Peak House
Located at 347 Main Street (Route 109) in Medfield, the Peak House is one of the earliest surviving examples of post-medieval English (Elizabethan) architecture as well as being the only free-standing structure of its kind in the United States. Its most unusual and salient feature is its exceptionally steep pitched roof which is the highest on record in Massachusetts, a distinction noted by its name, the Peak House. In 1975, the Peak House became listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In addition, the building today still features the earliest known example of an innovative roof form, consisting entirely of principal rafters without purlins (a horizontal beam along the length of a roof, resting on a main rafter and supporting the common rafters or boards). According to Historic New England, this practice appeared in the development of 17th century communities inland from the Massachusetts coast.
A second house was built by Benjamin Clark sometime in between 1677 and 1680 as his replacement house to the one which burned when King Philip’s War landed in Medfield on February 21, 1676. This second house, probably a replica of the first one, received an addition around 1713. When the original house began to decay, Benjamin’s son Seth Jr. removed an ell from it and relocated that section to its present Main Street location.
The Peak House remained under numerous ownerships until 1924, when Frederick Mason Smith deeded it to the Medfield Historical Society. In January 2019, complete management of the house was transferred from the Medfield Historical Society to the Peak House Heritage Center.
Related resources: PHHC Institutional Records Collection