{"nrhp_refnum":"75000282","name":"Wade, John, House","other_names":["Pierce Tavern"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"253 High St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Medford","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.42102922200007,"lon":-71.12107757499996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1975-06-18","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-and-one-half-story, central-chimney \"Cape Cod\" type house at 253 High Street in Medford, Massachusetts, built between about 1784 and 1794 by John Wade, a tanner.","why_significant":"It is one of two eighteenth-century Cape Cod houses remaining in Medford. Its deep, rocky lot preserves local topography that twentieth-century development has obscured elsewhere. The house also keeps Greek Revival alterations made in the mid-nineteenth century.","narrative":"Located at the foot of \"Marm\" Simonds Hill in Medford, this one-and-one-half-story Cape Cod house was built between 1784 and 1794 by John Wade, a tanner. It has a central chimney, a five-bay symmetrical facade, a granite block foundation and white clapboard siding. Pilasters, sidelights and a paneled door reflect Greek Revival updates made around the 1830s and 1840s, possibly under the carpenter Charles Caldwell. A rear ell and a glazed sunporch were added later. Wade worked among a group of tanners and leather dressers along High Street, and his estate sold the property after his death in 1821. Locally the house has been called Pierce Tavern, but property titles show it was never a tavern. It is one of only two eighteenth-century Cape Cod houses left in Medford, and its rocky, sheltered lot keeps topography lost elsewhere to later development.","period_of_significance":"1784 - 1794","architect_builder":"John Wade (builder, per the data sheet)","architectural_style":"Georgian with Greek Revival elements; vernacular Cape Cod type","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as occupied, in good condition, and in use as a private residence; the form describes it as essentially unaltered since its mid-nineteenth-century Greek Revival renovation apart from a rear shed dormer and a terrace door.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:53.918509-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/45/7959/63795945/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/75000282.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75000282/f4ff1d793a-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75000282/f4ff1d793a-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Wade_House,_Medford_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:John_Wade_House,_Medford_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795945","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wade_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6262629"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/wade-john-house-75000282/"}