James Blake House


James Blake House
U.S. National Register of Historic Places


Location within Massachusetts
Location	Boston, MA
Coordinates	42°19′10.71″N 71°3′37.05″W / 42.3196417°N 71.0602917°W / 42.3196417; -71.0602917
Built	1661^[1]
NRHP reference No.	74002350 ^[2]
Added to NRHP	May 1, 1974

The James Blake House is the oldest surviving house in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The house was built in 1661. It is located at 735 Columbia Road, in Edward Everett Square in Dorchester, Boston, just a block from Massachusetts Avenue. The Dorchester Historical Society now owns the building and tours are given on the third Sunday of the month.

History

The house was built in 1661 and the date was confirmed by dendrochronology in 2007.^[1]^[3] It was built in a Western English style of post–medieval architecture by James Blake, an immigrant from England. The Blake family owned the house until 1825 when it was acquired by the Williams family. In 1891, the City of Boston acquired the house.^[4] In order to save the house from demolition in 1896, the Dorchester Historical Society acquired the property from the city and moved the house less than 500 feet from its original location by Massachusetts Avenue to its current location. In 1978, the interior and exterior of the house were designated as a Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission.^[5]

Exterior, 1898
"Ye Olde Blake House," 1920
Interior
Edward A. Huebner brick collection

References

1 2 "Massachusetts: Blake House". Oxford Tree-Ring Laboratory. Archived from the original on April 25, 2021. Retrieved August 7, 2021.
↑ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
↑ "James Blake House". Dorchester Atheneum. Retrieved December 1, 2023.
↑ "NRHP nomination for James Blake House". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved June 9, 2014.
↑ "List of Designated Boston Landmarks In Numerical Order" (PDF). Boston Landmarks Commission. January 2014. p. 1. Retrieved February 14, 2026.

External links

Dorchester Historical Society: James Blake House
City of Boston, Boston Landmarks Commission James Blake House Study Report

National Register of Historic Places in Suffolk County, Massachusetts

Historic districts

Historic properties

Boston	Abbotsford Adams-Nervine Asylum Allandale Farm Allston Congregational Church Almont Apartments Alvah Kittredge House Ames Building Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral of New England Arlington Street Church Armory of the First Corps of Cadets Baker Congregational Church Bedford Block Bellevue Standpipe Benedict Fenwick School Benjamin Silverman Apartments Bennington Street Burying Ground Berger Factory Bigelow School Blake and Amory Building Boston Edison Electric Illuminating Company building Boston Fish Pier Boston Transit Commission Building Boston Young Men's Christian Union Bowditch School Boylston Building Brandegee Estate Brighton Evangelical Congregational Church Building at 138–142 Portland Street Buildings at 825–829 Blue Hill Avenue Bunker Hill School Calf Pasture Pumping Station Complex Cartoof & Sherman Apartments Charles Playhouse Charles River Reservation (Speedway)-Upper Basin Headquarters Charles Street African Methodist Episcopal Church Charles Street Jail Christ Church Clapp Houses Codman Building Collins Building Compton Building Congregation Adath Jeshurun Congress Street Fire Station Copp's Hill Burying Ground Copp's Hill Terrace Crowninshield House Cyclorama Building Dearborn School Dill Building Dillaway School District 13 Police Station Donald McKay House Dorchester Park Dorchester Pottery Works Dorchester Temple Baptist Church Edna G. shipwreck Edward Everett Hale House Edward H. Haskell Home for Nurses Egleston Substation Eliot Burying Ground Eliot Congregational Church Eliot Hall Engine House No. 34 Evergreen Cemetery Fairview Cemetery Fenway Park Fields Corner Municipal Building Filene's Department Store First Baptist Church First Church of Jamaica Plain First Congregational Church of Hyde Park Forest Hills Cemetery Fort Independence Fowler-Clark-Epstein Farmstead Frances and Isabella Apartments Francis B. Austin House Goldsmith Block Greenwood Memorial United Methodist Church Haffenreffer Brewery Harrison Loring House Harriswood Crescent Harvard Avenue Fire Station Hayden Building Hibernian Hall Highland Spring Brewery Bottling and Storage Buildings Home for Aged Couples Home for Destitute Jewish Children House at 1 Bay Street House at 17 Cranston Street I.J. Fox Building International Trust Company Building Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum James Blake House John Adams Courthouse John F. Kennedy Federal Building John W. McCormack Post Office and Courthouse Joshua Bates School Landmark Center Lawrence Model Lodging Houses Locke-Ober Long Island Head Light Loring–Greenough House Malcolm X—Ella Little-Collins House Mariners House Massachusetts School of Art Mount Hope Cemetery Nathan Warnick Apartments Nazing Court Apartments New Riding Club Nixes Mate North Terminal Garage Oak Square School Old Corner Bookstore Old East Boston High School Omni Parker House Ozias Goodwin House Paine Furniture Building Parish of All Saints Ashmont Paul's Bridge Peter Faneuil School Phipps Street Burying Ground Pierce House Pilgrim Congregational Church Publicity Building Quincy Grammar School R. H. Stearns Building Richardson Block Roslindale Baptist Church Roslindale Congregational Church Roslindale Substation Roughan Hall Roxbury High Fort Roxbury Presbyterian Church Russia Wharf Buildings Samuel Edelman Apartments Sarah Davidson Apartment Block Sarah J. Baker School Sears' Crescent and Sears' Block Second Brazer Building Second Church in Boston Second Harrison Gray Otis House Shubert Theatre South Station St. Mark's Episcopal Church St. Mary's Episcopal Church St. Stephen's Church Students House Symphony and Horticultural Halls Temple Ohabei Shalom Cemetery The Graves Light The Peabody The Riviera Theodore Lyman School Theodore Parker Unitarian Universalist Church Timothy Hoxie House Traffic Tunnel Administration Building Trinity Neighborhood House Trinity Rectory Union Wharf United Shoe Machinery Corporation Building United States Post Office Garage Upham's Corner Market Vermont Building Walton and Roslin Halls Wang Theatre Westerly Burial Ground Wigglesworth Building Wilbur Theatre William Lloyd Garrison School Winthrop Building YMCA Boston YWCA Boston building Youth's Companion Building
Chelsea	Congregation Agudath Shalom Bellingham–Cary House Chelsea Garden Cemetery C. Henry Kimball House
Revere	Church of Christ Immaculate Conception Rectory Revere City Hall and Police Station Mary T. Ronan School Rumney Marsh Burying Ground Slade Spice Mill
Winthrop	Edward B. Newton School Fort Banks Highland School Deane Winthrop House

National Historic Landmark Districts
Beacon Hill Boston Common Boston Navy Yard Boston Public Garden Fort Warren

National Historic Landmarks

Former
Jacob Wirth Restaurant

See also: National Register of Historic Places listings (Suffolk County, northern Boston, southern Boston), List of National Historic Landmarks (in Boston, outside Boston)