The Boardman House, also known as the Scotch-Boardman House or the Bennett-Boardman House, is a historic house located at 17 Howard Street,

Saugus, Massachusetts Saugus is a New England town, town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. The population was 28,619 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Saugus is known as the site of the first integrated iron work ...

. Built in 1692, it was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

in 1961 because of the remarkable amount of original building material still present in the house. It has been owned by

Historic New England Historic New England, previously known as the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA), is a charitable, non-profit, historic preservation organization headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is focused on New England a ...

since 1914, and is open to the public on select weekends between June and October.

Description and history

The property was purchased by William Boardman, with a different house standing on it, in 1686. Although this house was long thought to have been built not long after this purchase, dendrochronology research on its beams confirms a later construction date of 1692. The house as first built had two rooms per floor, with a central chimney. On the ground floor it has a parlor and hall, with two bedrooms above, and an attic above the bedrooms. By 1696 a characteristic lean-to was added at the rear for the kitchen and milkroom giving it the appearance of a

saltbox A saltbox house is a gable-roofed residential structure that is typically two stories in the front and one in the rear. It is a traditional New England style of home, originally timber framed, which takes its name from its resemblance to a wood ...

. This lean-to was completely rebuilt in 1731, reusing some of the timbers of the old one. There are five fireplaces in the house, one in each of the original rooms, and another in the kitchen. Although the house's general shape has not changed since this time, its original leaded-glass windows were at some point replaced with more modern

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass. History ...

s, two original front gables were removed, and in about 1725 a new interior staircase was added. The house was owned by members of the Boardman family from its construction until 1911, when the property was sold to a developer. Concerns over the preservation of the landmark house brought it to the attention of

William Sumner Appleton William Sumner Appleton Jr. (May 29, 1874 – November 24, 1947) was founder of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA) in 1910. He was the chief force behind much of the preservation of historic homes in the New Engla ...

, who purchased the house in 1914 for the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, now

. The society restored most of the house to its original late 17th/early 18th-century appearance, removing wallpaper and other 19th-century artifacts. The house was declared a

in 1961,Patricia Heintzelman and Charles Snell (1977(?)) , National Park Service and and listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1966.

References

External links

Boardman House
- Historic New England * {{Historic New England Houses completed in 1692 Historic house museums in Massachusetts National Historic Landmarks in Massachusetts Historic American Buildings Survey in Massachusetts Museums in Essex County, Massachusetts Hall and parlor houses Buildings and structures in Saugus, Massachusetts Houses in Essex County, Massachusetts Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Essex County, Massachusetts Historic New England

Description and history

See also

References

External links