Batchelder House

Built around 1783, this house at 607 Pearl Street in Reading follows the traditional local Georgian-Federal form: five bays wide, two and a half stories high and generous in depth. Its large windows suit its date, with the second-floor windows set high. The door surround blends Federal and Greek Revival features, including a shallow pediment in the entablature and wide sidelights. The Batchelder family owned the land before 1703. David Batchelder, a cooper, sold it to his nephew Nathaniel, a shoemaker, who is said to have demolished the old homestead and built this house. Later, William Wallace Davis, who married into the extended family, lived here. He was a Civil War veteran, customs inspector, shoe factory superintendent and civil engineer, and he gave land to the town so Pearl Street could be relocated away from the noisy old coach road. The house was recognized as an early farm and shoemaking homestead, as a link to a locally important family, and as an example of Federal architecture. A 1977 addition and extension altered it, but it retains its essential character.