{"nrhp_refnum":"90000233","name":"Giddings-Burnham House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"37 Argilla Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Ipswich","county":"Essex County","state":"MA","lat":42.67358752900003,"lon":-70.83127642299996,"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 First Period house at 37 Argilla Road in Ipswich, Massachusetts, built about 1680-1690 as a five-bay, two-and-a-half-story, double-cell, central-chimney dwelling. The builder is presumed to be carpenter Thomas Burnham.","why_significant":"The house keeps its First Period structure and has framing typical of the late 17th century. It also has unusually conservative features, including wattle and daub wall fill, flatwise joists in the cellar and two-story lapped studs. Few other surviving houses in Massachusetts have these features.","narrative":"Built about 1680-1690 at 37 Argilla Road in Ipswich, this clapboarded house has five bays, one room depth and two and a half stories around a central chimney. Its frame is typical of late 17th-century New England carpentry, with chamfered summer beams, regularly spaced joists and a mortised attic frame. It also contains older practices. Wall openings in 1977 revealed wattle and daub fill, a method that had largely faded by the 1680s. The cellar has joists laid flat and joined with tusk tenons, and the north wall has two-story lapped studs. A. L. Cummings suggested that material came from an earlier house on the site, granted to George Giddings in 1635, and that the presumed builder, carpenter Thomas Burnham, who bought the property in 1667, was elderly and kept to traditional methods. The house was restored in 1935 and gained a gambrel-roofed addition in 1977. It retains integrity of location, design, workmanship, materials and setting, and qualifies for its distinctive construction.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Architect unknown; presumed builder Carpenter Thomas Burnham","architectural_style":"First Period core, Second Period exterior","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Present use is residence; condition is good.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.201706-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/62/7900/63790062/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/90000233.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90000233/3c3216b3e1-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90000233/3c3216b3e1-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IpswichMA_GIddingsBurnhamHouse.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:IpswichMA_GIddingsBurnhamHouse.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63790062","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giddings-Burnham_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5559501"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/essex-county/giddings-burnham-house-90000233/"}