JACKSON HOUSE

This land on which this house was built was owned by the Jackson family from 1695 to 1800. Evidence suggests the house was built just before 1800 to replace another house that had been on the site.

Like the Abbott, Shapiro and Rider-Wood houses farther down Jefferson Street, the Jackson House has a center chimney, small lobby entrance and a winding stair flanked by two rooms down and two rooms upstairs. Scars on the back wall show where an ell was once attached. Another ell was apparently intended for the north side of the house as an unused rear fire-box in the original chimney stack and structural framing for a doorway were found under the original sheathing when the museum began sill repairs

House Design and Construction Over Time

This small house is preserved without restoration to teach about the nature of the evidence of change in architecture and decoration, and the process of research. The museum has determined the probable sequence of alteration and redecoration in the structure, then “frozen” it for visitors to inspect. Exhibit panels throughout the house provide the history of the owners, residents and their neighborhood throughout the occupancy of this house into the mid-1900s.