Location Wenham, Massachusetts NRHP Reference # 90000266 Area 3 ha Added to NRHP 9 March 1990 | Built 1700 Opened 1700 Architectural style American Colonial | |
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MPS First Period Buildings of Eastern Massachusetts TR | ||
The Larch Farm, also known as the Goldsmith-Pickering House, is a historic First Period farmhouse at 38 Larch Road in Wenham, Massachusetts. The house is a large colonial 2.5 story wood frame house, eight bays wide. The northern half of the house is three bays deep, and the southern half is two deep. Its complicated construction history begins in 1700, when Zaccheus Goldsmith was given permission to take timber for the purpose of building a house 40 feet (12 m) wide and 20 feet (6.1 m) deep. This structure was two stories high, with a leanto section in the rear and a chimney on its right. An addition during the Georgian period removed that chimney and doubled the size of the house, and moved the front door to the north side. A wing was added on the south during the 1780s, and the exterior was remodeled later to give the house a Federal style appearance. The interior of the house includes surviving decorative features from all three periods of construction.
The house is also notable for its purchase in 1806 by Timothy Pickering, a former United States Secretary of State. Pickering transformed the Goldsmith property into a rural country estate, planting linden and larch trees on the grounds. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.