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 Photos 23:1 right-hand room fireplace with rear oven 23:2 right-hand room, end wall, summer and end girt 23:6 attic/roof structure 23:12 left-hand chamber exterior FIRST PERIOD SURVEY 210 JAN 2 4 1990ORM NO. 56 009 Sketch Map: Town Georgetown Address 170 Jewett St. Historic Name Dickinson-Pillsbury- Witham House Use: Present Residence Original Residence DESCRIPTION Date after 1700 Source _ A.L. Cummings Style First Period Architect Unknown Exterior Wall Fabric Shingles Outbuildings 18th c. barn TENNEY ST. JEWETT WARREN, ST UTM REFERENCE USGS QUADRANGLE SCALE 19 / 340-770 / 4732-340 Georgetown (now Ipswich) 1:25,000 Major Alterations (with dates) E1] attached, 1856 Condition Good Moved No Date N/ A Acreage 8.8 acres Setting Semi-rural; relatively isolater site near Rowley line.
Surrounded by meadow, woodland and an occasiona. house. Recorded by Anne Grady Organization Boston University Date April 1986 INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston Commmity: GEORGETOWN Form No: 56 Dickinson-Pil1sbur Property Name : Witham House Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below. SIGNIFICANCE The Dickinson-Pillsbury-Witham house retains First Period integrity of location, design, workmanship, setting and feeling to a high making it eligible under Criterion C. During restoration, the archeologist owner did not remove early paint from the plaster walls or ceilings, nor the soot blackening the ceilings over the fireplaces.
In addition, the house retains many simple fittings - wooden latches and pegs, hardware, cupboards and a shelf hung from the back of the chimney with wooden hangers - which combine with the unaltered finishes to more accurately portray the feeling of a First Period farm building than most of the houses surveyed. The very simplicity of the interior is probably representative of the great body of simple First Period farmhouses now lost to us. The analysis of paint and plaster evidence on the walls and ceilings may yield information important to our understanding of this type of building, making it eligible under Criterion D. The unusual piecing of the right end girt is also worthy of future study. EXTERIOR DESCRIPTION The Dickinson-Pillsbury-Witham house is a 5 bay wide 2 1/2 story, central chimney structure with clapboards on the front and shingles on the sides and rear wall.
There are hewn overhangs on the front and at the left gable end. The house began as a single cell 2 1/2 story structure to the right of the chimney bay. The left-hand rooms were added within a generation. The ell projecting from the rear right-hand end was attached 1856. MAJOR FIRST PERIOD FEATURES This simple farm dwelling has escaped major remodelings over the years and retains much of its original First Period construction and finish. The growth of the house is visible primarily in the attic. Abbott Lowell Cummings has found evidence of brick nogging in the walls up to the window sill level, which confirms accounts in early family records. The owner found evidence during restoration that the original windows were of the type in which sills and headers were let into the studs.
The stylistic similarity of the two halves of this clearly two-stage house suggests that it was enlarged relatively soon after its initial construction. In the right hand room, the substantial hard wood longitudinal summer beam has a flat chamfer with plain, coved (semi-lamb's tongue) stop at the outer wall and full lamb's tongue Joists are spaced 20-21 inches on centers. The chimney girt is covered with a box which has a crude quirked bead along the edge. The same quirked bead is found along -1- Staple to Inventory form at bottom INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Conmunity : GEORGETOWN Form No: 56 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston Dickinson-P1llsbur- Property Name : Witham House Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below. the edge of the board covering the reveal of the recessed fireplace and on boxes covering the corner posts.
It is as though an attempt was made to fashion a quirked bead without the proper molding plane (Note: the same crude quirked bead appears on the fireplace walls of the Goodale house in Ipswich). At the end wall, a curious piecing out of the end girt is visible. On both sides of the summer beam, there is a rising angled cut on the end girt as though the girt were scarfed at that point. of the beam is then apparently a separate piece perhaps six feet in length. On the front, rear and fireplace walls of the room there is vertical feather-edged sheathing. The fireplace has a rear oven. The owner feels that the present fireplace may not be the original one. Perhaps the chimney stacks date from the period of the addition of the left hand rooms. In the lobby the stairs, which do not appear to have been altered, are enclosed with vertical sheathing boards.
Evidence of hinge marks indicated that a door once further closed off the staircase. The chimney girt and chimney post seen in the stair hall exhibit rising brace mortises, evidence that the left hand chimney girt was once an end wall girt. There is also an additional post supporting the left-hand chimney girt which has been inserted next to the chimney stack beside the staircase, a somewhat makeshift construction left hand room has a longitudinal summer beam with a flat chamfer and lamb's tongue stops. There is vertical feather edged sheathing to the right of the fireplace. In the left-hand chamber, the space where the rafters angle down over the outer-most joist is plastered on an angle, a feature not found in the original, right-hand side of the house. In the attic a purlin roof is visible. There are collar beams only in the right-hand side.
The construction of the left-hand part of the roof is just slightly different than the earlier, right-hand part, the rafters being slightly slimmer. LATER SIGNIFICANT FEATURES The owners found a piece of the bolection molding which surrounded the fireplace in the left-hand first floor and copied it. They also copied from a piece found somewhere the bolection molding which now surrounds the overmantel panel in this room. -2- Staple to Inventory form at bottom INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Commnity : MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston GEORGETOWN Form No: 56 Dickinson-Pil1sbur Property Name: Witham House Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below. HISTORICAL INFORMATION The house is importat for its association with Paul Pillsbury, who purchased the house in 1801-2.
Pillsbury was a prolific inventor who patented in 1863 a corn sheller which stripped the kernels from ears of corn. The principle behind his bark mill is still used in mills made today. He also invented the first shoe pegging machine, which was used in his house in Georgetown. REFERENCES Field, Jane. Georgetown, Mass. 1863-1963. - 3- Staple to Inventory form at bottom - s Farm 10900 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number Page. OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 /24/90 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 National Register keeper Aelaseyen 3/9/40 Attest 12. Conant, Exercise, House Entered in the Keeper National Begistes Helue gan 3/9/50 Attest 13.
Corning, Samuel, House Entered in tne Hational Register /Keeper AiluuBgun 319/50 Attest Entered in the 14. Davis, Ephraim, House liat1ona1 Begistes Keeper AelueaByu 319/50 Attest 15. Davis--Freeman House Entered in the Natlonal Registef Keeper SelarerByur 31/20 Attest 5-426.Dickinson--P111sbuxy--Witham Housey Substantive Hories forKeeper potl Sauge 3/1/20 Attest Entered in tue 17. Dustin House Hatlonal RegistejKeeper AelumByun 3/9/50 Attest 18. Dyke-Wheeler House Fatered in the Iutlonan Bofister/Keeper NelmeByan 319/90 Attest 19. Emerson House Entered in the Hational Register PReeper AelveByun: 3/9/50 Attest Entered 1n the 20. Foster, Phineas, House Natlonal Regiater /Keeper AelareßBzan 3/9/50 Attest NPS Form10-900-a (8-88) OMB Approval No.
1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number Page . SUPPLEMENTARY LISTING RECORD NRIS Reference Number: 90000210 Dickinson--Pillsbury--Witham House Property Name Date Listed: 03/09/90 Essex County First Period Buildings of Eastern Massachusetts TR Multiple Name MA state This property is listed in the National Register of Historic Places in accordance with the attached nomination documentation subject the following exceptions, exclusions, amendments, notwithstanding the National Park Service certification included in the nomination documentation.
BetkX avge for Signature of the Keeper 03/09/90 Date of Action ============== Amended Items in Nomination: Geographical Data: VBD The handwritten scale on the sketch map supersedes the typed or printed one: the handwritten scale is the appropriate scale for the reduced map. This information has been confirmed with Ann Tait, MASHPO, by telephone. DISTRIBUTION: National Register property file Nominating Authority (without attachment) JNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOF NATIONAL PARK SERVICI IATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACE EVALUATION/RETURN SHEE!
REQUESTED ACTION: NOMINATION PROPERTY Dickinson--Pillsbury--Witham 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 WEEKLY LIST: REFERENCE NUMBER: 90000210 NOMINATOR: STATE REASONS FOR REVIEW: 3/10/90 N PDIL: REQUEST: N SAMPLE: COMMENT WAIVER: N LACCEPT _RETURN ABSTRACT/SUMMARY COMMENTS: PROGRAM UNAPPROVED: NATIONAL: N _REJECT 3/9/20 DATE RECOM.
/CRITERIA Uceept C+D DISCIPLINE ZANLS Teitenal Htestory DOCUMENTATION see attached comments Y/Jsee attached SIR D/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 Jewett sthet Jel Ist Phried Buldiegs y te Mn, Th Georgetiwn.
Dickenson P.lls bury Wi7 Tewett Stree Extsrior 1985 deorgetorun Dickinson-Pillsbury-Co Jewrt Street ex wall-sunner tE 1985 Iot Perid Buldings af ExMa, TR Geargetown Dickintun- Pillsbury. Wis Jewrtt Stree athc-roof structne 1985 Ist. Peredl Bulding. al E Mr., TR Georgetrun Dickinson-Pellsbuny: 4 Jeust! st leff-hand chamber 1985 Ist Pered Buldiy of Ee Ma, TR Georgetren Dickensen-Pillsbury-Ceithe Jerstt street right hand raom frreplar 1985 Ist Pered Beldig of E. Ma., TR Please refer to the map in the Multiple Property Cover Sheet for this property Multiple Property Cover Sheet Reference Number: 64000281