{"nrhp_refnum":"90000206","name":"Giddings, George, House and Barn","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"66 Choate St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Essex","county":"Essex County","state":"MA","lat":42.64651995200006,"lon":-70.80620647599994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1990-03-09","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Historic - Non-Aboriginal","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A First Period farmhouse and barn at 66 Choate Street in Essex, Massachusetts, on a 1.69-acre parcel in rural farmland. The house dates to the 1690s and the barn to before 1702 or 1718.","why_significant":"The house and barn embody distinctive First Period building practices and are argued to be eligible under Criterion C. They have also yielded information on seventeenth-century vernacular architecture and rural agricultural life, which may support Criterion D. The barn is one of only a handful of identified First Period barns, with an angled-strut roof that may derive from East Anglian building traditions.","narrative":"Set back from Choate Street in Essex, Massachusetts, this farmstead combines a late seventeenth-century house with a First Period barn on about 1.69 acres, within roughly 350 acres of farmland. The house began in the 1690s as a two-story, single-cell dwelling and was later enlarged to a double cell with a central chimney. Its orientation was reversed in the early nineteenth century, and a modern rear leanto and gabled addition were added. Renovation exposed rare early features, including a plaster cove cornice, evidence of two-inch plank wall sheathing, and a seventeen-inch summer beam with lamb's tongue stops. The six-bay barn, dated to before 1718, has an original five-bay core with a central threshing floor. Its angled roof struts resemble those of the Stanley-Lake barn and may descend from East Anglian purlin-post traditions. Few First Period barns are known, which adds to the importance of the pair.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"First Period / Second Period","criteria":["C","D"],"status_note":"Condition is described as good. The house is a present residence and was privately renovated over the past twenty years.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:03.53216-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/63/7898/63789863/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/90000206.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90000206/a93844bc52-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90000206/a93844bc52-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:EssexMA_GeorgeGiddingsHouseAndBarn.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:EssexMA_GeorgeGiddingsHouseAndBarn.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63789863","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Giddings_House_and_Barn","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5539695"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/essex-county/giddings-george-house-and-barn-90000206/"}