This page displays First Period and Georgian-era houses in Lynnfield, Massachusetts. Much of the text was provided by the Andover Historical Commission in the 1980’s, and is online through the Massachusetts Historical Commission site ;(MACRIS). Most of the dates of construction shown on this page are based on local tradition and may not be unreliable. View more historic houses at the Lynnfield Historic Houses tour.
To request or add information to this page, please contact Gordon Harris at historicipswich@gmail.com. Visit the About page to request additional research, including a deed and history search, a PDF report and creation of a page about your house on this site.
On the houses shown below, click on the LNF link to view the house at the MACRIS site, and click on the INV link to download a PDF file about the house, produced by the Lynfield Historical Commission.
The Hart house in Lynnfield MA is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Construction of the three-bay wood frame occurred in several stages. The oldest portion is the front of the house, consisting of two stories of rooms on either side of a central chimney. It was probably built by John Hiram Perkins, the owner of the property from 1695 to 1719. Not long afterward, a lean-to section was added to the rear, giving the house its saltbox appearance. The property was acquired by John Hart in 1838, and remained in the family until 1945. The house underwent a major rehabilitation in 1968, but its First Period appearance and structural elements still remain.
The house has twin transverse summer beams in the first floor west room, a common late First Period Salem feature. The summers, girts, sills, and posts all have flat chamfers; the sills and posts also have simple taper stops. The butt-cog joists are 23″ apart, indicating a late First Period date. The restored fireplace was originally 5′ wide, and has a beehive oven in the right rear corner and evidence of the original lug pole holes. The reconstruction casement windows were installed in the original locations, indicated by mortise holes in the posts, meant to accommodate window framing members in the plank wall. The east first floor room has an exposed chimney girt with flat chamfer; the transverse summer beam and sills have been replaced. The tenoned joists are 23″ apart on center; the fireplace is 8′ wide. The lean-to seems to have been added early in the 18th century: the ceiling beams are exposed but not chamfered, and the six foot wide fireplace has a beehive oven in the rear right wall.
In 1694, Governor Phipps granted the land on which the house at at 176 Chestnut St sits to John Hiram Perkins. The oldest part of the house is a single room which may date to between 1660 and 1670. Historic New England (formerly SPNEA) has an original double casement window from this house, pictured in page 147 of Abbott Lowell Cummings’ book “The Framed Houses of Massachusetts Bay.” The house has a brick chimney with 6 fireplaces supported by a single brick arch. The cooking fireplace has an interior oven, generally found in houses constructed before 1700, and much of the interior paneling and doors are original. The symmetry and mass of the present house suggest it acquired its present form in the mid-18th Century.
The date of construction for the house at 6 Cooks Lane in Lynnfield is unknown. The symmetrical form and construction of the eaves suggest a single pile house constructed after 1720. The earliest known owner was Orin Russell, before 1835, who may have added the saltbox leanto around 1800.
The “Old Garrison house,” is located on Lowell St., which was the early turnpike between Lowell and Salem. The house was in the possession of the Norwood family for 275 years. It was known as “Tapley’s Tavern” during the stagecoach era. Original material still exists in the house, including gunstock corner posts, pegged beams, and two fireplaces with 18th century beehive ovens. The rear wing is believed to be a second house that was added to the original structure in the 1820s.
According to information in the Lynnfield Historical Society, the house was built between 1761 and 1765. Its first owner was John Orne. Orne married Bridget Parker of Reading. Upon his death in 1789, he left his house and 269 acres to his widow. The earliest identified transaction involving the property occurred in 1796 when Benjamin Adams, a physician and his wife Lois, and Eunice and Bridget Orne conveyed 2/3 of the land which … .Orne died seized to Bridget Orne for $2,020 (Essex County Deed Book 160:268, April 4, 1796). Two years later, Bridget Orne sold the same land to John Orne, gentleman, for $2,020 (Essex County Deed Book 164:211, December 5, 1798). After John Orne’s death, his 100 acre property, which included the house, barn and grain house was sold by Lois Adams of Reading, Aaron and Eunice Green of Maiden and Perkins and Bridget Nichols of New York to Hubbard Emerson for $812 (Essex County Deed Book 246:114, September 1, 1827).
The interior of this dilapidated house at 244 Main St. in Lynnfield was characterized in the 1976 history of Lynnfield: A simple farmhouse, the rooms have low-studded ceilings, with a twelve-by-twelve foot “off-center” chimney, the first floor rooms built around it. Repairs this year (1976) exposed the original frame of a relatively small one story witch-loft house to which all additional rooms were added to the rear at a later period. Before the addition, the chimney was in the dead center. A brick oven opens within the fireplace in the parlor. The entry stairway, instead of extending upward out of the entry, turns in three directions, having been built in the back of the kitchen, probably to accommodate the addition. The present kitchen, as in many old homes, was originally the summer kitchen.
The house at 272 Main Street, traditionally known as the Capt. Thomas Flint House,was likely constructed, based upon general stylistic appearance, during the middle decades of the 18th century. It is also likely that its form evolved over a long period of time, but these assessments would need to be verified by further research and possible interior observation. Physical evidence suggests the building was originally a five-bay, center-entrance double house and that an additional two bays were added to the right (east) end of the building somewhat afterward as indicated by variations in the fenestration pattern and window casings. The entire structure is sheltered by a single gambrel roof that extends rearward into a lean-to that descends to a story-and-a-half height at the rear elevation. The dimensions of the building are expansive, at 52 feet wide by 32 feet deep. The interior plan is suggested by the location of two massive chimney stacks centered on each half of the original five-bay section, indicating a center-hall plan with two heated spaces, front-to-back, on each side of a center hall.
Research suggests that the property was part of an 800-acre land grant to a figure identified as Lord Brooksin about 1638 and that it was later owned by Robert Bridge; the original house is said to have burned ca. 1690. The property was then acquired by Capt. Thomas Flint in 1696. The scale and form of the building as observed from the exterior argue against that date for the bulk of the building, but perhaps an early core may be within it.
The house at 300 Main St. in Lynnfield is named after the family who occupied it for most of the 18th century; the original builder is presently unknown. It has a 2 1/2 story central chimney structure with an integral rear lean-to that was raised in the 20th century to a shed dormer. The original (eastern) section was a half house 2 1/2 stories high with a lean-to and a chimney to the left (west). The west section was added some time in the early 18th century. During the 20th century, a shed dormer was built on the sloping rear roof, and two one story additions were added on the east rear.
The Gilman house was erected previous to 1779 and was moved back from the road and placed on a foundation. The original central staircase was moved to create a large reception hall on the lower floor.
The house at 938 Salem St. was built about 1740 by Deacon Daniel Mansfield. The ceilings are eight feet high, and there are six fireplaces, with bakery ovens in the kitchen and dining room. On the first floor, the original hand-hammered latches and butted hinges were found on the doors. A later owner, Walter Sheehan, conducted a pickle shop in the lean-to of the barn, and the house coined the name “Pickle House.”
17th & 18th Century houses of Essex County, Massachusetts 