{"nrhp_refnum":"74000389","name":"Gedney and Cox Houses","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"21 High St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Salem","county":"Essex County","state":"MA","lat":42.518427229000054,"lon":-70.89755871099999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1974-10-01","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Two adjacent historic houses at 19 and 21 High Street in Salem, Massachusetts: the Gedney House, begun in the 1660s by shipwright Eleazer Gedney, and the later Cox House, built c.1775, on the original 1664 house lot.","why_significant":"The Gedney House has been stripped of most of its trim, leaving the structural frame exposed, which makes it one of the most important study houses of 17th-century Massachusetts architecture. The property is also significant in local history as the homestead of Eleazer Gedney, a prominent figure in 17th-century Salem. The Cox House is an integral part of the same house lot.","narrative":"Two houses share a quarter-acre lot at 19 and 21 High Street in Salem, on the same bounds as the house lot shipwright Eleazer Gedney bought in 1664. The Gedney House was begun in the mid-1660s, enlarged around 1700, and given a two-story rear lean-to about 1800. In the early 1960s a builder removed most of its original and later trim. That loss exposed the timber frame, and the house is now valued as a study house for 17th-century Massachusetts construction, rivalled only by the Boardman House in Saugus. Later tree-ring dating placed the first phase in 1664 or possibly 1665 and the second phase in 1706. The smaller Cox House, a gambrel salt-box, was built about 1775, probably by Benjamin Cox, after the property had left the Gedney family. Both houses were acquired in 1967 by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, which preserved the Gedney frame and turned the Cox House into overseer's quarters.","period_of_significance":"17th and 18th centuries; specific dates 1665, 1700 and 1800","architect_builder":"Eleazer Gedney (Gedney House); probably Benjamin Cox (Cox House)","architectural_style":"First Period (17th-century) house with 18th-century salt-box profile; Cox House is a one-and-a-half story gambrel salt-box","criteria":[],"status_note":"Owned by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, which acquired both houses in 1967; the Gedney frame is preserved for study and the Cox House was adapted as overseer's quarters.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.338466-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/28/7949/63794928/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/74000389.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74000389/f348f96614-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74000389/f348f96614-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SalemMA_GedneyAndCoxHouses.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">User:Magicpiano</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SalemMA_GedneyAndCoxHouses.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63794928","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gedney_and_Cox_Houses","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5529716"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/essex-county/gedney-and-cox-houses-74000389/"}