The Samuel Dexter House is an historic house at 699 High Street,

Dedham, Massachusetts Dedham ( ) is a New England town, town in, and the county seat of, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Located on Boston's southwestern border, the population was 25,364 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. First settled by E ...

. It was built, beginning in July 1761, by

Samuel Dexter Samuel Dexter (May 14, 1761May 4, 1816) was an early American statesman who served both in Congress and in the Presidential Cabinets of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. A native of Boston, Massachusetts, Dexter was a 1781 graduate of Harvard ...

, a member of the

Massachusetts Provincial Congress The Massachusetts Provincial Congress (1774–1780) was a provisional government created in the Province of Massachusetts Bay early in the American Revolution. Based on the terms of the colonial charter, it exercised ''de facto'' control over th ...

. Dexter purchased the property on which the house stands on March 18, 1761. The house was next door to the parsonage of the

First Church and Parish in Dedham The First Church and Parish in Dedham is a Unitarian Universalist congregation in Dedham, Massachusetts. It was the 14th church established in Massachusetts. The current minister, Rev. Rali M. Weaver, was called in March 2007, settled in July, and ...

, where he grew up. The house was the childhood home of the Secretary of the Treasury

. Dexter hosted Governor Thomas Hutchinson at the house in 1771. The building was remodeled in 1901 following the design of

J. Harleston Parker J. Harleston Parker (1873 - May 5, 1930) was an American architect active in Boston, Massachusetts. Parker was born in Boston, graduated from Harvard University in 1893, then studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and, a ...

, using

Colonial revival The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the arch ...

elements. The Samuel Dexter House is a

contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic dist ...

to the Dedham Village Historic District, added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in September 2006.

Other uses

The home was the site of the funeral of

Faith Huntington Faith Trumbull Huntington (January 25, 1742 - November 24, 1775) was a Colonial American woman who lived during the American Revolutionary War. Early and personal life Huntington was born in 1742 in Lebanon, Connecticut, the daughter of Governor J ...

, who had been living there, on November 28, 1775. The house served as the headquarters of General

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

for a night following the evacuation of Boston. Washington paid £9.18.7 for use of the home on April 4 to 5, 1776. Dexter had retired to Connecticut by this point, but his fellow Governor's Councilor Joshua Henshaw was living at the house. The house also contained all but two books of records from the Suffolk County Registry of Deeds. They had been removed from Boston to protect them during the

military occupation Military occupation, also called belligerent occupation or simply occupation, is temporary hostile control exerted by a ruling power's military apparatus over a sovereign territory that is outside of the legal boundaries of that ruling pow ...

of the capital.

References

Works cited

* * {{Dedham Buildings and structures in Dedham, Massachusetts History of Dedham, Massachusetts Houses in Norfolk County, Massachusetts Historic district contributing properties in Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Norfolk County, Massachusetts 1761 establishments in the Province of Massachusetts Bay

Other uses

See also

References

Works cited