The House at 12 West Water Street in

Wakefield, Massachusetts Wakefield is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, incorporated in 1812 and located about north-northwest of Downtown Boston. Wakefield's population was 27,090 at the 2020 census. Wakefield offers ...

is a rare local example of a Second Empire house. The wood-frame house was built around 1860, and has two full stories, and a third beneath the

mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called a French roof or curb roof) is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The ...

. It is three bays wide, with a wide double-door entry, and a porch across the front with elaborately decorated posts. The house may have been built by Cyrus Wakefield, owner of the

Wakefield Rattan Company The Wakefield Rattan Company was the world's leading manufacturer of rattan furniture and objects in the second half of the 19th century. Founded by Cyrus Wakefield in 1851 in South Reading, Massachusetts (now Wakefield), it perfected machinery f ...

, and sold to a company employee. A later owner was George Cox, who owned a billiard parlor in the town center. The house was 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 ...

in 1989.

References

Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Wakefield, Massachusetts Second Empire architecture in Massachusetts Houses completed in 1860 Buildings with mansard roofs {{WakefieldMA-NRHP-stub

See also

References