Clemence-Irons House is both one of the oldest houses in the Ocean State and an important record of twentieth-century restoration methods. Built by Richard Clemence in 1691, it is a rare surviving example of a stone-ender, a once common building type with roots in western England. Passing through a series of owners over hundreds of […]

Arnold House is a rare surviving example of a stone-ender, a once-common building type featuring a massive chimney end wall. Built by Eleazer Arnold in 1693, the house features stone work that reflects the origins and skills of the settlers who emigrated from the western part of England. The house is a National Historic Landmark. […]

In 1911 Swett-Ilsley House became the first property acquired by Historic New England, just a year after our founding. The original portion, built in 1670 by Stephen Swett, was one room deep, and later additions more than doubled the size of the house. Over the centuries the building served as a tavern, chocolate shop, chandlery, […]

Salem shipwright Eleazer Gedney built the earliest portion of Gedney House in 1665. Originally the house was asymmetrical, with two rooms on the first floor, a single chamber above, and an attic with a front-facing gable. Significant renovations in 1712 and 1800 resulted in dramatic changes to the house’s appearance. Gedney House is significant both […]

Dole-Little House was built ca. 1715 with materials salvaged from an earlier structure. Its first owner was Richard Dole, a cattleman, who built a two-room, central-chimney house with a small kitchen shed at the rear. This shed has since been replaced with a larger lean-to. Decorative carpentry and finishes include chamfered edges, molded sheathing (especially […]

Cooper-Frost-Austin House is the oldest dwelling standing in the city of Cambridge and is one of the earliest examples of an “integral lean-to” house in New England. Built by Samuel Cooper in 1681, the house was owned by the same family for more than 250 years. Architectural details including an ornate chimney and interior joinery survive from the […]

Coffin House, occupied by the Coffin family over three centuries, reveals insights into domestic life in rural New England. The house, which contains the family furnishings, began as a simple dwelling built in the post-medieval style. Tristram Coffin and his family lived, cooked, and slept in two or possibly three rooms; their possessions were few. […]

Built between 1694 and 1701 for a farming family, Browne House contains rare surviving architectural features from the late 1600s. In a near ruinous state when it was acquired by Historic New England founder William Sumner Appleton in 1919, the house was painstakingly restored in what is acknowledged to be the first fully documented restoration […]

Boardman House, a national historic landmark, was built in 1692 for the family of William Boardman. With the majority of the original structure still intact, the house remains unaltered from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Boardman House provides an exceptional opportunity to view seventeenth- and eighteenth-century construction techniques and finishes. When Historic New England founder, William […]

A National Historic Landmark, Jackson House is the oldest surviving wood-frame house in New Hampshire. It was built by Richard Jackson, a woodworker, farmer, and mariner. It resembles English post-Medieval prototypes, but is notably American in its extravagant use of wood. Succeeding generations added a lean-to by 1715, along with more additions in the 1700s […]