Edwin Bassett House | |
Location | 115 Prescott Street, Reading, Massachusetts |
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Coordinates | 42°31′7.57″N71°6′51.83″W / 42.5187694°N 71.1143972°W |
Built | 1850 |
Architectural style | Greek Revival |
MPS | Reading MRA |
NRHP reference No. | 84002482 [1] |
Added to NRHP | July 19, 1984 |
The Edwin Bassett House is a historic house in Reading, Massachusetts. It is a well-preserved Greek Revival house, built in 1850 by Edwin Bassett, the first Reading shoemaker to install a McKay stitching machine, a device that revolutionized and led to the industrialization of what was before that a cottage industry. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. [1]
The Bassett House is set on the north side of Prescott Street, a residential through street to the west of Reading's central business district. Facing south, it is a 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame structure, three bays wide, with a front-gable roof and clapboard siding. Its Greek Revival features include corner pilasters and a wide frieze that encircles the house, and a fully pedimented gable, which is not usually found on period houses in Reading. A single-story hip-roofed porch extends across the front facade, supported by Doric columns. The house follows a typical side hall plan; its entry is flanked by flat pilasters. [2]
Prescott Street was laid out in 1845 on what had previously been farmland. This house was built in 1850 by Edwin Bassett, a maker of shoes for children and infants, a common product for local shoemakers in what was then a cottage industry. Bassett was the first in Reading to install a McKay stitching machine, significantly improving the process by which shoes were made. The machine had a revolutionizing effect in Reading, where the process of shoemaking would become increasingly industrialized. [2]
The Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church and Parsonage is an historic church and parsonage at 6 Sever Street in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The congregation, founded in 1866, is one of a small number of African Methodist Episcopal (AME) congregations in eastern Massachusetts, and is an enduring component of the small African-American community in Plymouth. Its church, built about 1840 as a commercial building and consecrated in 1870, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.
The House at 29 Mt. Vernon Street in Somerville, Massachusetts is a well-preserved Greek Revival cottage. The 1+1⁄2-story wood-frame house was built in the late 1840s, when Mt. Vernon Street was a site of significant development activity. The house is distinctive on the street, as most of the other houses are larger. This house features wide eaves, and a full pedimented gable end above a porch with Ionic columns. It has an elaborate front door surrounded, with framed paneling and pilasters.
The Batchelder House is a historic house at 607 Pearl Street in Reading, Massachusetts. Built about 1783, it is a good local example of Federal period architecture. It is also significant for its association with the locally prominent Batchelder family, and as an early shoemaking site. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
The Benjamin Beard House is a historic house in Reading, Massachusetts. Built in the early 1850s, it is a well-preserved example of a distinctive local variant of Greek Revival architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
The Charles Manning House is a historic house in Reading, Massachusetts. It is a 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame house, three bays wide, with a front-facing gable roof, clapboard siding, and a granite foundation. Built c. 1850, it has well-preserved Greek Revival details. It has a typical three-bay side-hall plan, with corner pilasters and a main entry surround consisting of long sidelight windows framed by pilasters and topped by an entablature. The windows are topped by shallow pedimented lintels. Charles Manning was a longtime Reading resident and part of its woodworking community, building parlor desks. Reading's Manning Street is named for him.
206 West Street is historic house located in Reading, Massachusetts. It is locally significant as a well-preserved example of a Greek Revival cottage.
322 Haven Street in Reading, Massachusetts is well preserved cottage with Gothic and Italianate features. Built sometime before 1889, its use of even modest Gothic features is unusual in Reading, where the Gothic Revival was not particularly popular. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
The Jerry Nichols Tavern is a historic house in Reading, Massachusetts. It is a 2+1⁄2-storey wood-frame structure, five bays wide, with a side gable roof, central chimney, and clapboard siding. The main entrance is flanked by pilasters and topped by an entablature. The oldest portion of the house was built in 1785 by Jeremiah Nichols, a Revolutionary War veteran, farmer, and shoemaker. This property was where Reading's minute companies drilled prior to the American Revolutionary War, and where its powder magazine was kept. The building was expanded 1810–13, and had by 1830 been adapted as a tavern and stage coach stop. In 1824 it was bought by Rev. Peter Sanborn, in whose family it remained into the 1940s.
The Joseph Bancroft House is a historic house in Reading, Massachusetts. Built in the early 1830s, it is a prominent local example of Federal period architecture. It was built for a member of the locally prominent Bancroft family, who inherited a large tract of land in the area. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
The Lewis House is a historic house at 276 Woburn Street in Reading, Massachusetts. The 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame house was built in the late 1870s by John Lewis, a successful shoe dealer. The house is three bays wide, with a hipped roof with a single gable dormer. The roof has extended eaves with false rafter ends that are actually lengthened modillion blocks; these features give the house a Colonial Revival feel. The corner boards are pilastered, and the front entry is flanked by half-length sidelight windows and topped by a pedimented lintel, above which is a round fanlight window.
The Blake Daniels Cottage is a historic house at 111–113 Elm Street in Stoneham, Massachusetts. Built in 1860, it is a good example of a Greek Revival worker's residence, with an older wing that may have housed the manufactory of shoe lasts. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
The Michael Foley Cottage is a historic house at 14 Emerson Street in Stoneham, Massachusetts. It is a remarkably well preserved instance of a worker's cottage, built c. 1855. It was occupied until the 1870s by Michael Foley, a shoemaker who may have worked at the nearby Tidd shoe factory. It is a two-story wood-frame structure, with a front-gable roof, clapboard siding, and granite foundation. Its front facade has three narrow bays on the first floor and two on the second, with the entrance in the rightmost bay. Decorative woodwork is minimal.
The House at 19 Tremont Street is the smallest extant 19th century worker's cottage in Stoneham, Massachusetts. Built c. 1850, it is a stylistically vernacular single-story wood-frame structure, four bays wide, with a side gable roof, clapboard siding, and a brick foundation. Its only significant decorative features is its entry, which has sidelight windows typical of the Greek Revival period. It is the best surviving example of what was once a row of worker cottages that lined Tremont Street.
The Warren Sweetser House is a historic house at 90 Franklin Street in Stoneham, Massachusetts. It is one of the finest Greek Revival houses in Stoneham, recognized as much for its elaborate interior detailing as it is for its exterior features. Originally located at 434 Main Street, it was moved to its present location in 2003 after being threatened with demolition. The house was found to be eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, but was not listed due to owner objection. In 1990 it was listed as a contributing resource to the Central Square Historic District at its old location. It was listed on its own at its new location in 2005.
The East Main Street Historic District is a small residential historic district in Waltham, Massachusetts. It encompasses part of an area that was, before the 1813 construction of the Boston Manufacturing Company further west, developing as a center of the community. Because of the company's economic influence, the center was more fully developed further west, and East Main Street became a fashionable area for upper class housing. The four houses on the south side of East Main Street between Townsend Street and Chamberlain Terrace are a well-preserved remnant of this later period. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
The House at 113 Salem Street in Wakefield, Massachusetts is a rare well-preserved example of a 19th-century shoemaker's shop. The 1+1⁄2-story wood-frame house was built in the 1840s or 1850s, and was originally the shoe shop of David Nichols, who lived at 103 Salem Street. Its early form, with the high-pitch, gable roof, is readily recognizable despite later alterations and additions. These types of buildings were once common in the town, where shoemaking was a home-based cottage industry.
The House at 9 White Avenue in Wakefield, Massachusetts is a well-preserved transitional Queen Anne/Colonial Revival house. Built about 1903, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
The Comins-Wall House is a historic house located at 42 Hamilton Street in Southbridge, Massachusetts. Built about 1850, it is a distinctive local example of a Greek Revival cottage with later Victorian embellishments. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 22, 1989.
The James Gleason Cottage is a historic house at 31 Sayles Street in Southbridge, Massachusetts. Built about 1830 for a local businessman, it is a regionally rare example of vernacular Gothic Revival architecture. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
The Candler Cottage is a historic house at 447 Washington Street in Brookline, Massachusetts. Built about 1850, it is one of the town's few examples of Gothic Revival architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.