{"nrhp_refnum":"78000466","name":"Old Castle","other_names":["Wheeler House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"N of Rockport on MA 127","address_restricted":false,"city":"Rockport","county":"Essex County","state":"MA","lat":42.676616093000064,"lon":-70.62474533399995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-09-01","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Conservation","Exploration/Settlement","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"The Old Castle (Jethro Wheeler House) is a shingled 2½-story saltbox house on a high promontory overlooking Pigeon Cove, north of Rockport on MA 127, Essex County, Massachusetts. It is believed to have been built about 1715.","why_significant":"The house is significant for its architecture and historical associations. Its chamfered framing, low ceilings and clay-laid bricks suggest holdovers of 17th-century building practices. Six generations of the Wheeler family lived there, and it later passed to the Story family, who gave it to the Pigeon Cove Village Improvement Society in 1929.","narrative":"Perched on a high promontory above Pigeon Cove in Rockport, the Old Castle is a shingled saltbox house of two and a half stories with a center chimney and six-over-six windows. It is believed to have been built around 1715, after Jethro Wheeler bought the property in 1712. Chamfered framing, low ceilings and bricks laid in clay point to building practices carried over from the 1600s. A kitchen lean-to is thought to date from 1792, and a portion removed earlier was rebuilt in 1892. Six generations of Wheelers lived here before Henry L. Story bought the house in 1893. His wife, Abbie, had founded the Pigeon Cove Village Improvement Society, and their children gave the house to the Society in 1929. A restoration that year aimed to show various phases of the building's history rather than a single period. The house takes its name from its look to sailors rounding Cape Ann, and it now serves as a meeting place and summer museum.","period_of_significance":"c. 1715","architect_builder":"Jethro Wheeler","architectural_style":"Saltbox","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and maintained by the Village Improvement Society as a meeting place and a museum open to the public during the summer months; restored in 1929.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.156916-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/86/7948/63794886/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/78000466.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78000466/d0f706dd3e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78000466/d0f706dd3e-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_Castle,_Pigeon_Cove_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:Old_Castle,_Pigeon_Cove_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63794886","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Castle_(Rockport,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7083606"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/essex-county/old-castle-78000466/"}