Historic house research

In addition to 40 years of carpentry experience, I’m also the Ipswich MA town historian, and produce the site the Historic Ipswich site.

If you would like to discover more information about your historic home, I can help you find the date of construction, the name of the builder and original owners, and other interesting history from the house. The charge for this service is $40/hr.

Contact: gordonharris2@gmail.com. Please leave your name, street address and email address.

Awards:

• 2014 Community Service Award by the Ipswich Democratic Town Committee to the Ipswich Historical Commission
• 2015 Journalism Award by the Boston Society of Civil Engineers Section, American Society of Civil Engineers
• 2016 Mary Conley Award for Historic Preservation

Some of the houses I’ve researched

• 53 Argilla Road, Ipswich: the Samuel Kinsman house (1750-77)
• 50 Argilla Road, Ipswich: the Burnham-Andrews house (1815)
• 4 Water Street, Ipswich: the Jewett house (1849)
• 83 High Street, Ipswich: the Isaac Lord house (before 1784, possibly First Period)
• 437 Linebrook Road, Ipswich:  the John, Silas and Allen Perley house (1784)
• 12 North Main Street, Ipswich: Treadwell’s Inn (1737)
• 31 South Main Street, Ipswich:  the Joseph Manning house (1727)
• 341 Linebrook Road, Ipswich: the Lot Conant house (1717)
• 33 Mineral Street, Ipswich: the Caroline Norman house, 1884
• 40 Cherry St., Wenham: The Nehemiah Perkins house (circa 1710, altered 1840)
• North St., Topsfield MA: The Jacob Peabody house (1686)
• Captain Thomas Eaton homestead, North Reading, MA (1861)

The following are resources for determining the history of homes in the North Shore area of Massachusetts:

Property records

• MACRIS, MHC through the Ipswich Historical Commission
• Patriot Properties
• Vision Government Solutions
• Salem Deeds
• Town Reports
• Patriot Properties
• Ward Maps

History

• The Essex antiquarian
• A General History of New England; Hubbard, 1818
• Historical Collections of the Essex Institute – Index Volumes 1-60
• New England Historical and Genealogical Register
• History of Essex County by Duane Hamilton Hurd, 1885
• Standard History of Essex County Massachusetts by Cyrus Mason Tracy
• Municipal History of Essex County, Massachusetts
• Public Library archives
• Town histories at Archive.org

Architectural books and guides

• A Field Guide to American Houses by Virginia Savage McAlester
• American Houses, a Field Guide to the Architecture of the Home, by Gerald Foster
• Antique Houses, their Construction and Restoration by Edward P. Friedland
• Domestic architecture of the American colonies and of the early republic
  by Kimball, Fiske, 1888-1955
• First Period houses in Eastern Massachusetts
• The Framed Houses of Massachusetts Bay, 1625-1725
• Domestic Architecture of the American Colonies and of the Early Republic
• Architecture in Colonial Massachusetts
• The Colonial Architecture of Salem by Frank Cousins and Phil M. Riley
• Colonial Architecture, by Frank Cousins
• Early American Houses: The Seventeenth Century by Norman Morrison Isham
• A Building History of Northern New England By James L. Garvin
• Historic American Timber Joinery: A Graphic Guide| 2004-08
• Cottage residences, or, A series of designs for rural cottages and cottage villas, and their gardens and grounds: adapted to North America by Downing, A. J. (Andrew Jackson), published 1842.
• The architecture of country houses : including designs for cottages, farm houses, and villas, with remarks on interiors, furniture, and the best modes of warming and ventilating. by Downing, A. J. (Andrew Jackson), 1815-1852; Publication date 1851
• Rumford Fireplaces (1790-1850)

Genealogical resources

• A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England
• The Probate records of Essex County, Massachusetts
• Vital Records to 1850
• The Hammatt Papers