notes on the Peaslee Garrison House

This note came from a reader:

I enjoy your blog, Sunday Drives - Merrimack Valley. I am interested however to learn how you dated the Peaslee Garrison c1710. The Indian uprisings were over in Haverhill by that time and my research dates the house to 1673. George W. Chase's history of Haverhill would seem to support that date.

Thank you for shedding light on this.


I replied:

Hello,

Thanks for reading the blog. Remember when you read that I am an architect, writing about seeing buildings at least as much as about history.

I wrote that column 20 years ago, and today, I'm not sure why I dated it c.1710. I would have used the information in the Haverhill Public Library collection. The photograph came from there. I chose that house because I wanted, as an architect, to talk about the rare early brick houses in the Valley. At a time the paper expected me to focus on Andover and N. Andover. I was gently spreading out to other towns.

I suspect I was being cautious - the house is First Period, other people had confirmed that. Construction details change about 1715. Also I know that people want their houses to be older than they are, and that a deed to the land does not necessarily mean the house you see was built on that date. The word 'garrison' for the house came with it. I cannot remember now, a discussion about Indians... the name is what was attached to the house, so I used it.

You will find 2 brief introductions to the naming of house styles if you read about the Smiley House in Haverhill and the 4-Square on Lexington Ave. in Bradford.

I have never been in the house. That was in the early days of the column and I was an unknown. Later on people welcomed me, and I was able to learn much more. In the beginning I had to write just from what I could see from the street and the photograph.

If historians skilled in determining 1670 construction from that of 1710 have looked at the house, and dated it to 1673, then what I said would be wrong. Someone might like to add a comment to my blog correcting my date and explaining why.

When I decided to transcribe the columns (207 of them) to the internet, I made a conscious decision not to update them - I would have to revisit each one and the work would never be done, especially because I no longer live in the area.


a footnote to these e-mails: I have seen a foundation in a First Period house in Haverhill that is reported to have been a garrison. It was built rather like a medieval castle, with angled window slits. If the Peaslee House has similar windows, that could verify the name, 'garrison' and push back the date. Reference to the house being used in 1670 in other writings would also help. As an architect, I find I am more comfortable using construction details.