{"nrhp_refnum":"86001884","name":"Staples-Crafts-Wiswall Farm","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1615 Beacon St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Newton","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.32728130100003,"lon":-71.23018279499996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1986-09-04","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Agriculture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A farmhouse at 1615 Beacon Street in Waban, a village of Newton, Massachusetts, dating from the mid-eighteenth century and built on the site of Deacon John Staples's late seventeenth-century house. It stands on less than one acre along the main thoroughfare at the village's commercial center.","why_significant":"The farmstead is presented as an important visual link to Waban's eighteenth-century agricultural beginnings. It is also tied to the Staples, Crafts and Wiswall families, among the area's earliest inhabitants. The form cites Criteria A and B.","narrative":"This farmhouse at 1615 Beacon Street in Waban, part of Newton, Massachusetts, occupies the site of the late seventeenth-century home of Deacon John Staples, Newton's first schoolmaster. The present house is greatly altered but incorporates the foundation, structural members and hardware of the Staples dwelling. Moses Craft, raised by the Staples couple, is believed to have rebuilt it in the mid-eighteenth century and added an ell in 1768, which he sold to his son Joseph. In 1824 William Wiswall, a cousin of the Craft family, gave the house a Federal remodelling. In 1858 David Kinmouth, a Boston dry goods merchant, bought it and extensively remodelled it as a stylish summer estate, clipping the gable ends, adding bay windows and extending the porches. The property is valued as a visual link to Waban's eighteenth-century farming origins and for its association with three early local families. It is clad in aluminum siding from the 1970s and remains a dwelling.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Architect unknown; rebuilt in the mid-eighteenth century by Moses Craft, and remodelled by William Wiswall (Federal, 1824) and David Kinmouth (Victorian, 1858)","architectural_style":"Georgian/Federal/Victorian","criteria":["A","B"],"status_note":"Condition listed as good; present use is a dwelling. A rear addition and demolition of the rear ell are noted for 1986.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:12:59.731739-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/11/7923/63792311/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/86001884.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86001884/a531182d62-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86001884/a531182d62-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NewtonMA_StaplesCraftsWiswallFarm.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:NewtonMA_StaplesCraftsWiswallFarm.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63792311","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staples-Crafts-Wiswall_Farm","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14715864"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/staples-crafts-wiswall-farm-86001884/"}