{"nrhp_refnum":"74000917","name":"Pierce House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"24 Oakton Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Boston","county":"Suffolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.287004024000055,"lon":-71.05313885199996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1974-04-26","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two and one-half story frame salt-box dwelling at 24 Oakton Avenue in the Dorchester section of Boston, Massachusetts. The original house dates to the seventeenth century and was extended in the eighteenth century.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it a primary example of a first period dwelling, with changes and additions made over more than three centuries. It was occupied continuously by the Pierce family for ten generations, and a large body of family documents survives. Its land and sales history also documents the growth of a neighborhood and a sizable part of Dorchester.","narrative":"Pierce House is a two and one-half story frame salt-box at 24 Oakton Avenue in Dorchester, Boston. Six bays wide and two deep, it is best known for a sweeping roofline with three distinct pitches, produced when the original seventeenth century frame was widened and given a lean-to in the third quarter of the eighteenth century. Two simple pedimented doorways give it a duplex appearance. Inside, exposed posts, a chamfered summer beam, and mantles and cupboards from several centuries record its long evolution. The house was lived in by the Pierce family, descendants of Robert Pierce, for ten generations until 1968. Family papers, including the diary and muster lists of Col. Samuel Pierce from the Revolutionary period, survive. Tree-ring testing in 2001 later dated the first phase to 1683 and the western extension to 1712, replacing the earlier 1652 deed-based date.","period_of_significance":"17th Century (specific date 1652)","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Salt-box (first period) house with lean-to","criteria":[],"status_note":"Owned by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities since 1968; condition listed as good, altered, on its original site, and occupied. A later supplement revises the construction dates using tree-ring dating.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.426062-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/18/7970/63797018/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/74000917.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74000917/3e5e3fab5e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74000917/3e5e3fab5e-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Jameslwoodward","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pierce_House_Boston_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Jameslwoodward</a>, <a href=\"https://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:Pierce_House_Boston_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63797018","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierce_House_(Dorchester,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7191803"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/suffolk-county/pierce-house-74000917/"}