The John Balch House, located at 448 Cabot Street,
Beverly, Massachusetts, is one of the oldest wood-frame houses in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. It is now operated as one of the
historic house museum
A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that has been transformed into a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a ...
s of Historic Beverly, and open seasonally.
History
John Balch gained title to the land on November 11, 1635, through the "Thousand Acre Grant" and apparently was living on this property by 1636. This was the date assigned to the house by the Beverly Historic Society. Architectural historians, including
Abbott Lowell Cummings, the leading expert on early New England architecture, were only sure that the Balch House was a seventeenth-century house. In 2006, dendrochronological analysis dated the earliest portion (the right-hand side) to 1679. The southern portion of the house was built in 1721.
The house remained within the Balch family until 1916, though with periods of tenant rental. It was then acquired by the Balch Family Association. They hired
Norman Isham, a popular preservation architect, to evaluate the house. After finding original rafters in the attic, he recommended that the back lean-to be ripped off and the southern half of the house be dismantled. This plan was eventually modified to expose and recreate the roofline of the original story and a half structure. Thus today's house has been heavily shaped by intentional restoration. In 1932, the home was turned over to the Beverly Historical Society (now Historic Beverly),
[Beverly Historical Society (2010)]
''Beverly Revisited''
p. 127. Arcadia Publishing. which maintains and operates it today.
See also
*
National Register of Historic Places listings in Essex County, Massachusetts
*
List of the oldest buildings in Massachusetts
This article lists the oldest buildings in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States of America, including the oldest houses in Massachusetts and any other surviving structures. Some dates are approximate (indicated with a "") and b ...
References
External links
Historic BeverlyThe Balch House
{{Authority control
Houses completed in 1679
Historic house museums in Massachusetts
Museums in Essex County, Massachusetts
Houses in Beverly, Massachusetts
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Essex County, Massachusetts
1679 establishments in the Massachusetts Bay Colony