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 JAN 0 2 1990 6/ AREA FORM NO. 110 Photo (3"x3" or 3"x5", black and white) 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 and/or geographical features. Indicate all buildings between inventoried property and nearest intersection(s). Indicate north Town Swansea, Mass. MRA SWANSEA Address 90 Milford Road Historic Name Preserved Gardner House Town of Swansea--Memorial Park Use: Present & Veterans Benefits Dept. Original farmstead DESCRIPTION Date ca. 1820 Source visual analysis Style Federal Architect unknown Exterior Wall Fabric clapboard Outbuildingsbarn (ca.
1890) (see attached) Major Alterations (with dates) rear and side ell, porches (late 19th cent.) Condition _ good UTM REFERENCE 19 317120 4624250 USGS QUADRANGLE Somerset, MA 1987 SCALE 1:25000 Moved Acreage Date approximately 2 acres (nominated); total property 294 acres Setting On a main road with moderate setback. Later wood post fence (ca. 1970) at street edge of property. Scattered residential development surrounding. Recorded by K. F1ynn/K. Valente/K. Broomer Organization_Swansea Historical Conmission Date May 1988/November 1989 *1 NATIONAL REGISTER CRITERIA STATEMENT (ifapplicable) The Preserved Gardner House, 90 Milford Road, retains integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, and association and meets Criteria A and C on the local level.
A typical example of an early 19th-century farmhouse that evolved over the years into a summer home, 90 Milford Road is also significant for its association with the locally prominent Gardner family of Swansea. ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE Describe important architectural features and evaluate in terms of other buildings within the community. Typical of the dispersed Swansea farmstead in its setting, 90 Milford Road is a 2%-story gabled house with 5-bay, center-entry facade and double-pile plan with double interior chimneys. The recessed entry is flanked by three-guarter sidelights and pilasters with Greek key motifs carrying a plain entablature. cornerboards and some 12/12 sash in 2nd-story windows.
Late 19th-century additions, which are likely attributed to a change in ownership at that time, include the wrap porch with Doric columns and roofline balustrade, corresponding one-bay entry porch on the east elevation, two-story rear ell and one-story east ell, and 2/2 sash in first floor windows. Immediately east of the house is a 1½-story gabled barn (ca. 1890) with shingled infill in the gable end and vertical board siding below. Approximately 50 yards west of the house on the same lot, tennis and basketball courts and other public recreational facilities have HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE Expiain the role owners played in local or state history and how the building relates to the development of the community. Arch. Sig. (cont'd): been constructed in recent decades. The house and barn constitute the extent of the nominated property.
This house was built by Preserved Gardner, one of the five sons of Peleg Gardner, descendant of the purchaser of Gardner's Neck. Ira Gardner, son of Preserved, inherited the farm which extended from Milford Rd. south to the Cole's River. He sold to the town the large tract east of the house known as Mount Hope Cemetery. Later the farm was purchased by Thomas D. CovE of Fall River who operated it as a gentleman's farm and made the house his summer home. After World War II the town purchased the property to be used by the town as VeteransMem. Park This house reflects the increasing financial successes experienced by the Gardners after the family's modest 18th-century beginnings in single-story capes farther south on Gardner's Neck.
The house also illustrates an established pattern of building usage in Swansea, whereby the early farmhouses were given over to use as summer homes during: the local boom in seasonal residential development in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Prior to the late 19th-century construction of the streetcar line along the present path of U. S. Route 6, Milford Road was part of a primary interior route from Swansea to Warren, Rhode Island connecting Swasey's Corner east of this house to Luther's Corner to the southwest. The present intersection of Milford Road and Oak Street (Route 118) near Route 6 west of the Gardner House was known as Gardner's Crossing. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Swansea Town Records. Wright. History of Swansea. 1917. 1895 atlas of Bristol County- Mrs. Helen Pierce, interview, 11/89.
8/85 NPS Form 10-000a (8-88) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number Page Swansea MRA Bristol County, MASSACHUSETTS 11. First Baptist Church and Society OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 12. Gardner, Francis I., House 13. Gardner, Joseph, House 14. Gardner, Preserved, House 15. Gardner, Samuel, House 16. Hooper House 17. Hortonville Historic District 18. Johnson, J. V., House 19. Luther House 20.
Corner Date Listed Entered in the /Keeper Hational Bagiates deloufyan2116/80 Entered in the National Register Entered ta6 Natlarsi Rogtater Attest fKeeper Akelampfyun d1019 Attest /Reeper Aeluue Fgunz10sl Attest Potered in the National Register fReeper HelauAzua s/10k Attest lintered in tbe Nationad Register fKeéper Aclvrepyansotse Attest ADstcita Larior >ava 1/90 Attest Intered in the Latond inetstos faoper Ailoupyuet/0150 Attest adita darier forKeeper Bxpx Sanze 440 Attest substantava larzons Betu Sage /10 Attest Entered in tue Hational Regiater Jukeaper KelauDguttake Attest UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES EVALUATION/RETURN SHEET REQUESTED ACTION: NOMINATION PROPERTY Gardner, Preserved, House NAME: MULTIPLE Swansea MRA NAME: STATE & COUNTY: MASSACHUSETTS, Bristol DATE RECEIVED: 1/02/90 DATE OF 16TH DAY: 2/01/90 DATE OF PENDING LIST: 1/18/90 DATE OF 45TH DAY: 2/16/90 DATE OF WEEKLY LIST: REFERENCE NUMBER: 90000061 NOMINATOR: STATE REASONS FOR REVIEW: PDIL: REQUEST: N SAMPLE: COMMENT WAIVER: N VACCEPT _RETURN ABSTRACT/SUMMARY COMMENTS: PROGRAM UNAPPROVED: N N SLR DRAFT: N NATIONAL: _REJECT 2/16/90 DATE Entered 1n the Natlonal Register 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 OTHER COMMENTS Questions concerning this nomination may be directed to Phone presentation Signed Date SWANS MEMORIAL Veterans B Departm 90 milford swansea, mA Presened Gardner House (MHC#110) 9o milford Road swausea, Mass.
MRA 1388 Viewsw. TOWN OF SWANSEA 1961 BRISTOL COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS REWSED 10/82 JAMES W. SEWALL COMPANY OLD TOWN. MAINE SCALE 1 INCH = 100 + FEET MOR ARSESRING PURPOSES ONLY N 74 1 TO GARDNCKRDAD 2448' MILFORD ROAD 125 MT. HOPE - CEMETERY ROAD TENNIS COURTS COLE KEY: -= house - =bam -= wood postfence RIVER 8 Please refer to the map in the Multiple Property Cover Sheet for this property Multiple Property Cover Sheet Reference Number: 64000296