{"nrhp_refnum":"90000064","name":"Brown, John, IV, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"703 Pearse Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Swansea","county":"Bristol County","state":"MA","lat":41.727895087000036,"lon":-71.22758243299995,"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 2½-story, 5-bay Georgian farmhouse at 703 Pearse Road in the Touisset section of South Swansea, Massachusetts, built about 1752 on the Cole's River. It is part of the original Brown family farmstead.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the house meets Criteria A and C at the local level. It is an excellent, well-preserved Georgian house representing the high-style homes of Swansea's prosperous 18th-century families. It also illustrates the dispersed farmsteads of the shoreline before summer resort development and suburbanization around 1900.","narrative":"Built about 1752 on a seaside lot overlooking the Cole's River in the Touisset section of South Swansea, this Georgian farmhouse has a center chimney, a double-pile plan, five bays and two and a half stories. Its dentil cornice, cornerboards, molded window heads with 12/12 sash and two pedimented dormers mark it as one of the finer homes built by the area's wealthier 18th-century families. Deed research ties the property to John Brown IV (1675-1752), a member of the prominent Brown family of Plymouth Colony and Rhode Island, whose will is the source for the date. The original farm covered 56 acres. Around 1932 a semi-enclosed entry portico, a triple window and a south bay window were added in Colonial Revival style. Unlike the modest capes nearby on Gardner's Neck, the house shows the scale of an earlier farming settlement that gave way to summer resort and suburban development after the railroad arrived. It was listed for its architecture and its link to that settlement pattern.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Georgian (with Colonial Revival additions, ca. 1932)","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Present residence in excellent condition; not moved.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.74471-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/69/7896/63789669/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/90000064.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90000064/d077beb45d-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90000064/d077beb45d-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Tim Pierce","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Brown_IV_House.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Tim Pierce</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Brown_IV_House.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63789669","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brown_IV_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6223546"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/bristol-county/brown-john-iv-house-90000064/"}