{"nrhp_refnum":"90000242","name":"Fuller, Lieut. Thomas, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Old S. Main St. between Mt. Vernon and Boston Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Middleton","county":"Essex County","state":"MA","lat":42.59218096800004,"lon":-71.01353295899997,"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 two and one-half story, central-chimney First Period house on Old South Main Street in Middleton, Essex County, Massachusetts, built around 1684 by an unknown builder. It is a clapboarded residence on about 1.08 acres.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the house embodies distinctive framing and decorative characteristics of seventeenth-century construction, notably transverse summers on the first floor supported by posts, which is found in relatively few Massachusetts First Period houses. It is the earliest house in Middleton with this feature. Unexposed framing may also yield further information on First Period architecture.","narrative":"Built around 1684 on Old South Main Street in Middleton, this clapboarded house is a two and one-half story, central-chimney dwelling with a five-bay facade. A rear leanto existed by 1690 and was later raised to two stories in the 19th century, and further additions and a Victorian bow window followed. Its importance lies in the timber frame. The first-floor rooms on either side of the chimney use transverse summers carried on two-story posts, a layout found in only a small number of Massachusetts First Period houses. The beams have flat chamfers ending in an unusual combination of collar and cove stop. It is the earliest Middleton house with this feature and sits at the northerly end of the road later extended from Salem to Andover, where Thomas Fuller served as an overseer of highways. Boxing still covers parts of the framing, so further study could reveal more about late seventeenth-century decorative treatment and joist spacing.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"First Period","criteria":["C","D"],"status_note":"Condition described as good; in present use as a residence.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.567989-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/33/7898/63789833/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/90000242.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90000242/c6a4eabba5-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90000242/c6a4eabba5-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Fuller_House,_Middleton_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John Phelan</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Fuller_House,_Middleton_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63789833","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lieut._Thomas_Fuller_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6544378"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/essex-county/fuller-lieut-thomas-house-90000242/"}