{"nrhp_refnum":"66000131","name":"Boardman House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Howard St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Saugus","county":"Essex County","state":"MA","lat":42.47248781400006,"lon":-71.03789543782403,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1966-10-15","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1961-11-05","areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-and-a-half-story, two-room, central-chimney colonial house on Howard Street in Saugus, Essex County, Massachusetts, probably built around 1687 for the Boardman family and owned by a New England preservation society.","why_significant":"It is presented as a classic New England saltbox house of medieval design. So much original fabric survives in an unspoiled condition that it is called an outstanding monument and an important document for studying early American architecture.","narrative":"Set close to a once-rural road in Saugus that is now a busy suburban street, this house follows the typical 17th-century plan of two rooms on each floor around a large central chimney, with a cellar under half the building. A rear lean-to was added later, giving it the saltbox profile. Long thought to have housed Scottish prisoners brought to work at the Saugus iron works, it is now understood from later research to have been built for the Boardman family after they acquired the land in 1687. Its plan and fine decorative detail do not suit prisoners' quarters. The exterior dates largely from the 18th century, while much of the interior is original, including wainscot, batten doors, shadow-molded sheathing and the heavy exposed frame. The preservation society that acquired it in 1914 repaired it between 1915 and 1918 and has since treated it as a documentary house, prioritizing the saving of original material for students of early architecture.","period_of_significance":"1600-1699 (specific date 1687)","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Colonial New England saltbox house of medieval design","criteria":[],"status_note":"Owned by a preservation society and treated as a documentary house; condition described as fair, with a custodian occupying the first floor and limited summer opening hours (1968 visit).","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 01:58:28.652741-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/77/7936/63793677/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/66000131_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000131/407353370e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000131/407353370e-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Daderot at en.wikipedia","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boardman_House_-_Saugus_MA_-_side_view.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Daderot at en.wikipedia</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boardman_House_-_Saugus_MA_-_side_view.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63793677","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boardman_House_(Saugus,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4931430"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/essex-county/boardman-house-66000131/"}