Related Resources • Home Plans Library • Home Design Software • More Historic Homes • Celebrity Homes

From Other Guides • Architecture Trip Tips

Elsewhere on the Web • Within These Walls • National Association of Realtors

The National Association of Realtors and the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History have teamed up to chronicle 200 years of family life as seen from within the walls of a home built in the 1760's.

The two and one-half story Georgian-style home was originally located in Ipswich, Massachusetts, thirty miles north of Boston. It was built by Abraham Choate, who attached part of an older structure to his new home in order to increase the living area for his large family. A two-story addition was added by subsequent owners. Today, the 4200 square foot house is the centerpiece of the Smithsonian's Within These Walls exhibit.

The exhibit showcases the Choates and four other families who have lived in the home. It gives us a glimpse of how their lives were affected by changes and events in American history.

Portions of three rooms and the entrance hall have been restored and furnished with objects from each period to show visitors activities that might have taken place in the house.

• The Choate parlor is elegantly set for tea.
  
  
• The entrance hall focuses on the Abraham Dodge family, who lived in the house during and after the American Revolution.
  
  
• Josiah and Lucy Caldwell bough the house in 1822. A newspaper ad from 1839 describes Lucy's involvement in the Ipswich Female Antislavery Society. Meetings were hosted in the home.
  
  
• In 1865 the Heard family purchased the house and divided it into rental apartments. One of the tenants paid her rent by doing wash for the Heards. Visitors can see how very different it was to do laundry in the 1870's.
  
  
• The kitchen takes visitors to 1942, when Mary Scott and her family were part of the war effort. The room is filled with canning equipment and other items that show how families conserved at home in order to help troops overseas. The exhibit also includes a victory garden.

Even if you plan to visit the exhibit in person, do take a look at the Within These Walls virtual tour. It's an amazing view of American History through the eyes of the everyday people who lived it.

Previous Features By Date