{"nrhp_refnum":"90000076","name":"Gardner, Joseph, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1205 Gardner's Neck Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Swansea","county":"Bristol County","state":"MA","lat":41.71862903500005,"lon":-71.20370134099994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1990-02-16","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Exploration/Settlement","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 1½-story, five-bay, center-entry Federal-style cape at 1205 Gardner's Neck Road in Swansea, Massachusetts, built around 1795 as a farmhouse and later expanded.","why_significant":"It is one of the few surviving buildings from the 18th-century Gardner family settlement of Gardner's Neck in South Swansea. It also shows how 18th-century farmhouses on the Neck were adapted into late 19th-century summer homes, notably with a ca. 1877 south addition.","narrative":"Built around 1795 at 1205 Gardner's Neck Road in Swansea, this 1½-story, five-bay cape with a central brick chimney began as a farmhouse for Joseph Gardner, son of Col. Peleg Gardner. Peleg's father, Samuel, helped buy Gardner's Neck in 1693. Joseph bought the adjoining parcel from his brother John, and the Gardners farmed the land until 1854. In 1874 the house and 50 acres passed to Andrew J. Borden and William Almy of Fall River, and the Bordens used it as a summer residence. Around 1877 a 17-foot, three-bay double-pile addition was built on the south end, adding a second front door and a columned porch for the Almy family. Several families used the house in summer until it became a year-round home in 1946. It is valued as one of the few remaining Gardner-era buildings on the Neck and as an example of a farmhouse converted to summer use.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Federal","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Condition described as good; in use as a present residence.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.110619-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/95/7896/63789695/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/90000076.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90000076/4d76ddfaf6-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90000076/4d76ddfaf6-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joseph_Gardner_House,_South_Swansea_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John Phelan</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:Joseph_Gardner_House,_South_Swansea_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63789695","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Gardner_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15229750"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/bristol-county/gardner-joseph-house-90000076/"}