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29 8 OMB No. 10024-0018 NPS Form 10-900 (Oct. 1990) United States Department ofthe Interior National Park Service RECEIVED National Register of Historic Places Registration Form MAR 1 5 1993 NATIONAL This form is for use in nominating or requesting determinations for individual properties and districts. See instructions in How to Complete the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (National Register Bulletin 16A). Complete each item by marking "x" in the appropriate box or by entering the information requested. If an item does not applyto the property being documented, enter "N/A" for "not applicable."For functions, architectural classification, materials, and areas of significance, enter only categories and subcategories from the instructions. Place additional entries and narrative items on continuation sheets (NPS Form 10-900a).
Use a typewriter, word processor, or computer,to complete all items. 1. Name of Property Tom Thumb House historic name other names/site number 2. Location street & number 351 Plymouth Street city or town. Middleborough state Massachusetts code 025 county_Plymouth code_ 023 NA not for publication N/Avicinity zip code_02346 3. State/Federal Agency Certification As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended, I hereby certify that this X nomination J request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60. In my opinion, the property X meets does not meet the National Register criteria. I recommend that this property be considered significan nationally statewide * locally.
(L See continuation sheet for additional comments. tudi onou 93 Signature of certifying official/Title JuditkB : McDonoughDate Executive Director Massachusetts Historical Commission, State Historic Preservation Officer State of Federal agency and bureau In my opinion,the property meets comments.) - does not meet the National Register criteria. ([] See continuation sheet for additional Signature of certifying official/Title State or Federal agency and bureau 4. National ParkService Certification I hereby certify that the property is: entered in the National Register. - See continuation sheet. determined eligible for the National Register - See continuation sheet. determined not eligible for the National Register. removed from the National Register.
other, (explain:) Date Signature of the Keeper Satezed 1n LlelouByen oilonel Rogiaver Date of Action 4/16/93 Tom Thumb House Name of Property 5. Classification Ownership of Property (Check as many boxes as apply) [X private L public-local - public-State - public-Federal Plymouth County, MA County and State Category of Property (Check only one box) X building(s) district site structure object Number of Resources within Property (Do not include previously listed resources in the count.) Contributing Noncontributing 1 2 buildings sites 1 1 3 structures objects Total Number of contributing resources previously listed in the National Register 0 Name of related multiple property listing (Enter "N/A" if property is not part of a multiple property listing.) N/A 6.
Function or Use Historic Functions (Enter categories from instructions) DOMESTIC: single dwelling Current Functions (Enter categories from instructions) DOMESTIC: single dwelling 7. Description Architectural Classification (Enter categories from instructions) LATE VICTORIAN: Second Empire/Italianate Materials (Enter categories from instructions) foundation BRICK walls WOOD: weatherboard roof other STONE: slate Narrative Description (Describe the historic and current condition ofthe property on one or more continuation sheets.) NPS Form 10-900~ (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Tom Thumb House Middleborough (Plymouth County) Massachusetts Section number _ Page . 1 7.
DESCRIPTION Located in the southeastern part of Massachusetts, in Plymouth County, the Tom Thumb House is a ca. 1871 Second Empire dwelling. The lot of the Tom Thumb House is 1.45 acres at the intersection of Plymouth and Summer Streets. There are two noncontributing outbuildings including a low one story concrete block building built in the early 1900s for an egg business, and a late 1980s lean-to for horses. Also on the property is a noncontributing patio which was recently added to the property. Situated in the northern part of the Town of Middleborough, the Tom Thumb House is in a section known as Warrentown just east of the Nemasket River. The property is bound on the north and east by Plymouth Street and by open farm land of adjoining properties on the south and west sides.
A modest late nineteenth century farmhouse is on the adjacent property on the west side and a large barn with Dutch Colonial roof is near the property line on the south side. Middleborough is an inland town in the southeast part of the State near Cape Cod. It is characterized by unusually large areas of water which have in part determined the settlement and development of Middleborough. The Town is separated from Bridgewater on the north by the Taunton River. There are no defining topographical features separating Middleborough from Carver, Plympton and Halifax to the east and Rochester to the south. On the west and southwest edge are two large ponds and swamp areas known as the Assawamsett and Great Quitticas.
Middleborough has at least six centers each of which evolved as separate self sufficient villages surrounded by vast areas of swamp and agricultural fields including cranberry bogs and wooded swamp land. These natural resources played a major roll in the development of Middleborough. The Tom Thumb House is representative of a well defined dwelling in the Second Empire Style with detailed embellishments strongly identifying its development with an important personage. Charles Sherwood Stratton (1838-1883), also known as General Tom Thumb of Phineas Barnum's Circus, built the house following his marriage to Lavina Bump of Middleborough. The period of significance spans the years from construction in ca. 1871 to 1910 when General Tom Thumb's widow, Lavina Warren Bump (1841-1919), and her second husband sold the property due to financial difficulty.
The property is part of what was known as the Warren Farm, purchased by Charles S. Stratton (General Tom Thumb) in 1864 from Nahum M. Tribou. It was after the couple's return from the world wide tour in 1871 that the elegant house was built on an 81 acre parcel. In subsequent years the property was subdivided and by 1978 a large part of the back acreage was sold separately from the house and surrounding property of (continued) NPS Form 10-900-s (8-86) OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number _ Tom Thumb House Middleborough (Plymouth County) Massachusetts Page2 approximately four acres. More recently the lot has been subdivided leaving 1.45 acres with the Tom Thumb House.
The Tom Thumb House is a well preserved example of a three-bay, two-and-a-half story, Second Empire dwelling of which only a few survive in Middleborough. This house is the most noteworthy Middleborough example of the Second Empire Style with Italianate ornamentation. The three-bay plan,the most common form for Second Empire/Italiante residential buildings, displays a traditional center entrance hall with parlor on one side, and two rooms on the other. The central stair hall has rooms on each side of the second story hall as well. The house is sheathed in wood clapboards with a slate mansard roof all on a raised brick foundation. The full length wrap porch adds dimension and embellishment to the already substantial and well detailed structure. There are two, two-story projecting octagonal bays, one on the east side, the other on the south side.
At the rear there is an entrance porch running from the south side projecting bay to the southeast corner of the dwelling. The mansard roof displays a concave curve and has two chimneys penetrating the roof on each side of the middle of the nearly flat top surface. On each of the four sides of the concave curve are two dormers each with pedimented moldings. The dormers all have one sash with two lights over two, a wide rake to the pedimented cornice and small drop finial brackets on each side of the sash. The pediments are open and have a bracket extending at the peak. The embellished Italianate Style features on the Tom Thumb House include the raking eave overhang with paired molded brackets, the molded wood corner blocks to resemble stone quoins, the double door entrance, the window and door trim found throughout the building, and the decorative aspects of the porch and bays.
The main facade of the Tom Thumb House is striking with much visual detail. The central entrance is approached by wide replacement steps leading to a full length wrap porch. The double entrance door is typical in style of those found in the Italianate period with a roundheaded glass light on each of the two doors. The light has been replaced with a translucent mottled glass. The two-over-one long windows flanking the center entrance have slightly projecting molded frames and projecting plain sills. A cornice molding defines the edge of the porch ceiling. Second story windows are symmetrically placed over the first story bays.
The central bay has a pair of windows with one-over-one lights in each sash, and a wide decorative lintel with circular cuts, (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet OMBApproval No. 1024-0018 Tom Thumb House Middleborough (Plymouth County) Massachusetts Section number - Page 3 three brackets and a wide ovolo crest molding. The flanking windows have two-over-two sash surrounded by a molded frame with rounded corners and the same projecting lintel with ovolo cornice, end brackets and a keystone-like design at the middle of the lintel. The wrap porch consists of four bays on the north side and two on the west side. The supporting columns are paired, each with channeled panels, chamfered corners, square bases and defined capitals.
The square bases have molded blocks that are accentuated with the use of a polychromatic paint scheme. Heavily scrolled brackets with button decoration on each side of the S-curve support the raking porch cornice and extend to the capital of each column. The cornice molding also included a bracket-like dentil molding similar to what is often termed a linen fold. Each set of paired columns is supported by a brick pier at the foundation level. Lattice screening shields the porch foundation. The porch railing is made of plain squared balusters tied together by a plain rail. On the east side of the Tom Thumb House the raised brick foundation is clearly evident. The overriding feature of this elevation is the two-story, graduated, projecting bay also on a raised brick foundation.
Octagonal in form, the bay has three sides with fenestration of two-over-two sash set into molding with rounded corners and a molded skirt at the first and second story. The concave line of the mansard roof on the main building is partially repeated in the roof of the first story section of the projecting bay which slopes in a concave curve to the second story part of the octagonal bay. Under the raking eave of each section of the bay is a linen fold dentil like molding similar to that found at the cornice of the wrap porch. The rear of the dwelling, or south elevation, has a similar projecting octagonal bay which is two and one-half stories due to the raised half basement level at the base of the projecting bay. Small two-over-two sash windows are cut into the brick foundation of the raised basement projecting bay.
There is a rear entrance on this side centered at the end of the entrance hall in line with the entrance on the main facade. A three bay porch anchors the projecting bay and extends from the bay to the corner of the dwelling. The paired columns, brackets, linen fold molding, balusters, and brick piers found on the main facade are repeated with the same decorative details. The rear elevation is also three bays wide and in symmetry with the main facade. First and second story windows retain moldings with rounded corners and projecting lintels with brackets similar to those described on the north or main elevation. The west or side elevation which is partially screened by the wrap porch has an entrance door with steps at the south end of the wrap porch and one first story window.
There (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet OMBApproval No. 1024-0018 Tom Thumb House Middleborough (Plymouth County) Massachusetts Section number. Page 4 are two second-story windows each with a projecting bracketed lintel similar to those on the main facade. The interior plan is typical of a central hall Second Empire plan with a long parlor on one side of the front to back stair hall andtwo smaller rooms on the other side. The projecting bay in the long parlor adds light and an increased sense of space to the room. There is also a projecting bay on the rear which increases the scale of the rear small room on the other side of the stairhall.
Running parallel to the two smaller rooms on the west wall of the house are a small rear stair hall, a small modern lavatory, and a small kitchen area which once had a dumb waiter. The main kitchen is in the basement of the house and has a chimney wall between it and the small eating area within the projecting bay at the rear of the house. The second story plan displays two bedrooms on the east side of the stair hall, and two on the west side which are not symmetrical. There is also a bathroom tucked into the northwest corner of the second floor in which there is a small copper tub which is said to have been installed by the original owners. Interior features in the Tom Thumb House are unique and found in no other Middleborough dwellings and probably in very few structures anywhere.
Due to the small stature of the original owners features such as the stair rise, height of sinks, stove size and height of windows were modified to accommodate the original owners. There are other decorative features worth noting. Singular to this house is a main staircase in the entrance hall which has twenty steps each with a six inch rise. The windows throughout the house, first and second story, front and back extend to the low level of 16 inches above the floor. Although there were sinks in second story bedrooms that were set approximately two feet above the floor all have been raised. The present owners have retained evidence of the original height when raising the sink in the master bedroom. In the basement kitchen there is a low cast iron stove which is 21 inches high, 36 inches wide and 22 inches deep.
This was installed by Tom Thumb's widow when she lived in the house with her second husband who was also a person of small stature. The date of the Walker Range is 1898. One of the fine detailed features is the molding in the parlor on the east side of the house. The elaborate crown molding of plaster displays a roping design with oak leaf pattern overlay. The projecting bay in this room is framed by heavily carved brackets with a button molding. The marble fireplace has carved pilasters with decorative moldings. (continued) NPS Form10-900- (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet OMBApprovel No.
1024-0018 Tom Thumb House Middleborough (Plymouth County) Massachusetts Section number - Page 5 In the dining room on the west side of the main entrance hall is a marble fireplace with a roundheaded opening and a carved scallop shell decoration. The large oak built-in china cupboard has oak leaves on the drawers, roundheaded glass in the doors, and a raised ovolo molding. The staircase has heavily turned balusters with a pointed button decoration on each side of the lower block turnings. There is also a drop tab trim applied to the side of the rise of each step. The newel posts on each floor are heavily turned and have small finials. The outbuildings at the Tom Thumb House do not contribute to the significance of the property. Old photographs show a no longer extant mansard roofed carriage house. Presently there are two outbuildings and one structure. The ca.
1930s long, one-story, cast concrete block garage/barn is situated on the west side of the property in close proximity to the house. It has a hipped roof and two-over-two windows and carriage shed doors. A lean-to has recently been built on the edge of the paddocks just east of the dwelling. A new fireplace and deck structure also has been added and is located in the back garden southwest of the house. With the exception of the former mansard roofed carriage house and the early twentieth century refreshment stand, neither structure of which is extant, there is no intormation about a privy or other outbulldings associated with the Tom Thumb house. The landscape surrounding the Tom Thumb House includes mature oak trees lining the semi-circular drive which leads to the main entrance of the house. New white board paddock fencing has been added on the east side of the property.
Also a low white board fence frames the house extending easterly from the southeast corner to the paddocks and westerly from the northwest corner to the low garage/barn. Archaeological Description While no prehistoric site are currently recorded on the property it is possible that sites are present. Twenty prehistoric sites are recorded in the general area (within one mile). The physical characteristics of the property including a level, well drained land surface within 1,000 feet of the Nemasket River and a tributary stream indicate favorable locational criteria for native settlement and subsistence activities. The above information combined with the relatively small size of the parcel (1.45 acres) and 19th century construction indicate a moderate to high potential for locating significant prehistoric survivals. (continued) TomThumb House Name of Property 8. Statement of Significance