Built in 1685 (First Period). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. 16 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1886.
From the record
“The Abbot-Baker House is a historic house at 5 Argilla Road in Andover, Massachusetts. Estimated to have been built about 1685, it is one of Andover's oldest houses, supposedly built by a third-generation colonist.”
Wikipedia article Abbot-Baker House, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 480 National Register listings published here for Essex County · listed in 1982 · category: Building · built in 1685, First Period.
National Register reference number.82004811- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
The towns surrounding Methuen are the City of Lawrence and the town of Andover on the South, Dracut and Salem, N. H., on the West, Salem, N. H., and Haverhill, on the North and Haverhill and Bradford on the East. The Spicket River, a narrow and crooked stream, flows from Island Pond, in Derry, N. H., through Methuen, into Lawrence, and empties into the Merrimack in the lower part of the City. The village of Methuen is situated upon both sides of the Spicket, between Lawrence and the New Hampshire line, thus dividing the farming portions of the town into two not unequal sections. The surface of the town is uneven, somewhat Iiilly and picturesque, though not ledgy and abrupt. The soil in the main is strong, and good for ordinary agriculture, but like most New England land, more or less rocky, requiring much labor to insure agricultural success, but capable of producing excellent crops under judicious management.
There are in Methuen some very marked examples of glacial action in the ridges known to geologists as " Kames," and to the unscientific as " Hogbacks." One of these ridges extends from Tower Hill, in Ijawrence, through the west part of Methuen village into New Hampshire, and is a continuation of the series of" Kames " running through Andover and Reading, and known in Andover as " Indian Ridge." There is also another line of "Kames," extending from the easterly part of the City of Lawrence through ''Germantown " northward. In the early times these ridges were thought by many to be the remains of ancient fortifications, but the investigations of geologists have determined, beyond question, that they were deposits formed in the great ice age, from accumulations of gravel in the melting ice. Methuen contains few natural objects of special interest, Spicket Falls being perhaps the most prominent. The Nevins Memorial, and grounds of Henry C. Nevins, near by, and the extensive grounds of Chas. H. Tenney, are beautifnlly laid out and kept, contain many rare and costly trees and shrubs, and are all places which would attract attention anywhere.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 70 fires within 5 miles of Abbot-Baker House
between 2003 and 2020, burning about 18 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 5 were recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
18
Smoking
15
Recreation and ceremony
7
Debris and open burning
6
Equipment and vehicle use
6
Arson/incendiarism
5
Misuse of fire by a minor
5
Power generation/transmission/distribution
4
Railroad operations and maintenance
3
Natural
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 1,230 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Abbot-Baker House between 1816 and 1975: 696 Plantae, 401 Animalia, 120 Fungi, 5 Protozoa, 4 Unrecorded, 4 Chromista.
12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A Brown, A S Gaunt, A. C. Mathieson and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
4 workings within 5 miles of Abbot-Baker House: 3 past producers, 1 plant.
1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Perlite. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Andover, the town this property stands in, in 25 storm reports between 1994 and 2023: 12 thunderstorm wind, 5 flash flood, 3 lightning, 3 flood.
No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
Heavy rain fell across much of Lawrence and Andover, with the Automated Surface Observing System at Lawrence, MA (KLWM) recording 0.52 inches of rain in six minutes. This combined with a blocked culvert designed to drain runoff from Interstate 495 resulted in four to five feet of water inundating three homes on Binney Street in Andover. In addition, a large sinkhole formed on Shepard Street near the entrance of the Lawrence Industrial Park. Other reports of flooding included: motorists stuck in floodwaters on Route 133, flooding in the town hall basement, and minor street flooding.
Trees were downed in North Andover on Salem, Appleton, and Dale Streets in North Andover. A tree was downed onto a car on Abbot Street. In Andover, multiple trees were downed. In Georgetown, two trees and wires were downed on Route 133. Trees and power lines were downed on Baldpate Road in Boxford. One tree was downed on Route 110 in Merrimac and another on School Street.
United States Geological Survey topographic
sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then
testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is reproduced in full on its own page, word for word and never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 82004811, 7 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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