{"nrhp_refnum":"76000244","name":"Puritan House","other_names":["Tappan's Hotel","Atlantic House","Gloucester House","Mason's House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"3 Washington St. and 2 Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Gloucester","county":"Essex County","state":"MA","lat":42.61145340100006,"lon":-70.66608527299996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1976-05-28","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A four-story brick hotel building at 3 Washington Street and 2 Main Street in downtown Gloucester, Massachusetts, built in 1810 by Colonel James Tappan, with a three-story rear section from the same year.","why_significant":"It was one of the first brick buildings in Gloucester and the town's first hotel. With forty-five guest rooms it was unusually large for a small fishing village, and it served as a community focus for social functions through the nineteenth century. It was also one of the few buildings to survive the 1830 fire.","narrative":"Built in 1810 at the corner of Main and Washington Streets in Gloucester, this brick hotel looks out over the inner harbor. Colonel James Tappan of New Hampshire, a former schoolteacher, built it and had to borrow money after workers hit solid ledge while digging the foundation. The main block rises four stories on a tall granite foundation, with a hip roof, dentils at the eaves and arched entrances. A three-story rear section from the same year runs up Washington Street, and a wooden addition followed around 1905. Inside, a winding staircase rises from the lobby, and many of the forty-five guest rooms keep original molding, wainscoting and carved mantels. When built, it was among the first brick buildings in the village and its first hotel, and it hosted much of the town's social life through the nineteenth century. It survived the 1830 fire, and the painter Winslow Homer stayed there in 1873. At the time of listing it stood vacant while rehabilitation was under way.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"Colonel James Tappan (owner and builder)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Unoccupied at the time of nomination, with windows boarded and preservation work in progress; the building was found to be structurally sound.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.688936-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/90/7948/63794890/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/76000244.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76000244/75d0f050d7-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76000244/75d0f050d7-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blackburn_Tavern,_2_Main_St,_Gloucester_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:Blackburn_Tavern,_2_Main_St,_Gloucester_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63794890","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puritan_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7261276"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/essex-county/puritan-house-76000244/"}