Bacon, Clifton, House
Why it's listed
Set on a prominent corner lot at Chester and Orchard Streets in Somerville's Davis Square area, this house dates to about 1885 and shows the Queen Anne style in elaborate form. A conical turret with a finial and patterned slate shingles tops a corner polygonal bay. The front porch has an enclosed pediment with a scrolled plaque, bulbous posts and oversized brackets, and a curved bay rises above it. The attic window sits beneath a wavy patterned gable, and carved and shingled details decorate the gable end. An ornamental brick chimney stands on the side facade. The walls are clapboard and shingle, and the house is recorded as unaltered and in excellent condition. The lot belonged to a subdivision laid out in 1855 by Chester Kingsley for high quality homes, and it stayed unbuilt for decades. Members of the Clinton M. Bacon family, a Boston coal dealer's household, owned the house in the late 1880s and 1890s. It is one of the few intact high-style Queen Anne examples in the city.
Significance in brief: The house is described as an elaborately detailed interpretation of the Queen Anne style and one of the few intact high-style examples in Somerville. It retains integrity of location, design, materials, workmanship and association, and is considered significant at the local level under Criterion C.
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 89001244, listed September 18, 1989. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence medium).
Key facts
| Address | 27 Chester St., Somerville |
|---|---|
| County | Middlesex County |
| Listed | September 18, 1989 |
| Reference number | 89001244 |
| Resource type | Building |
| Architectural style | Queen Anne/Shingle Style |
| Criteria |
|
| Areas of significance | Architecture |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Recorded in excellent condition with no major alterations, not moved, and in use as a residence with a garage outbuilding. |
| Acreage | 0.9 |
| Coordinates | 42.39460, -71.12359 (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 89001244.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q5133176
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.