The Fisher–Richardson House is a historic house at 354 Willow Street in
Mansfield, Massachusetts
Mansfield is a New England town, town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the United States 2020 Census, the town population is 23,860. Mansfield is 23 miles southwest of Boston and is 22 miles northeast of Providence, Rhode Is ...
. Built between 1743 and 1751, it is considered to be the town's second oldest house. The house was restored in 1930, and is now a local history museum.
Description and history
The Fisher–Richardson House is set close to the north side of Willow Street in a residential area of central Mansfield. It is a -story, wood-framed structure, six bays wide, with a gambrel wood shingle roof, two internal chimneys, and clapboard siding. The front facade bays are irregularly spaced, with the door set right of center. The interior features wide pine floors, ceilings with exposed beams, and beaded paneling on the walls. Mantels and some other features are recreations made as part of the 1930 restoration.
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The house was built by Ebenezer Wellman sometime between 1743 and 1751, using a plank-frame method popular in the area at the time. In about 1800 the size of the house was nearly doubled by the construction of its western half by Lemuel Fisher. The property was later inherited by Ira Richardson, who had married into the locally prominent Fisher family. In 1929, after the last local Richardson died, the house was offered to ]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 ...
for the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities
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 ...
, but local interest in its preservation sparked its donation instead to the town, which undertook its restoration. It is now administered by the Mansfield Historical Society as a house museum.[
The house was 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 ...
on February 11, 1998.
See also
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fisher-Richardson House
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Bristol County, Massachusetts
Mansfield, Massachusetts
Historic house museums in Massachusetts