{"nrhp_refnum":"05000560","name":"Haverhill Historical Society Historic District","other_names":["Buttonwoods","Saltonstall-Duncan Homestead"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"240 Water St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Haverhill","county":"Essex County","state":"MA","lat":42.77269700000005,"lon":-71.06645916543074,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2005-06-08","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Community Planning and Development","Education","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A historic district of about an acre and a half at 240 Water Street in Haverhill, Essex County, Massachusetts, containing the early 19th-century Duncan House (Buttonwoods), an early 18th-century gambrel-roofed house, a mid-19th-century shoe shop, and related objects, all used as a historical society museum.","why_significant":"The district is a remnant of a farm held by the Saltonstall and Duncan families for over 250 years, and it preserves a Federal-style double house and early buildings tied to the area's colonial and shoe-making history. It has been the Haverhill Historical Society's museum site since the Duncans donated it in 1903. The full statement of significance is truncated in the text, so the specific criteria and period are not visible.","narrative":"Perched on a rise above Water Street and the Merrimack River in Haverhill, this small district preserves part of a farm once held by the Saltonstall and Duncan families for more than 250 years. The largest building is the Duncan House, also called Buttonwoods, a two-story Federal double house traditionally dated to 1814, with brick end walls, a fanlighted entry and a Shingle style rear ell added in the 1880s. Nearby stand a gambrel-roofed house that began in the early 18th century and a mid-19th-century shoe shop moved to the site in 1957. The farm was subdivided in the late 19th century, leaving the house lot. In 1903 the Duncans donated the property to the Haverhill Historical Society, which added exhibition halls in the twentieth century, including Ayer-Elliott Hall and Tenney Hall. The district counts twenty contributing resources and four noncontributing ones, and it continues to serve as a museum.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Colonial, Federal, Shingle, Colonial Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"In use as a museum by the Haverhill Historical Society, which has used the buildings for its collections since 1903.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.020451-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/16/7948/63794816/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/05000560.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/05000560/623e9c5e66-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/05000560/623e9c5e66-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Haverhill_Historical_Society,_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:Haverhill_Historical_Society,_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63794816","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haverhill_Historical_Society_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5683793"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/essex-county/haverhill-historical-society-historic-district-05000560/"}