{"nrhp_refnum":"97001274","name":"Quincy, Josiah, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"20 Muirhead St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Quincy","county":"Norfolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.27184434900005,"lon":-71.01465245410094,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1997-09-25","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1997-09-25","areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Politics/Government"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story Georgian frame house at 20 Muirhead Street in the Wollaston section of Quincy, Massachusetts, built in 1770 for Col. Josiah Quincy by Dorchester carpenter Deacon Edward Pierce.","why_significant":"The house is a fine example of New England Georgian design that combines Palladian and chinoiserie influences with local carpentry traditions. It was the home of several generations of the Quincy family until 1893, including Col. Josiah Quincy, a merchant and Revolutionary patriot, his son Josiah Jr., and Josiah III, president of Harvard. Its furnishings are unusually well documented.","narrative":"Built in 1770 on Quincy's Wollaston shore, this two-story frame house replaced an earlier Quincy home lost to fire in 1769. Col. Josiah Quincy is generally credited with the design, and Dorchester carpenter Deacon Edward Pierce carried out the construction. Yellow clapboards, white rusticated quoins, a three-bay monitor on the roof, and a pedimented portico with fluted Doric columns mark it as New England Georgian work of the third quarter of the eighteenth century. Inside, a central hall holds a carved staircase approached from the rear. A Greek Revival porch was added about fifty years later. The house remained with the Quincy family until 1893. Its residents included Col. Quincy, a merchant and patriot who watched General Gage sail from Boston in 1775, his son Josiah Jr., who defended British soldiers after the Boston Massacre, and Josiah III, a Harvard president. Since 1937 it has served as a museum, with well-documented family furnishings.","period_of_significance":"1770 (specific date listed; the Quincy family occupied the house 1770-1893)","architect_builder":"Deacon Edward Pierce (builder); design generally attributed to Col. Josiah Quincy","architectural_style":"Georgian with later Greek Revival elements","criteria":[],"status_note":"Operated as a house museum since its acquisition in 1937 by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities; the form lists it as occupied and in good condition.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.079851-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/76/7963/63796376/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/76000285.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/97001274/1b5e822357-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/97001274/1b5e822357-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Daderot at en.wikipedia","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Josiah_Quincy_House,_Quincy,_Massachusetts.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Daderot at en.wikipedia</a>, <a href=\"http://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:Josiah_Quincy_House,_Quincy,_Massachusetts.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796376","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah_Quincy_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6290603"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/norfolk-county/quincy-josiah-house-97001274/"}