Puneet Varma (Editor)

Samuel Bancroft House

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Built
  
1748 (1748)

NRHP Reference #
  
84002471

Area
  
2,024 m²

Added to NRHP
  
19 July 1984

MPS
  
Reading MRA

Opened
  
1748

Architectural style
  
Georgian architecture

Samuel Bancroft House httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Location
  
232 West St., Reading, Massachusetts

People also search for
  
Wendell Bancroft House

The Samuel Bancroft House is a historic house at 232 West Street in Reading, Massachusetts. With an estimated construction date of 1748, it is one of the town's older surviving house, and one of a small number from the late colonial period. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

Description and history

The Samuel Bancroft House stands in a residential area of western Reading, on the west side of West Street a short way north of its junction with Wescroft Road. Unlike later infill residential construction which surrounds it, the house is oriented with its main facade facing south instead of toward the street. It is a 2-1/2 story wood frame structure, with a gabled roof and exterior of clapboards (on the front) and wooden shingles (on the sides and rear). It has a symmetrical five-bay facade, with a center entrance that is sheltered by a 20th-century hip-roofed vestibule. The second-floor windows are set high, butting against the top plate in a typical Georgian fashion. The right side has a 20th-century bay window replacing one of the window bays.

The house was built about 1748, and may incorporate portions of an even older building. It was built by Samuel Bancroft, a locally prominent civic leader, who purchased the property, then extending all the way to County Road, in 1748. The house was later owned by Ephraim Weston, a businessman who built another house nearby and turned this house over to his son. It is the oldest home located in Reading's West Street Historic District.

References

Samuel Bancroft House Wikipedia