Fairbanks House ... Dedham, MA

[Nolan Kienitz]

According to the site this is the or one of the country's oldest timber frame house(s).

Fairbanks House - Dedham, MA

[Rob Amaral]

I had the pleasure of doing an inspection on the Fairbanks House a few years back... The curator let me go thru it in detail with her, I provided the family-association with an inspection of the curator's house free (which is a very cool Sears Kit house) in return. I couldn't resist seeing if I could get to inspect the oldest wood frame house in US (I believe that there is another very old place in St Augustine, FL, no?)

They have a very good book for sale at their website on timber-frame houses that is worth purchasing for your library..

I also went through the very-huge engineering report that was done on that house. They needed to determine how many of the public could enter it at one time. I believe it was (at that time) 6?

I go by the house almost every week when I transit from my home in the burbs here into Boston... Dedham is one of the next-oldest towns in the Boston area (Beside Boston/Salem) and my own home town here (Walpole) was once part of Dedham.. Walpole parted from Dedham in 1724, but was settled around the time the Fairbanks House was built.

Our town records are very interesting and filled with cool details. One of which is the pay for the guys who responded to 'the Day of the Alarm" (as they call it). April 19,1775. Our team.. our Minutemen.. Kind of cool..