Balch, John, House

The original Balch House was built in 1636, according to local records, on a rise in ground eight to ten feet above the adjacent highway and about seventy feet back from the road. In its life it has been added to and altered a number of times and stands today, a structure of composite shape in brown weathered clapboard, wood shingle roof, single central brick chimney and windows of various types, from diamond pane casement to multiple pane double hung. The house has been extensively repaired and restored (most notably about 1961 when an effort was made to re-create the appearance of the original 1636 portion) but the framing and other truly original elements remain and are clearly visible. The east elevation consists of two parts in the same plane.

On the right is the 1961 restoration of the one and one-half story original house, with two diamond- paned casement windows about two feet square set high in the ground floor wall and two more similar windows set directly above them toward the bottom of a steeply pitched gable, the roof of which overhangs the wall by approximately a foot and has plain barge boards with simple moulding meeting the shingles. The ridge of this old portion runs north and south slightly higher than the gable ridge and the valley between gable and main roof runs down to within a foot or so of the house corner, returning along the front with a short run of level eave.

The left half of the east elevation consists of a two story element of three bays with three double hung diamond paned windows on the second floor close to the overhanging eave and irregularly spaced.

robe eo framie bouse in dhe dnite stitean sererlgas now beltevea to be the NATIONAL oldest wooden frame house in the United States, the original (northeast) section probably having been built in February of 1636 (new style calendar), about one year before the Fairbanks House in Dedham. The house has been enlarged several times and was the target of "preservation" efforts in 1925 and 1961. Built by John Balch, it is the only home still standing of those built by the original "Old Planters" of Salem (later Beverly). It has a record of continuous ownership by descendants of the family first receiving the grant, until 1932 when the house was acquired by the Beverly Historical Society.

Its architectural significance lies in the fact that the original structure was built in a style very forward looking for the period. Because of the additions made to the house after its construction, the progression of architectural methods in the years following 1636 are clearly demonstrated, particularly in the attic framing. John Balch, born in England in 1579, came to America with Captain Gorges in 1623, settling at Cape Ann (Gloucester) in 1624 as part of the Dorchester Company. Finding the soil of Cape Ann too rocky to cultivate, he and others of the Dorchester Company moved to Naumkeag (Salem) with Governor Roger Conant in 1626.

About nine years later, (November 25, 1635, old style; January 25, 1636, new style), the first grant in the Salem Book of Grants records that John Balch was to be allotted a farm of 200 acres on the Bass River, along with equal grants to William Trask, John Woodbery, Roger Conant and Peter Palfrey. When Beverly separated from Salem in 1668, this 1,000 acre grant came within the boundary of the new town.