The Captain Lemuel Clap House (1767) is a

historic house A historic house generally meets several criteria before being listed by an official body as "historic." Generally the building is at least a certain age, depending on the rules for the individual list. A second factor is that the building be in ...

located at 199 Boston Street,

Dorchester, Massachusetts Dorchester (colloquially referred to as Dot) is a Boston neighborhood comprising more than in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Originally, Dorchester was a separate town, founded by Puritans who emigrated in 1630 from Dorchester ...

. It is now owned by the Dorchester Historical Society, which opens the house for tours two afternoons per month. It is one of two Clapp Houses owned by the society that are listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. It appears that a house has occupied this site since about 1633, and possibly today's house was its enlargement. Although there is no solid evidence for this possibility, the Clapp family genealogy records that such a first house was built circa 1633 by

Roger Clapp Roger Clapp (1609–1690) was an early English colonist who settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts and served as a military and political leader in early colonial Massachusetts. Roger Clapp was born in 1609 in Salcombe Regis, Devon, England and bec ...

, one of Dorchester's original settlers in 1630, and then rebuilt and enlarged by his descendant Lemuel Clap in 1767.The Clapp Memorial, Record of the Clapp Family in America, Ebenezer Clapp, David Clapp & Son, Boston, 1876
/ref> On the other hand, the Historical Society also has evidence that the earlier house was built by the Ward family at the beginning of the 18th century. There seems little doubt, however, that today's house was substantially constructed by Lemuel Clap in 1767. The house was purchased by Historical Society in 1945, and moved several hundred yards from Willow Court to its current location in 1957. Its rooms currently contain items from the Society's historical collection. The houses of the Dorchester Historical Society are open on the second Sunday of the month from 11 am to 4 pm.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Dorchester Historical Society
Houses completed in 1767 Historic house museums in Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Boston Museums in Boston Houses in Boston Historic district contributing properties in Massachusetts 1767 establishments in Massachusetts Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Suffolk County, Massachusetts