Tom Thumb House | |
Location | 351 Plymouth Street, Middleborough, Massachusetts |
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Coordinates | 41°55′16″N70°55′8″W / 41.92111°N 70.91889°W |
Architectural style | Second Empire, Italianate |
NRHP reference No. | 93000298 [1] |
Added to NRHP | April 16, 1993 |
The Tom Thumb House is a historic house in Middleborough, Massachusetts. The 21⁄2 story wood-frame house was built in the 1870s as a summer home for the dwarf entertainer Charles Stratton, best known by his stage name, General Tom Thumb. It has Second Empire architecture, including a mansard roof, paired brackets in the cornice, and paired columns supporting the porch. The interior was built to meet the needs of the 3-foot-4-inch (102 cm) Stratton and his wife Lavinia, who was also a proportionate dwarf (midget,) however, few of its miniaturized features have survived. [2]
The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. [1]
Middleborough is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 24,245 at the 2020 census. The census-designated place of Middleborough Center corresponds to the main village and commercial center of the town. It is the second largest municipality by land area in Massachusetts and nineteenth largest in New England. Middleborough proclaims itself to be the "Cranberry Capital of the World". Cranberry production remains a significant part of the local economy. In 2015, approximately 1,400 acres of the town were used to grow the crop, accounting for 3% of all land used to harvest cranberry bogs in the United States.
Charles Sherwood Stratton, better known by his stage name "General Tom Thumb", was an American with dwarfism who achieved great fame as a performer under circus pioneer P. T. Barnum.
Mercy Lavinia Warren Stratton was an American proportionate dwarf, who was a circus performer and the wife of Charles Sherwood Stratton, known as General Tom Thumb. She was known as a performer and for her appearance in one silent film, The Lilliputians' Courtship, 1915.
The Middleborough Main Post Office is a historic post office building in Middleborough, Massachusetts. The single-story brick and stone building was erected in 1933 as part of a Works Progress Administration jobs program. The building has neo-Classical style, with a projecting entry pavilion, and windows slightly recessed in round arch openings.
The Middleborough Center Historic District is a historic district in Middleborough, Massachusetts, United States. It encompasses the center of the town, whose most significant period of growth was between about 1850 and 1920. It is roughly bounded by a former Conrail railroad line, Frank, Pierce, School, North Streets, Nemasket Road, and East Grove Street. The district covers 220 acres (89 ha), and includes about 500 buildings. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.
The Middleborough Waterworks are historic waterworks on E. Grove St. at Nesmasket River and Wareham St. at Barden Hill Road in Middleborough, Massachusetts. The 1885 masonry pumphouse is one of the earliest public water works buildings in southeastern Massachusetts. It, and the well from which it pumps water, were built by the local fire district. The building has Queen Anne styling; the well itself is covered by an octagonal roof with cupola.
The Peter Pierce Store is a historic commercial building at 99 North Main Street in Middleborough, Massachusetts. The Greek Revival structure was built in 1808 by Colonel Peter Pierce, one of the town's leading businessmen of the mid 19th century. It is presently unoccupied. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
Oliver Mill Park is a municipal park on Nemasket Street in Middleborough, Massachusetts. It contains the remains of a major 18th century industrial complex developed by Peter Oliver, which included several mills, a blast furnace, and forge. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000 as the Muttock Historic and Archeological District.
The Bullen–Stratton–Cozzen House is a historic First Period house in Sherborn, Massachusetts. Its oldest portion is estimated to date to about 1680, and the building reflects changes in taste and use over the intervening centuries. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
The building at 38–48 Richardson Avenue is a historic residential rowhouse in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Built c. 1912, is believed to be one of the oldest rowhouses in the town. They were built by Solon O. Richardson, Jr., on a portion of his family's estate. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
Huldah Pierce Warren Bump, better known as Minnie Warren, was an American proportionate dwarf and an entertainer associated with P. T. Barnum. Her sister Lavinia Warren was married to General Tom Thumb. They were very well known in 1860s America and their meeting with Abraham Lincoln was covered in the press.
George Washington Morrison Nutt, better known by his stage name Commodore Nutt, was an American dwarf and an entertainer associated with P. T. Barnum. In 1861, Nutt was touring New England with a circus when Barnum hired him to appear at the American Museum in New York City. Barnum gave Nutt the stage name Commodore Nutt, a wardrobe that included naval uniforms, and a miniature carriage in the shape of an English walnut. Nutt became one of the Museum's major attractions.
Count Primo Magri (1849–1920) and Count Rosebud were the stage names of a 19th-century Italian dwarf who married Lavinia Warren, the widow of General Tom Thumb on Easter Monday, April 6, 1885, at the Church of the Holy Trinity in New York City.
The Edward B. Stratton House is a historic house at 25 Kenmore Street in Newton, Massachusetts. It is a two-story stucco-clad structure, with a dormered hip roof. It has a Colonial Revival entrance with fluted pilasters supporting a decorated entablature and broken-gabled pediment. To either side of the entrance, single-story wings project forward, creating an entrance court; the windows of the wings have arched windows. The house was designed by noted regional architect Edward B. Stratton and built in 1912 as his family residence. The building features an eclectic mix of Colonial Revival and Craftsman styling.
Tom Thumb House may refer to:
The William B. and Mary Chase Stratton House is a private house located at 938 Three Mile Dr. in Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
The South Middleborough Historic District encompasses the historic village center of South Middleborough, Massachusetts. The village is located about 6.5 miles (10.5 km) south of the town center, at the junction of Wareham and Locust Streets. Wareham Street, was for many years the primary route to Cape Cod, until the construction in 1966 of Massachusetts Route 24, a divided highway that bypasses the village. Partly because of the highway, the village center has not been significantly altered since that time.
The Middleborough Historical Museum is a museum located at 18 Jackson Street, Middleborough, Massachusetts, and maintained by the Middleborough Historical Association. It is sometimes known as the Tom Thumb Museum for its extensive holdings of personal items from General Tom Thumb and his wife Lavinia Warren, who lived in the nearby Tom Thumb House. The museum was founded in 1961, and currently comprises 7 buildings as follows:
The Isaac M. Raymond Farm, now Uphill Farm, is a historic farm property on North Bridgewater Road in Woodstock, Vermont, United States. The farm is the reduced core of a larger farm property accumulated in the first half of the 19th century by Isaac Raymond, and revived as a gentleman's farm in 1940. The property includes an altered 1805 Cape style farmhouse and 20th-century Colonial Revival farm buildings. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.
The Leonard, Shaw & Dean Shoe Factory is a historic industrial property located at Rice and Peirce Streets in Middleborough, Massachusetts. Built in 1896 and repeatedly enlarged before 1911, it was home to one of the town's major employers. Now converted to residential use, the factory complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.