{"nrhp_refnum":"75000255","name":"Wyman, Francis, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Francis Wyman St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Burlington","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.51839201300004,"lon":-71.22467755899999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1975-03-17","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A four-over-four, eight-room wood-frame dwelling on Francis Wyman Road in Burlington, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, built around 1730 on the cellar and chimney foundations of Francis Wyman's mid-17th-century farmhouse.","why_significant":"It is argued to be a fine example of a transition-period house, showing the shift from heavy First Period framing to the joiner-finished style of the mid-18th century. It also retains rare features such as a puncheon cellar stairway and an untouched unfinished room. Historically, it is one of the few reminders of the first settlers in the Woburn-Billerica area and was used as a garrison before 1740.","narrative":"Sitting on a small knoll in Burlington, Massachusetts, the Wyman Homestead is a clapboard farmhouse of about 1730 with eight rooms and a central chimney. It was built by a third-generation Wyman on the cellar foundation and chimney base of the 1666 farmhouse of Francis Wyman, who bought the surrounding 500 acres from Henry Dunster, first president of Harvard College. The house is valued as a transition between First Period construction and the style of the mid-18th century. Heavy posts, summer beams and braces remain partly exposed, alongside beaded casing, sheathing and reverse-curve moldings. Other notable features include an 18th-century staircase, a nine-panel front door, an unfinished second-floor northwest room and a rare surviving puncheon stairway to the cellar, each step cut from oak and pegged to the stringers. The house was used as a garrison before 1740 during Indian attacks and recalls the Wyman family's role in early settlement.","period_of_significance":"1700-1799","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Colonial","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as in good condition and owned by a Wyman family association; the inventory sheet records its present function as a museum.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:53.434805-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/22/7956/63795622/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/75000255.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75000255/66685e794f-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75000255/66685e794f-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Francis_Wyman_House,_Burlington_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:Francis_Wyman_House,_Burlington_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795622","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Wyman_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5482855"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/wyman-francis-house-75000255/"}