{"nrhp_refnum":"83000688","name":"Kingsley House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"96 Davis St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Rehoboth","county":"Bristol County","state":"MA","lat":41.77913238800005,"lon":-71.26027926199998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1983-06-06","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A First Period house at 96 Davis Street in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, built around 1680 and traditionally regarded as the oldest house in town. It is still used as a residence and has a nineteenth-century barn and wagon shed nearby.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it Rehoboth's finest and most intact example of First Period domestic architecture, with original features such as a chimney tree, oak-log stairs and chamfered summer beams. It is also tied to the early Kingsley family, including John Kingsley, whose 1676 account records the effects of King Philip's War. Its remote southern siting is described as an early effort to avoid religious persecution.","narrative":"Kingsley House, at 96 Davis Street in Rehoboth, is a residence dating to about 1680 and traditionally considered the oldest house in town. It follows the medieval building tradition of southern New England in the late seventeenth century, with an asymmetrical front and a one-room-deep plan. Original features include an oak chimney tree sixteen inches wide, stairs made of solid oak logs, chamfered summer beams, gunstock posts and corner wind braces. A rear lean-to was added before 1785 and a west ell in the nineteenth century. The house appears to have been built by John Kingsley, an early Rehoboth proprietor whose 1676 pleading account is the only surviving written record of the effects of King Philip's War on the first settlement. Later owner Aaron Kingsley ran a sawmill and was among the town's wealthiest men. The Kingsleys were active Baptists, and the remote site is described as an early effort to avoid persecution.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Architect unknown; builder appears to have been John Kingsley","architectural_style":"First Period","criteria":["B","C"],"status_note":"Present use is residence; the form describes the main house as little changed since the mid 19th century.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:56.366402-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/41/7895/63789541/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/83000688.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83000688/35d4b9c2c6-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83000688/35d4b9c2c6-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RehobothMA_108DavisStreet.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">User:Magicpiano</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RehobothMA_108DavisStreet.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63789541","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsley_House_(Rehoboth,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6413317"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/bristol-county/kingsley-house-83000688/"}