North Square Houses, 1715

In North Square, the Barnard House was built at the same time as the Revere House as part of a row of three similar wooden dwellings raised after the great fire of November, 1676, ravaged the neighborhood. Puritan minister Increase Mather, whose house had stood where the Revere House now stands, recorded that “Fatal and dismal day” in his journal. The Barnards were master housewrights and carpenters for generations, had lived in North Square before the fire, and descendants still lived in the house more than a century later. Matthew Barnard probably built the three-house row, including his family’s house on the south, the Revere House, then occupied by merchant Robert Howard, and the Wyborne House on the north. Paul Revere purchased the middle house in 1770, lived there with his family during the Revolution, and sold it in 1800. Of the three houses built by the Barnards, only the Revere House survives; the Wynborne and Barnard houses were destroyed by the 1880s for development. Now more than 300 years old, the Revere House is the only surviving example of urban architecture from 17th century America, and its strength reflects the skill of early Boston builders.

Cambridge, Massachusetts · United States