Historic New England: Pierce House

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A few weeks ago in April 2023, I visited Pierce House in Dorchester, MA. Not to be confused with the John H. Pierce House in Lincoln, MA or the President Franklin Pierce Manse in Concord, NH (both of which I have added to my ever-growing list of places to visit), this Pierce House is a Historic New England (HNE) property where only about 100 adults visit in a year. Located across the street from an early 20th century school, the 17th century house serves as an educational venue for multiple schools in the Greater Boston area.

Pierce House from the Street; a two-and-a-half story late 17th century clapboard house with gray paint Pierce House from the Yard; side view of the house, with a large old tree growing in front. Pierce House Sign; standard Historic New England black and blue sign reading Pierce House 1683 with the Historic New England Logo on the bottom right corner.

The Pierce family owned Pierce House for ten generations, its entire time as a private residence. The early generations of the Pierce family had wealth. Robert Pierce (also spelled Pearse) and his wife Ann Grenway (also spelled Greenway or Greenaway) Pierce arrived separately in Massachusetts Bay Colony during the 1630s and later married. Thomas Pierce and his wife Mary Fry Pierce purchased what was then considered a mansion on twenty acres from James Minot, who constructed the house in 1683. Like other First Period or Post-Medieval houses, the original house had diamond-paned windows and a gable on the side facing the street.

Lamb’s Tongue Stop and Pip on Chamfered Beam; a whitewashed beam with decorative First Period carvings Main Fireplace in Pierce House; whitewashed walls and chamfered mantle over red brick fireplace. China Cabinet in the Front Hall at Pierce House; four shelf cabinet with a back wall painted light blue.

In 1706, John Pierce and his wife Abigail Thompson Pierce inherited the property and added two rooms with fireplaces to the west side of the house. In 1740, Samuel Pierce Sr. and his wife Abigail Moseley (also spelled Mosely) Pierce inherited the property and made Georgian style modifications to the house, including a lean-to kitchen, buttery, and storage space, along with multiple outbuildings. In 1768, Samuel Pierce Jr. and his wife Elizabeth Howe Pierce inherited the house. Their renovations included a china cabinet in the main room, Georgian woodwork, and sectioning the house into three living sections, allowing Samuel Jr.’s aging parents and unmarried sisters to have their own spaces. Samuel Jr. was a colonel in the local militia during the American Revolutionary War and reacted to battles in written records.

Steep Stairway in the Addition at Pierce House; narrow, widing staircase with white and green steps. Two doors right beside each other hide the same staircase. Closet Hiding the 17th century Fireplace; wood on the floor and red brick making up the walls. To the left is an empty space, formerly a bread oven. 18th century Fireplace Built over the 17th Century Fireplace; whitewashed walls and mantle over a red brick two and a half foot by four foot fireplace. To the left are the double doors leading to the narrow stair. To the right is the closet hiding the rest of the fireplace.

In 1815, Lewis Pierce inherited the property but could not afford its upkeep, mortgaging the home and selling of most of the family land as he attempted to make a living as a house developer. In 1874, after the Panic of 1873, he died suddenly, in debt, and without a will. Fortunately, the Pierce family members cooperated to allow youngest son William Augustus Pierce to purchase the house at auction. William and his wife, Antoinette E Read Pierce, lived in the house with their only surviving child, Antoinette Louise Pierce (Pierce). She married distant cousin George Frederick Pierce and lived in a modern Victorian home. In 1905, Antoinette inherited the house and rented it out to multiple borders. By 1929, her son Roger Grenway Pierce, with a middle name matching the maiden name of the seven-great-grandmother on both sides of the family, lived in the house with his son Roger Curtis Pierce and his daughter Anne Grenway Pierce (Shaughnessey), and later with Anne’s children. When Robert passed away in 1968 after years of living in the Pierce House attic, Anne moved her family to Milton and sold the house to the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA), the precursor to HNE.

Model for Building Gunstock Timber Framing Houses and Original Gunstock Beam; the wooden model rests against a wall underneath a window; the original gunstock beam holds up the corner. Gunstock Beam Near the Winding Stairs; Whitewashed beam in the corner with wallpaper on either side. Connection between the Original House and the 1706 addition; a beam wedged into a chopped notch of another beam with flooring laid around it.

Because the ten generations of Pierce family members came from different eras and had different architectural preferences, the house is a delightful (and occasionally dangerous if not properly maintained) hodgepodge of styles and editions. The cased beam holding up the ceiling on the first floor showcases the fanciest embellishment of its time, evidence of conspicuous consumption for early generations of the Pierce family. The tour guide described the woodwork as a chamfered with a lamb’s tongue stop and pip. For non-woodworkers, this means a craftsperson beveled the edge of the beam, and the bevels end in a rounded stroke similar to the shape of a tongue, with an added chunk taken out after the tongue. Another example of good woodworking was the gunstock timber frames, where the top of the beam is thicker than the bottom. The tour guide used a wooden model to demonstrate the complex design of the joints holding the house together, as nails were rare during this time before mass production.

Collection of Vintage Cans in the Pierce House Attic The Attic Room of Grandfather Robert; a room with bare walls, a tiny cot, a brightly colored damask rug, and a chimney stack beside a window. Pile of Vintage Radios in Pierce House Attic

As the family’s money decreased, so did the quality of their DIY renovations. A less elegant feature of the house is the connection point for the 1706 addition, where John Pierce or a hired worker chopped out several inches of a main beam to wedge in a new support beam. Other renovation nightmares include an empty space where a collapsed chimney had stood, a spiral staircase wedged next to a chimney, and a closet opening to a 17th century fireplace after the 18th century fireplace installed overtop it. Beside this fireplace is a pair of doors separated by a main support beam and leading to the same narrow, winding staircase.

Second Pierce House Museum Sign; a tan wooden sign with black all caps san serif letters reading PIERCE HOUSE 1640. The silhouette of a ship is in the upper left corner. Fourth Pierce House Museum Sign; a blue sign with a white all caps serif font reading in part PIERCE HOUSE C. 1650. The SPNEA logo is above the words. Third Pierce House Museum Sign; a red and white metal sign with a white title case serif font reading in part Pierce House c. 1650 with the SPNEA logo underneath

An added bonus to the tour are the old signs for Pierce House. When the property first opened to the public as a museum, family lore described the house as a 1640 construction by Robert Pierce not long after his trip in Massachusetts Bay Colony during which he met Anne Grenway and later married her. Documentation proved that the pair had met later while in the colony, and dendrochronology pushed the date of construction back ten and later forty-three years to the next generation. When exploring the modern kitchen, visitors can see signs from various periods that mark the changing understanding of history.

Buttery at Pierce House; a white washed brick pit and ledge system inside the house intended to keep butter cool Chimney Stack in the Attic at Pierce House; an empty red brick pit where a chimney used to be. First Pierce House Sign; a worn wooden sign with the barely ledgible words Built in 1640 Robert Pierce

Pierce House is open to adults three times a year, and tickets are frequently purchased by HNE members who are sent an email alert before the tickets go on sale. If you are not member, visit on the first Saturday in June from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., the annual open house. If you do manage to snag a ticket, these are standard HNE small house pricing at $10 for adults, $9 for seniors and students, $5 for children, and $0 for HNE members and Boston Residents. While most historic house tours are not easy to navigate, parts of this house are exceptionally difficult even for athletic visitors. Limited parking is available on the street and in the school parking lot across the street. Visitors who prefer to travel via public transportation can walk from the Ashmont station on the MBTA red line. If you are a HNE member or architecture aficionado, the tour is amazing. Both the tour guide and fellow visitors are highly knowledgeable in early American decor and building techniques.

Thomas J. Kenny School Across the Street from Pierce House; a two story early 20th century red brick school with Neoclassical design elements around the doors and windows.



Abby Epplett’s Rating System

Experience: 10/10

Accessibility: 6/10



Location: 24 Oakton Ave, Dorchester, MA 02122, USA