{"nrhp_refnum":"04000190","name":"Wheeler-Minot Farmhouse","other_names":["Henry David Thoreau birthplace"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"341 Virginia Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Concord","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.47000490350004,"lon":-71.31092301274188,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2004-03-19","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Community Planning and Development","Literature"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A ca. 1730 Georgian-era farmhouse at 341 Virginia Road in Concord, Massachusetts, set on about 20 acres of agricultural land. It was moved to its present site in 1878 from a location 300 yards to the west.","why_significant":"The house is the birthplace of Henry David Thoreau, who was born there in 1817 while his family lived in the east half. It also preserves 18th-century architectural features, including a high-style paneled entry stair, and is tied to the farming history of the Wheeler and Minot families. The surrounding fields and walls retain an agricultural landscape.","narrative":"Built around 1730, this farmhouse at 341 Virginia Road in Concord, Massachusetts, is best known as the birthplace of Henry David Thoreau. It began as a large saltbox with a massive center chimney and a rear leanto, but was moved about 300 yards in 1878 and reduced to a simple two-and-a-half-story, five-bay, side-gabled block with clapboard walls and a fieldstone foundation. Inside, the lobby entrance keeps a three-run staircase and raised-field paneling that reflect the means of its 18th-century farming owners, and exposed frame members and early floorboards survive. The house was long a two-family dwelling; the Thoreau family rented the east half in the year of Henry's birth, while the farm was under the Minot family. Today it sits within about 20 acres of fields, meadows, stone walls, wells and wetlands. The town bought the property in 1997 and removed several 20th-century outbuildings.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Colonial: postmedieval English; Colonial: Georgian","criteria":[],"status_note":"Owned by the town since 1997; current functions listed as education (research facility) and agriculture. Late outbuildings were demolished after the town purchase.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.438855-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/16/7958/63795816/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/04000190.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04000190/d187e03314-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04000190/d187e03314-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wheeler-Minot_Farmhouse,_Concord_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John Phelan</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wheeler-Minot_Farmhouse,_Concord_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795816","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheeler-Minot_Farmhouse","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6948294"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/wheeler-minot-farmhouse-04000190/"}