{"nrhp_refnum":"90000061","name":"Gardner, Preserved, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"90 Milford Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Swansea","county":"Bristol County","state":"MA","lat":41.75105144500003,"lon":-71.19903779299995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1990-02-16","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Agriculture","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A Federal-style farmhouse built around 1820 at 90 Milford Road in Swansea, Massachusetts, with a ca. 1890 barn, on about 2 nominated acres of a 29½-acre property. The architect is unknown.","why_significant":"The form argues the house is a typical early 19th-century Swansea farmhouse that later became a summer home, meeting Criteria A and C at the local level. It is also tied to the locally prominent Gardner family. It illustrates the pattern of early farmhouses being used as summer homes during the late 19th and early 20th century boom in seasonal residential development.","narrative":"Built around 1820 by Preserved Gardner, this Federal-style farmhouse at 90 Milford Road in Swansea is a 2½-story gabled house with a five-bay, center-entry facade and a double-pile plan with double interior chimneys. The recessed entry has sidelights and pilasters with Greek key motifs. Late 19th-century changes added a wrap porch with Doric columns, a rear ell and an east ell. A barn of about 1890 stands nearby. The farm passed to Preserved's son Ira, who sold the adjoining land that became Mount Hope Cemetery. Thomas D. Cove of Fall River later ran it as a gentleman's farm and used the house as a summer home. The town bought it after World War II for use as Veterans Memorial Park. The house reflects the Gardner family's rising prosperity after modest 18th-century beginnings on Gardner's Neck, and shows how Swansea farmhouses became summer residences.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Built by Preserved Gardner; architect unknown","architectural_style":"Federal","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Condition is described as good. The property is now owned by the Town of Swansea and used as the Veterans Benefits Department at Memorial Park.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:03.796783-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/65/7896/63789665/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/90000061.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90000061/19f777c71a-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90000061/19f777c71a-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Preserved_Gardner_House,_Swansea_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John Phelan</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Preserved_Gardner_House,_Swansea_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63789665","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preserved_Gardner_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7241060"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/bristol-county/gardner-preserved-house-90000061/"}