This page displays First Period, Georgian, and early Federal houses in North Andover, Massachusetts. The black and white images, and text were provided by the North Andover Historical Commission in the 1980s, and are courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Commission site (MACRIS). Additional color photos are courtesy of online realtors and the North Andover Patriot Properties site. Photos are displayed alphabetically in order of street name, and some house numbers may have changed. Most dates of construction shown on this page were based on local tradition and should be considered unreliable.
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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 NAD 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 North Andover Historical Commission.
309 Andover Street was most likely built circa 1725 by Dr. Nicholas Noyes (1702-1765) who came to North Andover that year to set up a new practice. He was succeeded by his son, Dr. VJkrd Noyes (1729-1808) who continued to occupy the family house and who also served as a Surgeon’s Mate during the French and Indian Wars. The home was later occupied by the Stevens and Tuttle families. The Noyes House is a fine early Georgian saltbox form comparable in scale to the Joseph Parker Homestead (built between 1726 and 1741) across the Street at 330 Andover St.
In 1725/6 Joseph Parker, “Husbandman,” deeded to his son, Joseph Jr. (also a farmer), two pieces of land on either side of the “Country Road” otherwise known as the “Boston Road.” In 1742, Martha Parker allowed her interest in the Homestead to be sold to Captain Asa Foster, Gentleman, Joseph having “alienated & disposed of” the premises. Captain Asa Foster occupied the place until his death around 1787. He and his brother, Ensign John, were “active patriots in the Revolution”
This characteristic saltbox was most likely constructed for John Faulkner on land his father willed him in the 1680s. Constructed as two stories with two rooms each, around a large central chimney, the lean-to was probably added in the mid-1700s. The most significant surviving architectural detail are the interior exposed framing members including a flat-chamfered summer beam and end girts.
According to the MACRIS listing, James Bridges, Sr.’s first house, a modest one-over-one room, end-chimney dwelling of about 1690, was expanded or replaced in 1721 by a much more impressive 2-story, central chimney Colonial with high quality interior features. As the Bridges family – successful maltsters, blacksmiths, and community figures -increased its prosperity, affluence, and social standing from the late 17c into the 18c, so did their dwelling, enlarged yet again in the 1750s with additional space. In 2000, the house was acquired by the North Andover Historical Society. Patricia Robak and Robert Allegretto bought it from NAHS in 2001 and moved it about 1.5 miles to its carefully-chosen new site in North Andover’s Old Center Historic District. Visit the Bridges House online
The original late First Period core of the building today comprises only the northeast end. Between 1740 and 1780, this core was enlarged by adding another one cell room to the west of the chimney. The present plan was reached in the Federal Period by adding two rooms onto the south (front) side and replacing the central chimney with twin stacks. The main evidence of the transitional First Period, single cell core of the house remains in the first floor northeast corner room and in the attic. The first floor northeast room has a transverse summer beam with beveled chamfer and lamb’s tongue stops. The exposed end girt and back plates have very crude beveled chamfers with no stops. The combination of beveled chamfers and less careful finishing of the beams enclosing the room than on the summer indicates an early 18th century date. The former chimney girt in the northwest room has filled-in stud mortises, indicating that it was the end girt of the original structure. The attic retains evidence of the roof of the original core. Its east end rafter remains framed into the present east gable, revealing a roof pitch of 37 degrees. The lower portions of the four most easterly rafters on the north slope are original, and indicate three purlins per slope in a principal-rafter roof. The rest of the house retains good typical Federal fireplace mantels and panels in the later rooms.
Now greatly altered and used as a faculty residence by Brooks School, the center chimney Daniel Foster House was probably built about 1761 and is the oldest structure on the campus. At that time Asa Foster gave his son , who was then a cordwainer, title to about 37 acres of land where Daniel had erected a house. Daniel’s son, Daniel Foster, inherited the property in 1821, then known as “Holten Farm” and enclosing 112 acres of land. His brother, Stephen Foster, inherited and ran the Foster Farm (207 acres) which stretched into Boxford.
The main part of the Carlton-Frie-Tucker house consists of two First Period single cell 1/2 houses joined at the center chimney. The east end is original to the site; the west end was moved from elsewhere and added on in the 1760s, reputedly after a fire destroyed the original west end of the house. Its first floor exhibits evidence of First Period interior detailing and construction; the first floor east room joists with barefaced soffit tenons are a rare late 17th century construction technique.
Rev. Samuel Phillips came to Andover in 1710 as the pastor of South Church, an office he held for 62 years. His son, the Honorable Samuel Phillips, went into trade and built this house near North Andover Center in 1752. It stands across the street from the Parson Barnard House, built in 1715, and the Old Burying Ground. It is believed that the home of Anne and Simon Bradstreet, which burned in 1666, was located behind the Phillips Manse.
The Parson Barnard House was built in 1715 by Parson Thomas Barnard after his previous house burned down, but was for many years believed to have been built by Simon and Anne Bradstreet in the late 1660s to replace their home that had been destroyed by fire in 1666. In the 1950s this fine example of transitional early Georgian architecture was purchased by the North Andover Historical Society.
This house is said to be the birthplace of Hon. Samuel Osgood (1747-1813), a prominent member of the Mass. Constitutional Convention of 1779, the Continental Congress (1781), Director of the Bank of North America (1781), the nation’s first Postmaster-General. The house is an example of mid-18th century fine Georgian architecture.
The left side of the Col. John Osgood house was originally a one cell 2 1/2 story building. Another one cell, 2 1/2 story First Period building was attached to the right of the chimney. The house was turned early in the 20th century to face west. The left side framing members, including transverse summer beams on both floors, are all boxed. Only the right side of the house now displays late First Period details. The first floor right hand room has an exposed quirk-beaded transverse summer beam supported by story posts. The front plate has a beveled chamfer with taper stops to either side of the story post, and small lamb’s tongue stop at the south end.
814 Osgood Street is a fine Late Georgian center hall House with much of its beautifully-paneled interiors still intact. In 1747 John Osgood deeded 36 acres of land to his son, Joseph, a Harvard Graduate of 1737, who removed to North Andover in 1752 to establish a medical practice. By 1755 he appears on the Tax Records. Therefore we assume that he built the existing House sometime between 1752 and 1755.
The Abiel Stevens House, alone of the six 2-room central chimney houses in North Andover, Ma., has preserved most of its original exterior form and detail intact. Much of the original exterior form and interior finish carpentry are still visible, including quirked beads on girts and summers, and a three panel door with very highly raised and feathered panels. Much of the original hardware is still in place. Abiel Stevens, the original owner, married Deborah Barker, daughter of Capt. John Barker, an officer of the militia who fought in King Phillip’s War. He was listed as a Proprietor in the Andover Proprietors Records, First Book. His occupation was shown as “husbandsman” in most early deeds, although one, recorded in 1718, calls him a “joiner”, as was one son, David. In April 1719, the Selectmen’s accounts show that he held the post of Clerk of the Market, a position corresponding to the modern office of Sealer of Weights and Measure.
The transitional nature of the Captain Timothy Johnson House is evident from its wealth of original First and early Second Period features. The front first floor right hand room has an exposed longitudinal summer beam and chimney girt, both with quirked beading. The other framing members have boxes with quirked beads. The two rear first floor rooms have exposed transverse summer beams with quirked beading, but all other exposed framing elements there are unfinished. The transitional combination of First and Second Period features continues on the second floor. First Period decoration appears in the rear left-hand chamber, however, where the transverse summer beam, front and rear plates, and end chimney girts, and flared corner and chimney posts, are all exposed, and have quirked bead finish.
Despite its Federal remodeling, the house still displays much of its transitional First Period frame on the second floor, characterized by quirk beading and beveled chamfers, and retains its two-room, lobby entrance, central chimney plan. The first floor southeast room has an exposed longitudinal summer beam with quirked beading. The southeast chamber has an exposed transverse summer beam with beveled chamfer and taper stops. The rear plate is quirk-beaded (visible in the closet); all other framing members are boxed. The southwest chamber has a transverse summer beam with quirk beading. The front and back plates are quirk-beaded.
17th & 18th Century houses of Essex County, Massachusetts 