{"nrhp_refnum":"82001902","name":"Sewall-Scripture House","other_names":["Sandy Bay Historical Society Building"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"40 King St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Rockport","county":"Essex County","state":"MA","lat":42.65768246300007,"lon":-70.62632588699995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-09-30","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-and-a-half-story Federal-style granite house at 40 King Street, corner of Granite Street, Rockport, Massachusetts, built in 1832 by Levi Sewall. It now serves as the Sandy Bay Historical Society Building.","why_significant":"The house is tied to Rockport's granite industry and is one of the few houses in town built of local granite, which was mostly used for industrial structures. It is also a fine example of the Federal style handled in stone. It retains integrity of design, materials, workmanship, location and setting.","narrative":"Built in 1832 at the corner of King and Granite Streets in Rockport, this two-and-a-half-story Federal-style house is notable for its walls of dressed granite ashlar, cut from the builder's own quarry in Pigeon Cove and hauled by oxen. Levi Sewall, a Maine native and early Rockport granite entrepreneur, built it when he married Mary Ann Robards. The five-bay house has a center entrance with a tall, stilted round arch of granite, sidelights and a louvered fan, plus a frame rear ell with a Tuscan-columned porch. Inside are a circular stair, folding shutters and restrained woodwork. Granite was rarely used for houses in Rockport, where it mostly appeared in industrial buildings, so the house stands out as a Federal design rendered in stone. Sewall's descendants lived there until 1957, when the Sandy Bay Historical Society and Museum took ownership. A granite wall around the street sides of the lot survives. The property was listed for its links to the granite industry and its architecture.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899, 1900-","architect_builder":"Levi Sewall (built the house in 1832); form lists builder/architect as N/A","architectural_style":"Federal","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Occupied and used as a museum; owned and operated by the Sandy Bay Historical Society and Museum, Inc. since 1957.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:57.939412-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/92/7948/63794892/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/82001902.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82001902/a9064cbd4e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82001902/a9064cbd4e-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sewall-Scripture_House,_Rockport_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:Sewall-Scripture_House,_Rockport_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63794892","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewall-Scripture_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7458147"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/essex-county/sewall-scripture-house-82001902/"}