{"nrhp_refnum":"84002781","name":"Parker, Joseph, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"107 Grove St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Reading","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.54696651200004,"lon":-71.11876382499997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-07-19","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-and-a-half-story clapboard house at 107 Grove Street in Reading, Massachusetts, built before 1795 (probably c. 1795) and altered c. 1808. The record also bundles a separate Joseph Parker House at 420 Franklin Street, dated 1711.","why_significant":"The Grove Street house is argued to be significant as part of an 18th-century settlement node, for its ties to the Parker and Nichols families, War of 1812 veteran Loea Parker, and photographer F. Howard Gilson, for its use as a summer retreat for urban children, and as a good example of vernacular Federal architecture. The Franklin Street house is described as a relatively intact First Period homestead tied to the Parker family and artist Ellen Nelson.","narrative":"This listing covers a Joseph Parker House in Reading, Massachusetts, documented in the records for two separate buildings. The main one, at 107 Grove Street, is a clapboard house built before 1795, probably around 1795, and remodeled or enlarged about 1808. Its massing, small second-floor windows set against the plate, and boxed cornice mark it as vernacular Federal, while the central door enframement with fluted architrave and sidelights was a later Greek Revival alteration. The house appears on an 1795 map as Joseph Parker's, and later owners included the Nichols family and Loea Parker, who died at Fort Independence during the War of 1812. F. Howard Gilson, an early photographer who documented Reading's old trees, owned it in 1875. From 1910 to 1932 it served as a vacation home for city children. The second record, 420 Franklin Street, describes a three-bay First Period farmhouse dated 1711, linked to the Parker family and later to the Red Farm Studio, founded by Ellen Nelson in 1947.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Federal vernacular/Greek Revival (107 Grove Street); First Period (420 Franklin Street)","criteria":["A","B","C"],"status_note":null,"vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:56.105798-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/16/7916/63791616/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/84002781.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84002781/3c56ff67c8-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84002781/3c56ff67c8-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ReadingMA_JosephParkerHouse.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:ReadingMA_JosephParkerHouse.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63791616","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Parker_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6286085"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/parker-joseph-house-84002781/"}