{"nrhp_refnum":"90000266","name":"Larch Farm","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"38 Larch Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Wenham","county":"Essex County","state":"MA","lat":42.60221821300007,"lon":-70.87867283299994,"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":"Larch Farm (also called the Goldsmith-Pickering-Low House) is a clapboard farmhouse at 38 Larch Row in Wenham, Massachusetts, built about 1700 as a First Period house and later enlarged with north and south additions.","why_significant":"The form argues the house retains integrity in its First Period plank frame, which shows distinctive construction and local variations typical of a Wenham group of houses (Criterion C). Its pre-1729 transformation from a First Period plan into a Georgian double-pile plan created an unusual house form. The later south wing and the association with Timothy Pickering add further interest.","narrative":"Larch Farm at 38 Larch Row in Wenham began about 1700 as a two-story, single-cell farmhouse measuring 40 by 20 feet, built for the yeoman Zaccheus Goldsmith after a town timber grant. Its plank frame, chamfered summer beams, and unusual curved braces mark it as a good example of a small Wenham group of First Period houses. Goldsmith's initials survive in early plaster. By 1729 a north addition had turned the house into a Georgian double-pile plan, a rare transitional form. A south wing added around 1780 to 1790 brought high-style Post-Colonial interior detail. Timothy Pickering, a U.S. Senator and Representative, bought the farm in 1806 and added English larches and lindens to the grounds, along with Federal doorway and arch details. A 1963 fire exposed parts of the original frame. Clapboards cover the house, which sits among farm fields behind a row of larch trees and remains a residence.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"First Period","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Condition is listed as good; the house is in present residential use.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.431356-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/28/7900/63790028/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/90000266.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90000266/908318e6a9-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90000266/908318e6a9-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Larch_Farm,_Wenham_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:Larch_Farm,_Wenham_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63790028","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larch_Farm","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6488756"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/essex-county/larch-farm-90000266/"}