Dorchester Illustration 2522 James Blake House
The James Blake House at 735 Columbia Road is the oldest existing house in Boston. It is 360 years old this summer. We are sorry that the house is not open for public tours at this time.
The first illustration was drawn by John Goff to show the appearance of the house at the time it was built, based on the architectural evidence. The second illustration appeared in The Memorial History of Boston in 1880. The appearance in 1880 was very much the same as today. In the 18th century, the dormers were removed, and the windows were changed to make the house look more contemporary.
The analysis of tree rings in a representative sampling of the timbers in the framing has shown that the trees were felled in the winter of 1660-1661. The house would have been built the following summer.
The house is one of a small number of post-Medieval timber-frame houses that survive in New England and one of only a few with West Country framing, that is, representative of the western English counties of Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and the City and County of Bristol. Most other buildings in Dorchester and in New England were built by housewrights from the south and east of England. (An example is the Pierce House on Oakton Avenue in Dorchester). West Country homes were known for using heavier timber in the framing, which is evident in the Blake House.
The house was built on land that is approximately where the Eversource facility is located today on Massachusetts Avenue. At the time the house was built, there was no roadway nearby. When Massachusetts Avenue was created, the road ran right next to the Blake House property.
The original occupants of the house were James Blake and his wife Elizabeth Clap Blake. He was born in the area of England near Pitminster, in 1624, and emigrated with his parents to Dorchester in the 1630s. Deacon James Blake became a constable, town selectman, and deputy to the General Court. James and Elizabeth Clap (the daughter of Deacon Edward Clap and niece of Roger Clap) were married in 1651, and by the time they built the new home, they already had a growing family.
The first written reference appeared in the Dorchester Town Records in June 1669. The Selectmen decided to build a house for the minister of the town and should be “such an house as James Blaks house is, namly 38 foote in lenth and 2- foote wid and 4 foote between Joynts gert worke.” In 1895, the City of Boston of Boston acquired the property to complete a large parcel for the building of municipal greenhouses. The Dorchester Historical Society, which had been incorporated in 1891 undertook the preservation of the Blake House as its first major project. The Society convinced the City to grant the Society the house and the right to move it to Richardson Park at its own expense. By January 1896, the house had been moved to its new location by a local building mover for $295. This seems to be the first recorded instance of a private residence being moved from its original site for the purpose of historic preservation.