Pierce House, 1683
24 Oakton Avenue
Dorchester, Mass. 02122
(617) 288 - 6041
PierceHouse@HistoricNewEngland.org
Directions
Open May 10 and October 25, 1-4pm.
Admission : $5 ; Historic New England Members free. Tours on the hour.
Group tours available with advanced reservations. Please call 617-227-3956, June 1 through October 15.
Click here for information about school programs for this site.
Click here for additional Pierce House Resources.
The 1683 Pierce House is a rare known surviving example in the Boston area of a
seventeenth century or First Period house. It documents period building practices,
and the tastes and housing needs of one family, the Pierces, over more than three
centuries. At different times, family members expanded and adapted their dwelling
to meet new demands for space, function, comfort, privacy, and cleanliness.
The history of the Pierce family, ten generations of whom lived in the Pierce
House, highlights important aspects of social history, community history, and New
England history. On the most direct level it tells the compelling story of a middling
New England family over the course of three hundred and fifty years. The Pierces,
like other families of their class, worked hard to provide for themselves and their
children and to preserve their legacy; to do so they continually had to adapt to
changing circumstances. They took part in both local and national events; during the
American Revolution, for example, Colonel Samuel Pierce (1736–1815), participated in
the fortification of Dorchester Heights.
The Pierce House is the site of some exciting new programs for school and youth
groups. For more information, visit our Center for Educators.
Public programs for adult and family audiences are scheduled several times each year.
Visit our Program and Event Calendar
for listings or contact us at BostonEd@historicnewengland.org for more information.
Discover more about the Pierce House in the Historic New
England magazine archives:
