Hooper-Lee-Nichols House
- Year
- 1685
- Style
- Georgian
- City
- Boston, MA
- Collection
- colonial & revolutionary
Built in 1685 by Dr. Richard Hooper as a First Period farmhouse, the Hooper-Lee-Nichols House at 159 Brattle Street in Cambridge is the second-oldest house in the city, after the Cooper-Frost-Austin House of about 1681-82. It was enlarged and remodeled repeatedly over the following two centuries, eventually taking on its present Georgian form.
the building
Doubled in size. When Dr. Henry Hooper inherited the deteriorating property in 1716, he bought a second house, had it disassembled and moved to the site, and reassembled it there — doubling the original farmhouse's size — while adding a lean-to and rebuilding the chimney with cooking ovens.
Third story added. Cornelius Waldo bought the house in 1733 and added a third story, continuing its long sequence of expansions.
the style
The house began in 1685 as a plain First Period farmhouse, unusual only for its plastered ceilings, before being built out over generations into its present Georgian form.
More on Georgiansignificance
The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and today serves as headquarters for History Cambridge, formerly the Cambridge Historical Society.
nearby
- Howe House
- Elmwood
- Robert Frost House
- J.A. Noyes House
- The Larches
- Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson House