{"nrhp_refnum":"79000366","name":"Stetson House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Hanover St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Hanover","county":"Plymouth County","state":"MA","lat":42.11621148800003,"lon":-70.84367213399997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-09-07","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 house with a later ell, on about two acres on Hanover Street in Hanover Center, Hanover, Massachusetts. Built c. 1700 and largely rebuilt c. 1760, it has a barn that may also date from c. 1700.","why_significant":"The house is one of the earliest surviving buildings in Hanover Center and stayed with the Stetson family, one of the town's oldest, for nearly two hundred years. It served as a tavern and as the town's meetinghouse after Hanover separated from Scituate in 1727. Early twentieth-century alterations by Dr. L. Vernon Briggs reflect a period of restoration and preservation practice.","narrative":"Stetson House is a two and one-half story frame dwelling facing north on roughly two acres in Hanover Center, Massachusetts. Most of the present house dates from about 1760, but it incorporates parts of an earlier house from about 1700, and the barn may be of similar age. The five-bay front has a center entrance with fluted Doric pilasters, quoins and a dentilated cornice, probably added around 1790. Inside, the northwest rooms show unusual rustification trim that echoes the doorway. The property was long tied to the Stetson family, descendants of Robert Stetson, who acquired the surrounding land in 1634. Captain Benjamin Stetson was very likely the builder. By 1716 the house was a tavern and a noted place of resort, and after 1727 it served as Hanover's meetinghouse. It left family ownership in 1891. Dr. L. Vernon Briggs bought it in 1916, carried out a conjectural restoration, and willed it in 1928 to a preservation society.","period_of_significance":"1700-1799","architect_builder":"Capt. Benjamin Stetson (?)","architectural_style":"Transitional Georgian-Federal woodwork (provincial interpretation); no overall style stated","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied; owned by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities; altered by early twentieth-century restoration.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:53.316057-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/22/7966/63796622/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/79000366.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79000366/70d73d0182-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79000366/70d73d0182-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 4.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stetson_House_north_side,_Hanover_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John Phelan</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stetson_House_north_side,_Hanover_MA.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"96000476","name":"Hanover Center Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/massachusetts/hanover-center-historic-district-96000476/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796622","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stetson_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7611659"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/plymouth-county/stetson-house-79000366/"}