{"nrhp_refnum":"90000072","name":"Short's Tavern","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"282 Market St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Swansea","county":"Bristol County","state":"MA","lat":41.76185446100004,"lon":-71.26869391399998,"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 Georgian three-quarter house at 282 Market Street in North Swansea, Bristol County, Massachusetts, built about 1742 as a farmhouse and later used as a tavern. It is now a two-family residence.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is an intact example of a typical 18th-century Swansea farmstead and a relatively uncommon Georgian design in a town where most surviving houses of the period are five-bay, center-entry types. It is also significant for its use as a tavern in the mid-19th century. It meets Criteria A and C at the local level.","narrative":"Built around 1742 at the corner of Market Street and Stoney Hill Road in North Swansea, this Georgian house began as a farmhouse and later served as a tavern. It is a gabled, 2½-story three-quarter house with a central chimney and double-pile plan, a less common form in Swansea, where most surviving houses of the period have five bays and a center entry. The main entry has a multi-pane transom and a pilastered, pedimented surround, and the second-story windows keep their 12/8 sash. The land passed from John Therber to his son Thomas in 1685, and the farmhouse was sold in 1742 to settle Thomas Therber's estate. James Short bought the 40-acre farmstead in 1851 and opened a tavern on the county highway toward Providence, in a community then supported by a nearby shipyard. The house is valued as a typical dispersed 18th-century farmstead with a documented tavern phase.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Georgian","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Present use is a 2-family residence; condition described as stable. The former stone barn has been remodeled into a residence on a separate lot and is a noncontributing building.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.182811-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/71/7896/63789671/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/90000072.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90000072/21a094c4a7-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90000072/21a094c4a7-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Kenneth C. Zirkel","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shorts_Tavern_Swansea_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Kenneth C. Zirkel</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:Shorts_Tavern_Swansea_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63789671","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short%27s_Tavern","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7501537"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/bristol-county/shorts-tavern-90000072/"}