONAL REGISTER FORMS TYPE ALL ENTRIES -- ENCLOSE WITH MAP 2 6 2 NAME HISTORIC Jonathan Brooks House AND/OR COMMON same LOCATION CITY. TOWN Medford -VICINITY OF COUNTY Middlesex STATE MA 3 4 MAP REFERENCE SOURCE SCALE U.S.G.S. Boston North quadrangle DATE 1:24,000 REQUIREMENTS TO BE INCLUDED ON ALL MAPS 1. PROPERTY BOUNDARIES 2. NORTH ARROW 3. UTM REFERENCES 1971 INT: 2986R75 ENTRIES IN THE NATIONAL REGISTER STATE MASSACUUSETSS JUN 2 6 1975 Date Entered Name Location Brooks, Jozathan, liouse Hedford Middleses County Also Notified Ho: ar: Kennedy Brooke ion. Torbert B. Haedonald Regional Director, lorth Atlantie stato Iistorle Presezvation OfElcaz ites,Elizabeth R.

Amadon Erecutive Dizector Haasachusetts Iistorical Comission 40 3eacon Street nostos, Hassschusetts 02108 PR MMott/zow 6/26/75 INT: 2950-75 MNR Data Sheet DATE:32177 Reviewer INITIAS: Geo. NR DOE June 26, 1975 - NAME AS IT APPEARS IN FEDERAL REGISTER: Brooks, Jonathan, House OTHER NANES: LOCATION: STREET & NUMBER 2 Woburn Street CITY. TOWN Medford VICINITY OF STATE Massachusetts CONGRESSIUNAL DISTRICT 7th CoUNMiddlesex code 017 - OWNER OF PROPERTY: (Circle) PRIVATE STATE LOCAL GOV'T MUNICIPAL COUNTY OTHER cces FEDERAL(AGENCY NAME) : ADMINISTRATOR (underline) NPS REGION: (CIRCLEY N.ATLANTIC : HABS.

MID ATLANTIC SOUTHEAST MIDWEST SOUTHWEST ROCKY MOUNTAIN WEST PACIFIC NORTHWEST FEATURES: INTERIOR _Substantially intact-1 - unknown - 4 - not applicable - 7 CONDITION- LEXCELLENT -GOOO _FAIR EXTERIOR ENVIRONS - Substantialiy intact-2 -- Substantially intact-3 unknown.-5 = not applicable - 8 - unknown -6 - Not applicable-9 -Interioz, exterior, cnvirons not intact-0 _DETERIORATED _UNALTERED _RUINS LAtTERED -UNEXPOSED _Reconstructed LORIGINAL SITE __MOVED -Unkncwn _U'nexcavated _Excavated ACCESS - Yes-restricted historic district? Yes-urrestricted No access Unknown ADAPTIVE USE: YES NO WITHIN NATIONAL REGISTER HISTORIC DISTRICT? IF YES, NAME: WITHIN NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK? YES IF YES, NAME: YES NO Saved ?

YES NO NO YES NO - FUNCTION(S): (use vocabulary words) then-prwuate reridence now- same SIGNIFICANCE: -.- -ARCHEOLUGY-PREHISTORIC -ARCHEOLOGY.HISTORIC JARCHITECTURE - 4 -ART _COMMERCE _COMMUNICATIONS Claims _CONSERVATION -ECONOMICS -EDUCATION -ENGINEERNG *EXPLORAIION LNDUSTRY -INVENTION 3 _LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE -RELIGION _LAW/Gov't/politics _SCIENCE _LITERATURE _MILITARY _SOCIAL/HUMANITARIAN _MUSIC _PHILOSOPHY POLITICS/GOVERNMENT -TRANSPORTATION _OTHER (SPECIFY) .-entertainment -heaith _recteation settlement -27 _socio/cultural _urban & commun planning "first" YES NO "eoldest'" YES NO "only" YES NO ARCHITECTURAL STYLE: architect/m.builder: landscape/garden designer: interior decorator: ETHNIC GROUP: NAMES: (label role & appropriate date) events cocontar Geagian - engineer: artist/artisan: builder/contractor: persong Bro FaaN BR00Ks euner op House member ond residunto institutional DATES: DATE OF CONSTRUCTION (Specific date or I/4 of century) : DATE (S) OF "MAJOR" ALTERATIONS: HISTORICALLY SIGNIFICANT DATE (S) : wrn laily 1amc.

SOURCE.(OF NOMINATION) PRIVATE STATE LOCAL GOV"T MUNICIPAL COUNTY FEDERAL 'AGENCY: ACREAGE: (to nearest tenth of an acre) 7,370 59. Jeet CONMENTS: (snelute srafigeicural inforeatio here) FRAMIE, SHHINELING 2%/2 STORIESI RECTANEULAR WITH SIDE AND REAR WINES, GAMBREL ROOK WITH SHED DORMERS, I-STORY FRONT CENTER BABLED VESTIBULE WITH TRANSOM GH? SIORT ANGLED WING, IVU STORI REAR SEUI, INTERIDR ALTERATIONS, EARLY IDTHC; (MAIN FACADE COVERED WITH AUMINUM SIDINE, ZOTH CO) COLBARiAL. ONE OF GEW REMAINING EXAMPLES, OF 18TH C. STRUCTURES FEMALHE SIGNIFICA NCE (maximum tro sontencesi tAKE WI MEDFORD;)RESIDENCE OF DONATHEN Constructiond KOOF THE,PROMINENT BROORS FAMILY & SIriCe 1178t. #AbS..