BlockThe nomination, in full
Bibliography, boundary description, and the people who prepared and reviewed the nomination.
FORM B - BUILDING MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 80 BOYLSTON STREET BOSTON, MA 02116 Photo (3"x3" or 3"x5", black and wnite) Indicate address of property on back of photo. Staple to left side of form. Sketch Map: Draw map showing property's location in relation to nearest cross streets andeor /"=200' MOUNT PLEASANT HILL SIDE STREET DD ...... 613 AREA D FORM NO. 267 Town (Winchester, Mass. M.R.A.) WINCHESTER Address 403 Main Street Historic Name Sharon House * Use: Present Original DESCRIPTION Date dwelling dwelling-main block shoe shop-rear ell circa 1835 Source stylistic analysis, deeds Style. Greek Revival Architect unknown Exterior Wall Fabricfeathered clapboards Outbuildings none Major Alterations (with dates) Condition Very Good Moved no Date Acreage .14 acre 05-0247 Setting Suburban residential along early road to Woburn. MAIN
UTM REFERENCE 19.324460.4701530 USGS QUADRANGLE Lexington, Mass. SCALE 1:25,000 Recorded by Carol Ely Organization Winchester Historical Comm Date 1978; rev, by-H. White 10,87 ..Formerly 105 Main Street (pre-1905) NATIONAL REGISTER CRITERIA STATEMENT (if applicable) The Sharon House is significant as a rare surviving structure associated with the shoe industry in Winchester, which dominated the economy of the town during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Therefore the Sharon House meets Triteria A of the National Register of Historic Places. ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE Describe important architectural features and evaluate in terms of other buildings within the community. The Sharon house is a two-and-one half story gable-roofed structure with the ridge parallel to the street. The house is characterized by asymmetrical placement of the entrance and windows.
The gable roof has short returns. Windows have a six-over-six sash configuration. trabeated entrance is offset slightly to the left. There is a two-stage ell to the rear. The stages of the ell are not perpendicular to the main block of the house, but are set at roughly a thirty degree angle from the main block. The outline of the ell conforms to an identical angle in the property line on which it sits. The front of the house is set at the sidewalk, with no setback. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE Explain the role owners played in local or state history and how the building relates to the development of the community. The Sharon House stands in the northwest corner of the original Black The Black Horse Tavern was built circa 1725 on the east side of Main Street between Prospect Street and Black Horse Terrace (which was the driveway to the Tavern stables).
The land originally belonged to Edward Converse, the mill owner, who was the town's first settlers during the seventeenth century. In 1724 one of Converse's descendants sold roughly ten acres to ¡additional 22 acres surrounding, the original parcel. BuL Rimselt Bon William Richardson. Later that same year (1724) Richardson bought an Richardson then built himself a hip-roofed mansion house in the Georgian style. Soon afterward, in 1728, the house was sold to a wealthy Bostonian, Capt. Isaac Dupee. In 1743 Tapt. Dupee sold the house to David Wyman, who began operating an inn and tavern in the house. Wyman (d.1751) refers to the structure in his will as the Black Horse Tavern. It remained a place of public enter- tainment until 1835. The tavern was widely known as one of the state's best rural taverns.
It was a successful hostelry patronized by travelers to and from Boston, including farmers on their way to the city markets. The tavern also exerted a strong social influence on the town, and was a popular local gathering place. Ihe importance of the tavern is BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Historv of Winchester, by H.Chapman, 1936, PP.93-100, 119-20. Deeds N.A. Richardson, Reminiscences Maps 1850 census Application of Joseph Sharon to A.D.Weld Zost of the Grand Army of, the 8/85 Republic. INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston Commumity: Winchester Form No: 267 Property Name: Sharon House Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE continued, apparent in that during the latter part of the eighteenth century, Winchester was referred to as Black Horse Village.
During the nineteenth century the Tavern changed owners many times, and much of the surrounding acreage was sold off. The last owner demolished the house in 1892. The Sharon House was built circa 1835 on a quarter-acre parcel at the northwest corner of the Black Horse Tavern land. The two- stage rear ell of the Sharon House may possibly have been a shoe shop which was either built on or moved to the Tavern land. The ell may be the structures referred to by local historian N.A. Richardson in his Reminiscences, as Calvin Richardson's shoe shops which originally stood further up the road along Washington inamiy Btooa Funnes P Street. The shoe shop does not appear on the 1831 map of Winchester. However, it may be the "shed" mentioned in an 1835 sale notice for the Tavern property. In 1837 the "shoe shop and its land" are leased for one year to Abner and Rufus Wade.
In 1841 the quarter-acre plot and the shop are exempted from a deed to the Black Horse Tavern property, which sold that year to Oliver Hastings. Stylistic evidence suggests that the main house was built during the 1830s. At the time the main house was built it was. possibly attached to the Iront oi the shoe shop. In 1846 the house was sold to Mary Ann Sharon, matron of a local school for orphaned girls.from 1855-1859. The 1850 census lists Mrs. Sharon, her son, daughter-in-law, and 3 grandchildren residing at the house. Her son, Joseph, was a local wheelwright. After serving in the Civil War, he returned to Winchester and began work as an undertaker. The house remained in the Sharon family until 1940. Shoe-making had been a major industry in Winchester since the eighteenth century.
The 1798 Massachusetts Real Estate Tax Survey listed a great many houses in town with shoe-making shops attached to them. From 1770-1840 making shoes by hand methods was a local adjunct to the tanning and currying of leather centered in woburn. Shoe shops in Winchester were usually small structures, often no larger than twelve feet square, standing beside or to the rear of the owners house. N.A. Richardson, the local historian, in his Reminiscences, states that during the 1830s over 35 of the 70 houses in Winchester at that time had shoe shops in them, and he lists them by name. Among those houses listed is the Sharon house, referred to as"Calvin Richardson's shoe shop, before it was built over into a dwelling house." The Sharon House is one of the last traces of a once-thriving local industry.
Staple to Inventory form at bottom NPS Form 10-900-e 8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number Page OMB Approvai No. 1024-0018 MAY 2 2 1989 Multiple Resource Area Thematic Group Name_ Winchester MRA State Middlesex County, MASSACHUSETTS Nomination/Type of Review Date/Signature 41. Remick, Joseph, House Entered in the Mational Register Aaopor AlresSgun 115/69 Attest 42. Richardson, Zachariah, Hoyfitered in tne Mational Begister Hkeeper AulorByu 715/09 Attest 43. Russel1, Charles, House Entered in the Natlonal Begleter Ikeoper dulveBgen 215/64 Attest 44. Russell, Arthur H., House Entared in tba Ieeper Sulrusyan 115/11 National Begister Attest 45. Sharon House Entered 1n the Nationa1 Reglater /keeper Allrusßgun 7/5/04 Attest 46.
Simonds, William, House Entered in the National Begistar Heoper AllousBgu 715/64 Attest 47. Skillings Estate House Entered in the National Registet freeper AilmeBgu 1/5/84 Attest 48. St. Mary's Catholic Church Entered in tba National Register /keeper Aulrwaßgun 7/5/89 Attest 49. Stanton, Jacob, House Entered in the National Begister Reeper Xlebr Syer 7/0/59 Attest 50. Sullivan, Edward, House Subatactalvo Rer1on Sakeeper.
Beth Saunge 7-5-89 Attest UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES EVALUATION/RETURN SHEET REQUESTED ACTION: NOMINATION PROPERTY Sharon House NAME: MULTIPLE winchester MRA NAME: STATE & COUNTY: MASSACHUSETTS, Middlesex DATE RECEIVED: 5/22/89 DATE OF 16TH DAY: 6/22/89 DATE OF PENDING LIST: 6/06/89 DATE OF 45TH DAY: DATE OF WEEKLY LIST: REFERENCE NUMBER: 89000613 NOMINATOR: STATE REASONS FOR REVIEW: REURSE: WBML PROIE: M EEROEEMPRGNTRAROEDH PROGRAM UNAPPROVED: N SLR DRAFT: N NATIONAL: COMMENT WAIVER: N ACCEPT RETURN REJECT 1/5/89 DATE Entered in the National Register ABSTRACT/SUMMARY COMMENTS: RECOM./ CRITERIA REVIEWER DISCIPLINE DATE DOCUMENTATION see attached comments Y/N see attached SLR Y/N CLASSIFICATION count _resource type STATE/FEDERAL AGENCY CERTIFICATION FUNCTION historic current DESCRIPTION architectural classification materials descriptive text SIGNIFICANCE Period Areas of Significance--Check and justify below Specific dates Builder/Architect Statement of Significance (in one paragraph) summary paragraph completeness clarity applicable criteria justification of areas checked relating significance to the resource context relationship of integrity to significance justification of exception other BIBLIOGRAPHY GEOGRAPHICAL DATA acreage UTMS verbal boundary description boundary justification ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTATION/PRESENTATION sketch maps USGS maps photographs presentation OTHER COMMENTS Questions concerning this nomination may be directed to Phone Signed Date Sharon House 403 Main St.
1/88 Winchester, Ma. MR. MHC Inv. # 267 Sharon House 403 Main St. 1/88 Winchester, Ma. MRA MHCINV. #267 Please refer to the map in the Multiple Property Cover Sheet for this property Multiple Property Cover Sheet Reference Number: 64000303