{"nrhp_refnum":"88000163","name":"Parker, James, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"R.R. 1, Box 30 Center Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Shirley","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.560437328000035,"lon":-71.65825629832133,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1988-02-25","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Agriculture","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story New England Colonial farmhouse in Shirley, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, on about ten acres of fields. Its oldest section was built after 1715, probably by William Farwell, and James Parker enlarged it in 1797.","why_significant":"The house is significant for its unusual merging of an early-18th-century one-story settler's cottage with a large late-18th-century center-chimney house built around it at a changed angle. It also reflects the evolution of a farmstead from settlement-era homestead to tenant-rented property to prosperous early-19th-century farm. The form argues it meets criteria A and C at the local level.","narrative":"Valley Farm in Shirley, Massachusetts, centers on a farmhouse that grew in two stages. William Farwell, a member of the first generation to settle west of the Nashua River, is credited with the oldest part, a one-story hall-and-parlor cottage with a garret, built after 1715. James Parker bought the property in 1766 and rented it to tenants. In 1797 he raised a much larger two-story, center-chimney house that straddles and nearly surrounds the old cottage, turned about 20 degrees toward a new road. The angled facade, overhanging roof and paired first-floor windows make it a distinctive example of vernacular building. Three generations of Parkers farmed here, adding a cider press, barns and a hop kiln, until the farm declined and the last heir died in 1921. The listing covers the ten acres of fields around the house, and cites its agricultural history and its architecture as the reasons for recognition.","period_of_significance":"1715-1921","architect_builder":"Unknown (oldest portion attributed to William Farwell; 1797 addition built for James Parker)","architectural_style":"New England Colonial","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Still used as a single-family dwelling; the form says it has been sensitively repaired and retains significant exterior and interior finish.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:02.347455-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/22/7955/63795522/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/88000163.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/88000163/e624ac0c14-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/88000163/e624ac0c14-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ShirleyMA_JamesParkerHouse.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:ShirleyMA_JamesParkerHouse.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795522","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Parker_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6140934"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/parker-james-house-88000163/"}