Gore Place
|
Gore Place
|
|
The main house
|
|
 
|
|
| Location | Waltham, Massachusetts |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 42°22′20″N 71°12′41″W / 42.37222°N 71.21139°WCoordinates: 42°22′20″N 71°12′41″W / 42.37222°N 71.21139°W |
| Built | 1804-06 |
| Architect | Legrand, Jacques Guillaume; Gore, Rebecca |
| Architectural style | Other, Federal |
| NRHP Reference # | 70000542 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | December 30, 1970 |
| Designated NHL | December 30, 1970 |
Gore Place is a historic country house, now a museum, located at 52 Gore Street, Waltham, Massachusetts. It is owned and operated by the nonprofit Gore Place Society. The 45-acre (180,000 m2) estate is open to the public daily without charge; an admission fee is charged for house tours. A number of special events are held throughout the year including an annual sheepshearing festival and a summer concert series.
The mansion was built in 1806 as a summer home for Massachusetts lawyer and politician Christopher Gore. In this house the Gores entertained various notables including the Marquis de Lafayette, Daniel Webster, and James Monroe. The property was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970 in recognition of its architectural significance as a large-scale Federal style country house, and for its well-preserved domestic staff quarters, which illustrate the changing role of domestic labor over time.
Christopher Gore (1758 – 1827) was a Massachusetts lawyer, banker, statesman, and Federalist politician. Educated at Harvard, Gore made a fortune speculating in American Revolutionary War debt in the 1780s, becoming, according to John Quincy Adams, the wealthiest lawyer in the country. In the 1790s he embarked on a career in politics and diplomacy, winning one term as Governor of Massachusetts in 1809. He was appointed to the United States Senate in 1813, serving until ill health prompted his resignation in 1816.
In 1785 Gore married Rebecca Amory Payne. She was the daughter of Edward Payne, a wealthy Boston merchant and banker. In 1786 they used the funds from her dowry to purchase a roughly 50 acres (20 ha) tract in Waltham, Massachusetts for use as a country estate. The estate was later expanded by further purchase until it was 400 acres (160 ha) in size. In 1789 the Gores realized a windfall from his financial speculations, and acquired the trappings of high society in Massachusetts. In 1789 they purchased a mansion on fashionable Bowdoin Square in Boston, and in 1793 they had the house on the Waltham property torn down and replaced by a wood-frame mansion (said to be in the style of noted Federal style architect Samuel McIntire) and carriage house for use as a summer estate.
...
Wikipedia