Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. 17 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1892.
From the record
“The John Humphreys House, also known as Sir John Humphreys House, is a historic house museum located in Swampscott, Massachusetts. Although it was long thought to be associated with John Humphrey, an early deputy governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, it was more likely built about 1700, based on architectural analysis.”
Wikipedia article John Humphreys House, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 480 National Register listings published here for Essex County · listed in 1990 · category: Building.
Also known as. First Period Buildings of Eastern Massachusetts TR
Town. Swampscott town
Architectural style. American colonial architecture
National Register reference number.90000258- 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.
Then and now
1892 to 1997
The ground this property stands on, surveyed
105 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are
United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.
18921997
Fires near this property
61 since 2003
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 61 fires within 5 miles of Sir John Humphreys House
between 2003 and 2020, burning about 248 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 6 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
Recreation and ceremony
22
Smoking
12
Arson/incendiarism
6
Debris and open burning
6
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
3
Misuse of fire by a minor
3
Equipment and vehicle use
3
Fireworks
3
Natural
1
Railroad operations and maintenance
1
Power generation/transmission/distribution
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 9,706 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Sir John Humphreys House between 1800 and 1975: 4,519 Plantae, 2,989 Animalia, 937 Chromista, 579 Fungi, 437 Unrecorded, 234 Bacteria, 11 Protozoa.
12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A B. Proper, A H HIGGINSON, A. A. Eaton 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
5 workings within 5 miles of Sir John Humphreys House: 2 plants, 1 unknown, 1 producer, 1 occurrence.
3 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Iron, Gold, Silver, Platinum, Palladium, Mercury. 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
Swampscott, the town this property stands in, in 8 storm reports between 1995 and 2022: 7 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail.
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.
Trees and wires were downed on several streets in Marblehead and Swampscott, including Pickwick Road in Marblehead and Thomas and Banks Roads in Swampscott. One of the trees on Banks Road fell onto a garage. A tree on Thomas Road landed on a house causing extensive damage.
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 90000258, 12 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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