{"nrhp_refnum":"66000136","name":"Bryant, William Cullen, Homestead","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"2 mi. from Cummington on side rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cummington","county":"Hampshire County","state":"MA","lat":42.46943735700006,"lon":-72.93185004059055,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1966-10-15","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1962-12-29","areas_of_significance":["Literature"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 27-room frame house and 188.57-acre farm on Bryant Road in Cummington, Hampshire County, Massachusetts. The original house was built in 1783 by Ebenezer Snell and enlarged by poet William Cullen Bryant after 1865.","why_significant":"The house was the childhood home of poet and editor William Cullen Bryant, where he wrote the first version of \"Thanatopsis\" at age seventeen. It was also his summer home from 1865 until his death in 1878, and much of its present appearance and furnishings reflect that second residence.","narrative":"High in the Berkshire Hills of Cummington, Massachusetts, this frame house and 188.57-acre farm preserve the boyhood home and later summer residence of poet and editor William Cullen Bryant. Bryant's maternal grandfather, Ebenezer Snell, built the original Dutch Colonial house in 1783, and Bryant's family moved there in 1799. He wrote the first version of \"Thanatopsis\" there at seventeen. After repurchasing the property in 1865, Bryant raised the original sections, built a new ground floor beneath them, and added a gambrel-roofed study modeled on his father's medical office. The result is a 27-room house with Victorian character and Oriental details such as flared eaves and a latticed porch. An icehouse with a pagoda-style cupola and a barn from Bryant's ownership also survive. His granddaughter donated the property to the Trustees of Reservations in 1929, and the house now operates as a museum with hiking trails across the grounds.","period_of_significance":"1799; 1865-1878","architect_builder":"not known (original house built by Ebenezer Snell, 1783)","architectural_style":"Victorian with some Oriental influence; original portion Dutch Colonial","criteria":[],"status_note":"Owned by the Trustees of Reservations since 1929 and operated as a historic house museum, open to the public June through September; some land is rented to local farmers and much is returning to a natural state.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 01:58:35.975714-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/15/7937/63793715/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/66000136_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000136/a51ee7c346-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000136/a51ee7c346-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Daderot.","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Cullen_Bryant_Homestead,_Cummington,_Massachusetts.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Daderot.</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:William_Cullen_Bryant_Homestead,_Cummington,_Massachusetts.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63793715","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Cullen_Bryant_Homestead","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8007358"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/hampshire-county/bryant-william-cullen-homestead-66000136/"}