{"nrhp_refnum":"84002783","name":"Parker, Samuel, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"132 West St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Reading","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.514057114000025,"lon":-71.12093707199995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-07-19","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-and-a-half story, five-bay, gambrel-roofed vernacular Georgian house at 132 West Street in Reading, Massachusetts, built about 1795-96 for Samuel Parker.","why_significant":"The house is presented as a representative modest late 18th-century Reading residence and a reminder of the many working-class tradesmen and craftsmen in the town. It was home to a succession of tradespeople and small-business owners, including a cooper, carriage painters and a nursery operator. One later occupant, Carrie Belle Kenney, was among the first women to graduate from M.I.T.","narrative":"Built around 1795-96 for Samuel Parker, a cooper, this small gambrel-roofed house at 132 West Street in Reading shows how modest households lived in the late 18th century. The one-and-a-half story, five-bay building faces south from a small rise on a granite foundation. Its window and door trim is plain, just narrow wood strips framing the openings. The gambrel section is the oldest part. It originally had a central chimney, and the foundations remain in the cellar. Additions were made on the north side around 1835-45. Later owners worked in a range of trades. Harriet and Merrill Hutchinson ran a successful carriage-painting business through the 1890s and briefly tried market gardening. E. Idella Kenney developed a nursery business after buying the property in 1896 and stayed until 1943, sharing the house for years with her sister Carrie Belle, one of the first women to graduate from M.I.T. The house is valued as a surviving example of working-class craftsman life and of simple Georgian construction.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Vernacular Georgian","criteria":["A","B","C"],"status_note":"Altered by two northern additions (c. 1835-45), a 1960s-70s garage, a front porch and removal of the central chimney; the form says it retains integrity of location, design, setting, materials and workmanship.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:57.672037-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/12/7915/63791512/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/84002783.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84002783/10d2fbf162-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84002783/10d2fbf162-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ReadingMA_SamuelParkerHouse.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_SamuelParkerHouse.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63791512","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Parker_House_(Reading,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7412356"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/parker-samuel-house-84002783/"}