Clark-Eames House


The Clark-Eames House is a historic house located at 230 Middlefield Road in Washington, Massachusetts. Probably built around 1790, it is one of the town's few surviving 18th-century houses. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

Description and history

The Clark-Eames House is located in a rural setting in the southeastern corner of Washington; the closest village is that of Becket to the southwest. It is located on the southeast side of Middlefield Road, roughly opposite its junction with Johnson Hill Road. It is a 1-1/2 story wood frame structure, with a side gable roof, central chimney, and clapboarded exterior. Its five-bay front facade has simple Federal period styling, with simple moulded surrounds around the windows, and a center entrance with flanking pilasters and a corniced entablature. In the late 19th century, the entrance was sheltered by a gable-roof hood with Victorian styling, but that has since been removed.
It is one of only a handful houses constructed in the area during the 18th century, with a construction date sometime between 1782 and 1797. Its presence in a remote corner of the town exemplifies the town's dispersed form of settlement. The house was the seat of a farm for most of the 19th century. It now serves as a vacation residence, show another trend on how the town's economy has changed in the 20th century.