Platts-Bradstreet House - Rowley, MA
The earliest section of the Platts-Bradstreet House went up around 1677 for Samuel Platts. The builders used the common First Period timber-frame method, which relied on heavy posts, beams, and traditional joinery. The layout and proportions match other surviving seventeenth-century homes in Essex County. These elements provide a clear record of how domestic construction worked in the decades after Rowley’s settlement.
In the late 1760s the house saw major changes under Moses Bradstreet. He expanded the structure by raising the original lean-to to a full two stories. This alteration reshaped the roofline, increased interior space, and brought the building in line with eighteenth-century preferences. The mix of seventeenth and eighteenth-century work is still visible in the framing, ceiling heights, and overall massing.
The house remained with connected local families through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. By the early twentieth century it still held much of its period fabric but needed restoration. The Rowley Historical Society acquired the property in 1920. Their early preservation efforts brought stability to the building and established its role as a public historic site.
A post-and-beam barn, originally from Derry, New Hampshire, was later added to the property to reflect eighteenth-century agricultural work. The house is one of a small number of surviving seventeenth-century buildings in the area. Today it functions as a historic house museum, offering a record of architectural development in Rowley from the 1600s through the early 1900s.
Matt Lambros MA Rowley Dec 03, 2025 Architecture Back in Time History
Dec 03, 2025
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