Peak House is a historic house located at 347 Main Street in Medfield, Massachusetts.
The original house was built in 1651 by Benjamin Clark, however, it was burned during the King Philip's War in 1676 and the current house was rebuilt ca. 1677-80 by Seth Clark, who was the owner of the original house and when it was burned. Clark re-produced an exact replica of the original house. The Peak House is the oldest house in Medfield and is one of the earliest surviving examples of Post-medieval English (Elizabethan) architecture in the United States. Some of the original panes of glass in the windows, which were imported from England, can still be seen today.
On October 18, 1924, the Peak House was deeded to The Medfield Historical Society, by its then-owners, Mr. and Mrs. Frederick M. Smith, after which the house received a down-to-the-frame restoration. The house has served both as a dwelling and a historical site, as well as an artist's studio and workshop. The Medfield Historical Society's Annual Peak House Pantry, which occurs during the Saturday before Thanksgiving, showcases the Peak House and raises money for its ongoing maintenance. The event offers visitors the opportunity to see both the lower floor with its impressive fireplace and the separate "borning" room, as well as the upstairs sleeping loft that features the original ceiling beams and gunstock posts. In past years at the event, there has been Medfield Historical Society memorabilia for sale, including cup plates in a variety of colors, embossed with the Peak House, refrigerator magnets, and postcards.
The house is currently open every Sunday from 2pm to 5pm from June to September and by appointment at other times. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and may have the highest pitched roof on record in Massachusetts for a 17th-century house.
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Famous quotes containing the words peak and/or house:
“Sleep shall neither night nor day
Hang upon his penthouse lid;
He shall live a man forbid;
Weary sev’n-nights, nine times nine,
Shall he dwindle, peak and pine;
Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-tossed.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The night in prison was novel and interesting enough.... I found that even here there was a history and a gossip which never circulated beyond the walls of the jail. Probably this is the only house in the town where verses are composed, which are afterward printed in a circular form, but not published. I was shown quite a long list of verses which were composed by some young men who had been detected in an attempt to escape, who avenged themselves by singing them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)