Porter-Phelps-Huntington House
Also known as: Forty Acres
Why it's listed
Forty Acres, also called the Porter-Phelps-Huntington House, is a three-story gambrel-roofed Colonial house on River Drive north of Hadley, Massachusetts. Moses Porter began clearing the land in 1752, and the house was the first built outside Hadley's stockaded town. Porter's son-in-law, Charles Phelps, a lawyer with knowledge of engineering and architecture, reshaped it between 1770 and 1799. He added a kitchen ell, turned the house to face the road, covered it in graduated clapboards, added a columned entrance porch and replaced the pitched roof with a gambrel roof. The house has changed little since. It was home to the Porter, Phelps and Huntington families for ten generations, including Bishop Frederick Dan Huntington, who used it as a summer residence. The Huntington family gave it to a foundation in 1955, and it is kept as a house museum with family furnishings and papers dating from 1697. Gardens lie to the north and south of the house.
Significance in brief: The nomination calls it a treasury of rural life in eighteenth-century Massachusetts. It was the first house built outside the stockaded town of Hadley and has looked nearly unchanged since 1799. It is also a memorial to three families, the Porters, Phelpses and Huntingtons, tied to it for ten generations.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 73000303, listed March 26, 1973. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence medium).
Key facts
| Address | 130 River Dr., Hadley |
|---|---|
| County | Hampshire County |
| Listed | March 26, 1973 |
| Reference number | 73000303 |
| Resource type | Building |
| Architect / builder | Moses Porter (builder, 1752); Charles Phelps (alterations 1770-1799) |
| Architectural style | Colonial |
| Areas of significance | Exploration/Settlement, Architecture, Religion |
| Level of significance | State |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Owned by the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Foundation since 1955 and preserved as a historic house museum; furnishings are entirely family possessions. |
| Acreage | 3 |
| Within district | Forty Acres and Its Skirts Historic District |
| Coordinates | 42.36981, -72.58704 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
National Register listing is honorary for a privately owned home: it does not by itself restrict what an owner may do with their own money, and it does not require public access. Restrictions come from local landmark or historic-district ordinances, which are separate (how they differ).
Owner-occupied houses are not eligible for the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit, which applies to income-producing buildings, but many states offer credits for homeowners. Listing also opens the door to preservation easements and to buying a plaque. Start with what listing means for homeowners, renovating a listed house and selling one.
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 73000303.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q7231583
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.