{"nrhp_refnum":"90000223","name":"Brown House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"76 Bridge St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Hamilton","county":"Essex County","state":"MA","lat":42.616176160000066,"lon":-70.85105013999998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1990-03-09","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 2 1/2-story, five-bay, one-room-deep wood-frame house at 76 Bridge Street in Hamilton, Massachusetts, built in two stages: an original single-cell house of about 1662-1673 and a second cell and lean-to added about 1680-1690.","why_significant":"The house retains First Period framing and finish, including a principal rafter/principal purlin roof and a rare diagonal wind brace. It also keeps an intact framed overhang with its original cyma-molded girt and two large drops. The addition of a second cell and lean-to shows the typical evolutionary growth of First Period houses, and the house is tied to the early 20th-century restoration movement.","narrative":"Brown House, at 76 Bridge Street in Hamilton, began as a single-room house built between 1662 and 1673 and was enlarged within a few decades. A second cell and a rear lean-to were added in the 1680s or 1690s; the lean-to has since been removed. The house is five bays wide and two and a half stories tall, with a clapboarded exterior. Its significance rests on surviving First Period carpentry: chamfered oak summer beams, shadow-molded sheathing, and an older roof frame using principal purlins beside a newer section framed with common purlins. The roof also keeps a rare diagonal wind brace. The west end has a framed overhang with its original molded girt and two large pendant drops, a survival matched in the study area only at one Topsfield house. About 1920 the house was restored, adding a porch, a pilastered chimney and a staircase modeled on another First Period house. The open land and the Miles River behind it preserve the setting.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"First Period core, Second Period exterior","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Recorded in good condition and used as a residence; it has not been moved.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:03.432862-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/60/7900/63790060/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/90000223.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90000223/4176d72f1e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90000223/4176d72f1e-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Fletcher6","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brown_House.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Fletcher6</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:Brown_House.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63790060","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_House_(Hamilton,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4976175"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/essex-county/brown-house-90000223/"}