BlockThe nomination, in full
Bibliography, boundary description, and the people who prepared and reviewed the nomination.
FORM B - BUILDING i - LIIUD NURYEY JAN 2 4 1990 173 FORM NO. HASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 80 BOYLSTON STREET BOSTON, MA 02116 58 Town BOXFORD 009 PHOTOGRAPHS : Address 15 Old Topsfield Road 63:32 Front and Right facades 63:33 Rear and left facades Historic Name Phíneas Foster llouse 62:10 Summer tie beam into rear plate of left chamber 62:13 Attic - Principle rafters and common purlins Use: Present Oríginal DESCRIPTION residence residenca Date c. 1725 Source visual analysis Styie First Period Sketch Map: - Architect_unknown Exterior Wall Fabric -clapboard / shingles Cutbuildings barn - 19th century TOPSFIELD *137 (OLD) TOPSFIELO RD TM REFERENCE TES QUADRANGLE ALE- Z E N 19 / 337-640 / 4723-500 Georgetown (now Ipswich) 1:25,000 Major Alterations (with dates) ell - 18th C kitchen and side enclosed porch - 20th C.
Condition good Moved no Date n/a Acreage 3.1 acres Setting rural suburban, next to highway on dead end street which is secluded Recorded by James Kyprianos - Organization Boston University Date November 1985 INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Commmity : Form No: MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION BOXFORD 58 Office of the Secretary, Boston Property Name: Phineas Foster House Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below. SIGNIFICANCE The Phineas Foster House retains integrity of location, design, materials, workmanship, and feeling. Its surviving First Period evidence in the later section of the house gives clear indications that the older section is likely to yield important information about earlier First Period construction methods and is therefore eligible under Criterion D.
second phase addition embodies distinctive characteristics of late First Period or transitional framing practices in its run-out flat chamfer and unusually late use of the tusk tenon, and meets Criterion C. EXTERIOR DESCRIPTION The Foster House is of L-shaped plan; the older five-bay, central- chimney, two-story house with protruding lobby entrance having been enlarged with a two-story rear ell. The ell, sited behind the northeast corner, contains a rear chimney stack, and has a one-story porch off its east wall. In the space to the southwest between the ell and the main house is another one-story addition with shed roof, with an exposed cellar entrance on the west side. A one-story screen porch extends from the west gable of the main block.
The main house seems to have begun as a single cell plan in the right-hand (east) half, including the chimney bay, although much of the interior framing in this section is boxed. then grew to a double cell plan in the late First Period, with a later 18th-century summer-kitchen ell addition. The one-story porch entry is, perhaps, Federal. The central chimney is rebuilt. MAJOR FIRST PERIOD FEATURES The attic roof frame, of principal and purlin system, with a pitch of 40-45 degrees, declares the right-hand rooms and chimney bay earlier than the bays to the west. The three earlier bays have multiple purlins of smaller scantling; the two later bays only three purlins. The older section shows dovetail mortise evidence of having had collars between the rafters; the later section does not.
While the earlier rooms are all boxed, the added bays to the east are exposed and show flat chamfess run out on the tie beam, joists of 24" on centers with late tusk tenon joints, and evidence of a partition once running along the summer. SIGNIFICANT LATER FEATURES The lower left-hand room has Second Period raised-field paneling and a boxed frame. The Federal staircase in front of the central chimney represents a common alteration, while the cellar stairs from the second-phase addition are relatively rare "puncheon" stairs, made from reused beams. 1 Staple to Inventory form at bottom INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston Commmity : 3OXFORD Form No: 58 Property Name: Phineas Foster House Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION Little is known about the early-18th-century ownership of this building. Perley suggests it was owned by Solomon Gould after 1765; Phineas Foster was there in 1799. There is a tradition of a mid-17th-century barn associated with this site, but more research should be given to the property ownership and use in the early 18th century. REFERENCES Parkhurst, Winifred C. and Barbara Carolyn Perley, Updated Dwellings of Boxford, (Rowley, MA: Rowley Printing, 1977,) PP.104-105. Perley, Sidney, The Dwellings of Boxford, (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1893,) pp.125-6. 2 Staple to Inventory form at bottom - (IPS Fomm 10-900-0 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number Page _ OMB Approvel No.
1024-0018 /21/90 Multiple Resource Area Thematic Group Name State Nomination/Type of Review First Period Buildings of Eastern Massachusetts TR Date/Signature 11. Coker, Benjamin, House Entered in the Hationai Register Selasegen 3/9/40 12. Conant, Exercise, House Entered 1n the Natlonal Registes Jkeeper ZtelweBgen 3/2/50 13. Corning, Samuel, House Attest Attest Entered in tne Reeper Hational Register AeluurAga 3/9/50 14. Davis, Ephraim, House 15. Davis--Freeman House Attest Entered in the Wat10na1 Begistel Keeper AelmeByua 319/50 Attest Entered in the Natlonal Registet Keeper AtilorerByen 312/90 Attest 5^16. Dickinson--P111sbury--Witham House Substantiva Heries 17. Dustin House SrKeeper Bol Sarge 3/1/30 Attest Atelmmtgun 319/50 18. Dyke-Wheeler House 19.
Emerson House Entered in tue Mational Registe/Keeper Attest Fatered in the Datlonnd Begister/Keeper Attest Entered in the Hational Register Keeper NelareByun 315/90 AilveuByu 3/9/50 Entered in the 20.
Foster, Phineas, House National Register Attest /Keeper Xelareßgu 3/9/0 Attest UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES EVALUATION/RETURN SHEET REQUESTED ACTION: NOMINATION PROPERTY Foster, Phineas, House NAME: MULTIPLE First Period Buildings of Eastern Massachusetts TR NAME: STATE & COUNTY: MASSACHUSETTS, Essex DATE RECEIVED: 1/24/90 DATE OF 16TH DAY: 2/23/90 DATE OF ASTH DA LTST: 3/10/90 3/10/90 DATE OF WEEKLY LIST: REFERENCE NUMBER: 90000193 NOMINATOR: STATE REASONS FOR REVIEW: APPEAL: N DATA PROBLEM: N LANDSCAPE: N LESS THAN 50 YEARS: N PDIL: PERIOD: PROGRAM UNAPPROVED: N SLR DRAFT: N NATIONAL: COMMENT WAIVER: N VACCEPT _RETURN ABSTRACT/SUMMARY COMMENTS: REJECT 3/7/20 DATE Entered in the Mational Hegister RECOM./CRITERIA REVIEWER DISCIPLINE DATE DOCUMENTATION see attached comments Y/N see attached SLR ./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 Boxfard Phineas Fuster House 15 Old Topstuld Road Roar+ Left facades 1985 Ist Perurd Buldines of F.
Ma TR. Phineas Foster House Boxtord Phineas Fustir House 15 Old Topsfefd Road Frantr Right facades 1985 Ist Perid Bulelings ef E. Ma TR Boxturd Phineas Fusta House 15 Old Topsteld Road Attec-principal roftans-tu 1985 Ist Periad Buldigs el FE. Ma Boxfand Phineas Esten House 15 Old sstreld Road semner he beam 1985 Ist Percl Buldhgs of En Ma. MRA Please refer to the map in the Multiple Property Cover Sheet for this property Multiple Property Cover Sheet Reference Number: 64000281